Are Muslims Intolerant? Is that Even the Right Question?
One cornerstone of anti-Muslim rhetoric is the claim that Islam fosters an abiding intolerance among its followers. Given how much this presumed link between Islam and intolerance impacts social and political affairs in the West, it is well worth systematically scrutinizing.
Published: July 12, 2018 • Updated: July 22, 2024
Author: Dr. Youssef Chouhoud
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Introduction
Key Findings
- American Muslim intolerance is not broadly and invariably applied, but is rather targeted at White supremacists.
- This intolerance is largely driven by fear for one’s personal safety, contrary to the more socially rooted threat that exclusively drives intolerance in the general public.
- It is, in large part, the neglect of this added psychological strain on American Muslims that facilitates the view that their intolerance is “deep-rooted” rather than (as with any other group) a product of social context.
- White supremacists (e.g., KKK)
- Muslims w/ extreme religious views
- Black Lives Matter activists
- Homosexual rights activists
- Those opposed to all religions
- Militant anti-fascists (e.g., Antifa)
- Christian fundamentalists
- The Tea Party
Notes
1 See, e.g., Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz, Islam and the Future of Tolerance: A Dialogue (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015); Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).
2 Vincent J. Cornell, “Theologies of Difference and Ideologies of Intolerance in Islam,” in Religious Tolerance in World Religions, ed. Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton (West Conshohocken, Pa: Templeton Press, 2008), 278.
3 Pew Research Center, “Europe’s Muslims More Moderate: The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other” (Washington, D.C: Pew Global, June 2006), 15.
4 See, e.g., Bruce Bawer, “Tolerant Dutch Wrestle With Tolerating Intolerance,” The New York Times, November
14, 2004, sec. Week In Review, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/14/weekinreview/tolerant-dutch-wrestle-with-
tolerating-intolerance.html; Frida Ghitis, “The Dutch, Too Tolerant for Their Own Good?,” October 30, 2005, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102802437.html; Mayanthi L. Fernando, The Republic Unsettled: Muslim French and the Contradictions of Secularism (Durham, NC: Duke University Press Books, 2014).
5 Hatewatch, “Anti-Sharia Law Bills in the United States,” Southern Poverty Law Center, August 8, 2017, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/08/08/anti-sharia-law-bills-united-states.
6 For the full sampling methodology, see Youssef Chouhoud, “What Causes Muslims to Doubt? A Quantitative Analysis” (Dallas, TX: Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, 2018).
7 The centerpiece of the survey is a multi-item scale of doubt in the American Muslim community and a set of related corollary measures.
8 Each of the questions presented respondents with a 7-point scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.” The tolerance battery asked whether respondents would support: 1) banning their chosen group from running for office; 2) putting their chosen group under government surveillance; 3) allowing their chosen group to hold a rally in their city (reverse coded); and 4) banning a member from their chosen group to speak at a local college. The responses to these questions were then aggregated to form a scale ranging from 0-1 where “0” represents the lowest level of tolerance and “1” the highest. To gauge threat, the prompt read: “[CHOSEN GROUP] pose a threat to my own and/or my family's personal safety.”
9 Jeff Spross, “Hate Crimes Against Muslims Remain Near Decade High,” December 10, 2012, http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/12/10/1312341/hate-crimes-against-muslims-remain-near-decade-high/.
10 Janice Williams, “Hate Crimes against Muslims Are on the Rise in the U.S.,” Newsweek, July 17, 2017, http://www.newsweek.com/hate-crime-america-muslims-trump-638000.
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