“Our Christian nation”: the role of Christian religiosity in explaining opposition to Muslim expressive rights

Janique Schep*, Anouk Smeekes

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate to what extent the relationship between endorsing a Christian representation of Dutch national identity and opposition to Muslim expressive rights can be explained by perceived ethnocultural incompatibility (between the Dutch and Muslim ways of life), and to what extent these relationships depend on individuals’ level of Christian religiosity. We hypothesized that for nominal Christians – but not for religious Christians – higher levels of perceived ethnocultural incompatibility could explain the positive relationship between Christian representation endorsement and opposition to Muslim expressive rights. To test this hypothesis, an online survey was conducted among native Dutch adults (N = 275). The results showed that perceived ethnocultural incompatibility fully mediated the relationship between Christian representation endorsement and opposition to Muslim rights for nominal, religious and non-Christians. This illustrates that perceiving the Netherlands as Christian can translate into more opposition to Muslim expressive rights via stronger perceptions of ethnocultural incompatibility.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1987–2011
Number of pages25
JournalEthnic and Racial Studies
Volume47
Issue number10
Early online date30 Aug 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Keywords

  • Christian religiosity
  • Opposition to Muslims
  • incompatibility
  • intergroup relationships
  • national identity
  • religious tolerance

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