Faith and Friendship: Religious Bonding and Interfaith Relations in Muslim Countries

Nathanael Gratias Sumaktoyo

doi:10.1017/s1755048320000589

Abstract

AbstractStudies have documented more negative attitudes and a higher level of social hostilities toward religious minorities in Muslim than in non-Muslim countries. I seek to explain what contributes to these poor interfaith relations. Diverging from the mainstream approaches that focus on cultural, institutional, or psychological explanations, I argue that the poorer interfaith relations in Muslim countries are driven by high levels of religious bonding or religiously homogeneous friendships among Muslims in these countries. Analyzing a global survey of more than 17,000 Muslims and a report documenting how religious groups in a country restrict or discriminate against each other, I show that religious bonding is related to more negative attitudes toward religious minorities, that a country's level of religious bonding is positively related to its level of social hostilities, and that religious bonding is indeed higher among Muslims in Muslim countries than among Catholics in Catholic-majority Latin American countries.

Highlights

Studies have documented more negative attitudes and more social hostilities toward religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries than in non-Muslim majority countries
I show that Muslims in Muslim-majority countries have more religiously homogeneous friendship networks compared to Catholics in Catholic-majority Latin American countries
Having shown how religious bonding predicts more negative interfaith attitudes at the individual level and more negative interfaith relations at the country level, the exercise is to test whether Muslim countries have higher bonding than non-Muslim countries, which in this case are represented by Catholic-majority Latin American countries

Summary

Introduction

Studies have documented more negative attitudes and more social hostilities toward religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries (hereafter, “Muslim countries”) than in non-Muslim majority countries (hereafter, “non-Muslim countries”). The social relationships-based argument that I propose, on the other hand, is capable of explaining variations in interfaith relations at both the individual and country levels. Based on the preceding review, I argue that one of the drivers for poor interfaith relations in Muslim countries is the countries’ high levels of religious bonding.

Results

Conclusion