Identity, Issues, and Religious Commitment and Participation: Explaining Turnout among Mosque‐AttendingMuslimAmericans

Abstract

While work on the political behaviour of religious groups in America has shown that, among other things, religious commitment and strong opinions on salient issues can encourage turnout and raise the probability of these groups' members voting in national elections, much less is known about these relationships with respect to Muslim Americans. Using data collected at mosques in 2006 during the holy month of Ramadan, this article maps the turnout patterns of Muslim American respondents and then investigates the factors that explain the political participation of members of this increasingly important religious group. The article focuses on reported turnout in the 2004 presidential election and shows that, more than anything else, strong opinions on salient issues boosted the participation rates of members of this religious group in the election, even when controlling for other factors known to help explain turnout.

The Political Incorporation of Muslims in the United States: The Mobilizing Role of Religiosity in Islam

“…In terms of political participation, the link with Islam's has been well documented in the literature (Ayers and Hofstetter 2008;Choi, Gasim, and Patterson 2011;Dana, Barreto, and Oskooii 2011;Jalalzai 2009;Jamal 2005;Read 2007Read , 2015. However, existing studies of American Muslims tend to not incorporate the multi-dimensional concept of religiosity discussed above and how variation in religiosity associates with participatory acts.…”

“…Despite the politicization of Islam as radical and extreme and thus incompatible with American form of democratic ideals, scholars have demonstrated empirically that Islam, like other faith traditions in the United States, is often positively associated with greater levels civic engagement (Schoettmer 2015), political participation (Choi, Gasim, and Patterson 2011; Jalalzai 2009; Read 2015), as well as a lower likelihood of supporting politically motivated violence (Acevedo and Chaudhary 2015). Looking at Muslims outside the United States, Dana (2017) points out that increased interactions, especially travel to the West and having relatives living in the West, allows for more positive feelings in the Arab world toward the West.…”

“…Donald J. Trump, while the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, called for a complete ban on Muslims immigrating to the United States arguing that Islamic law "authorizes such atrocities as murder against nonbelievers who won't convert, beheadings and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to Americans, especially women." 1 Despite the politicization of Islam as radical and extreme and thus incompatible with American form of democratic ideals, scholars have demonstrated empirically that Islam, like other faith traditions in the United States, is often positively associated with greater levels civic engagement (Schoettmer 2015), political participation (Choi, Gasim, and Patterson 2011;Jalalzai 2009;Read 2015), as well as a lower likelihood of supporting politically motivated violence (Acevedo and Chaudhary 2015). Looking at Muslims outside the United States, Dana (2017) points out that increased interactions, especially travel to the West and having relatives living in the West, allows for more positive feelings in The Political Incorporation of Muslims in the United States the Arab world toward the West.…”

Neutralizing the sacred space: pre-election messages in a typical Indonesian city

“…An emerging literature aims to consider their role as mediators between religious practice and political participation. Much of the empirical work is focused on mosques in Muslim-minority countries (Jamal, 2005;Choi et al, 2011;Dana et al, 2011;Smits and Ultee, 2013;Sobolewska et al, 2015;Fleischmann et al, 2016;Westfall, 2019). Within this scholarship, several findings point to the possibility that the functional role played by churches in serving as conduits for civic and political engagement may be present in mosques as well.…”

Mosques, Churches, and Civic Skill Opportunities in Indonesia

“…The small number of social scientific studies investigating the mosque as a primary unit of analysis all examine mosques in Muslim‐minority countries (Choi, Gasim, and Patterson ; Fleischmann, Martinovic, and Böhm ; Smits and Ultee ). A handful of studies (Dana, Barreto, and Oskooii ; Jamal ; Sobolewska et al.…”