Negative views of Islam in Switzerland with special regard to religiosity as an explanatory factor

Abstract

Drawing on such theoretical paradigms as Social Identity Theory, the deprivation hypothesis, and the concept of trust, we sought to investigate how religiosity relates to attitudes towards Islam among the Swiss population. In this quantitative study based on the data of the Swiss Household Panel 2015 (n=10,848) we took into account both public religious practice and personal religiosity. A hierarchical linear regression analysis revealed that religiosity influenced attitudes towards Islam, in that affiliation to one of the large churches (Protestant or Catholic), had a weak positive influence, which might in turn reflect a focus within the large churches on religious freedom and inter-religious dialogue. The effect of church attendance in general on attitudes was positive albeit rather weak. In comparison, personal religiosity was important, with people with a high level of personal religiosity being more likely to have a positive attitude towards Islam. One important finding was that religiosity contributed more to explaining variance than did other factors such as social trust, political position or national identity. Other influential factors included political attitude and trust in other people. The study also revealed that those Swiss people for whom national identity was particularly important were more likely to have a negative view of Islam. While belonging to an Evangelical denomination was significant in our regression models, and exerted an even stronger negative impact when variables of religiosity were included, the impact lost its significance in models which included the importance of Swiss identity. We conclude that Evangelicals are more negative towards Islam not because of their religiosity, but because they tend to have a strong national identity.

Religion as an influencing factor of right-wing, left-wing and Islamist extremism. Findings of a Swiss youth study

“…And still today the movements and parties such as the "Alternative for Germany" still see themselves as defenders of the Christian Occident and Christian culture. Here, religion is used to mark the difference to other religions, especially the Islam (see [17,19,20]. The fact that the radical right takes up the subject can be explained rather as a reaction to the pluralization of society than to the actual turn of people towards religious faith [18].…”

Zwischen Ich-Gesellschaft und Wir-Nation. Religionszugehörigkeit, Religiosität und der Umgang mit religiöser Vielfalt in der Schweiz

“…In der Forschung hat sich die Frage nach der Art der wechselseitigen Wahrnehmung der unterschiedlichen Religionsgruppen als ein Gradmesser für die Intensität wechselseitiger Abgrenzungen in der Gesellschaft bewährt (Pickel 2015(Pickel , 2019Pollack et al 2014;Yendell und Huber 2020). Der Religionsmonitor fragt danach, als wie bedrohlich die verschiedenen Religionen sowie die religiöse Vielfalt allgemein wahrgenommen werden (siehe auch Pickel 2019, S. 80-90).…”