Anti-Muslim prejudice in Europe: A multilevel analysis of survey data from 30 countries

Abstract

There is widespread interest in understanding anti-Muslim prejudice in Europe, but there is little systematic evidence about the extent and patterns of the prejudice. Using data from the 1999–2000 wave of European Values Study this article examines the extent and determinants of anti-Muslim prejudice in both Western and Eastern Europe. We find that prejudice against Muslims was more widespread than prejudice against other immigrants, and that the effects of individual and country-level predictors of prejudice resemble those found in research on anti-minority prejudice in general. Fairly similar results were obtained for both Eastern and Western Europe, but the aggregate levels of prejudice are higher in the East. Our results imply that Muslims in Europe were particularly prone to becoming targets of prejudice, even before the attacks of September 11. The results give some support to group-conflict theory, mainly with regard to the effects of the unemployment. However, the size of Muslim population in a country does not seem to increase the level of anti-Muslim prejudice.