The Link between Muslim Religiosity and Negative Attitudes toward the West: An Arab Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, with Muslims being the majority in 50 countries. The substantial numbers of Muslim immigrants moving to the West and the fact that Muslim values are quite different from the secular system adopted by Europeans and Americans are more reasons why it is imperative to understand their attitudes toward Westerners. The present study examined and analyzed the relationship between two types of Muslim religiosity and prejudice toward the West in an Arab-Muslim context, a region that is dominated by Muslim believers. Further, the study also examined other associated constructs to prejudice on anti-Western attitudes. Religious Fundamentalism (RF) and the intrinsic component of the Intrinsic/Extrinsic (I/E-R) scale were both used to measure Muslim religiosity in an Arab-Muslim sample of 608 participants that were collected from 17 Arab countries. Also, Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Dogmatism (DOG) were included to test their mediated effects on the relationship between Islamic religiosity and anti-Western attitudes. The results indicated that Islamic fundamentalism was the dominant predictor of unfavorable attitudes toward the West, followed by intrinsic Muslim religiosity and dogmatism. The findings also showed that RWA and DOG partially mediated the relationship between intrinsic Muslim religiosity and anti-Western attitudes. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings in an Islamic context.