Who Sympathizes with Osama bin Laden? Revisiting the Hearts and Minds of Pakistani and Indonesian Muslim People

The Determinants of Religious Radicalization

“…Our recovery of a significant effect of peer networks on radicalization matches qualitative and empirical results from the studies of extremist movements in Italy and France (della Porta 2006), Israel (Munson 2008), and the Al-Muhajiroun movement in the United Kingdom (Wiktorowicz 2005). Second, our finding that macro-level grievances do not predict radicalization fits with studies from Pakistan (Blair et al 2013, 46) and Indonesia (Jo 2012), which find that economic marginalization does not explain support for terrorism.…”

“…Survey research from Pakistan finds that individuals from the middle class are more likely to support terrorism than the poor (Blair et al 2013). Fair and Shepherd (2006) use survey data of over 7,000 respondents from Muslim-majority countries to demonstrate that the very poor are less likely to support terrorism than other economic groups (see also Jo 2012). One of the few large empirical studies analyzing tensions within Christian communities is provided by Blake (2015).…”

Support for Domestic Islamist Terrorism in Bangladesh: Insights from a Novel Survey

“…Despite some lingering enthusiasts for Samuel Huntington's “clash of civilizations” thesis (Huntington 1984; 1993; 1996), which posits a fundamental conflict between the Christian West and the so-called Islamic World and asserts that Muslim support for Islamist violence is moored in adherence to Islam itself (Laqueur 1999; Stern 2003; Mendelsohn 2005), as Jonathan Fox (2005, 2021) observed, most empirical studies of support for Islamist violence find little association between simply believing in Islam and supporting violent politics (Tessler and Nachtwey 1998; Esposito 2002; Tessler and Robbins 2007; Clingingsmith et al 2009; Ginges et al 2009; Fair et al 2012; Ciftci et al 2017; Fair et al 2018b; Piazza 2021). In fact, several studies using different data and research methodologies consistently find that Muslim respondents who described themselves as more religiously observant were less supportive of Islamist militant groups and/or Islamist violence (Jo 2012; Zhirkov et al 2014; Ciftci et al 2017; Piazza 2021). At least two scholars have presented limited evidence that individuals with greater knowledge of Islam, obtained through Quranic study groups and other pietic practices, are better able to resist the arguments of militant thought leaders and thus less likely to support Islamist militant politics (Wiktorowicz 2005; Fair et al 2016).…”

Does Higher Education Decrease Support for Terrorism?

“…1 Studies analyzing public opinion point out various factors, such as domestic political situation, foreign policy and political Islam, as determinants of attitudes to terrorism and views on world powers, especially anti-Americanism, or emphasize differences among countries, which make any generalizations impossible (Haddad and Khashan, 2002;Jo, 2011;Shafiq and Sinno, 2010;Tessler and Robbins, 2007). However, they agree in finding no effect of higher education in the population on support for political violence and terrorism.…”