The prevalence of identity among religious minorities in different human rights environments

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the correlations between the human rights situation and religious identity among minorities. It uses an integrated longitudinal dataset of the World Values Survey waves from 1990 to 2014 and three human rights measures to test how (a) constitutional guarantees of religious freedom and equality, (b) governmental human rights practices, and (c) societal discrimination and prejudice against minority religions correlate with the average strength of religious identities in 42 countries. Multilevel analyses show that Muslim respondents had the highest and Buddhists the lowest identity scores. The highest identity scores were further found in countries with medium governmental repression compared to such with very low or very high repression, and those with very high levels of societal discrimination. Those findings are discussed against the background of the existent literature on minority identities and religious movements.