Religiosity and Perceived Religious Discrimination as Predictors of Support for Suicide Attacks Among Muslim Americans

Some argue that religiosity is one of the main causes of religious extremist violence, such as suicide attacks, while others propose that adverse circumstances associated with religiosity like perceived religious discrimination are responsible. Directly comparing these two perspectives, we investigated how religiosity (personal importance of religion, prayer frequency, religious service attendance, religious fundamentalism) and perceived religious discrimination predict support for suicide attacks in 2 samples of Muslim Americans (N-1 = 1,050; N-2 = 1,033). We found that mast participants did not support religious extremist violence. Perceived religious discrimination, but no aspect of religiosity, was associated with increased support for suicide attacks. Therefore, support for suicide attacks among Muslim Americans does not seem to be predicted by religiosity but, rather, by perceived religious discrimination, which might be experienced at a greater rate by religious minorities. Reducing discrimination might be an effective general strategy to prevent religious radicalization.