Can Rev Sociol. 2014 Aug;51(3):239-61. doi: 10.1111/cars.12046.
Scholars disagree over whether Islam hinders the development of liberal democracy in Muslim-majority countries. We contribute to this debate by assessing the influence of Islam at the individual and national levels on ethnic, racial, and religious tolerance in 23 countries. Our analyses are based on a set of multilevel models fitted to World Values Survey data and national-level contextual information from various sources. Our findings suggest that people living in Muslim-majority countries tend to be less tolerant than are those living in Western countries. Although a significant part of this difference is attributable to variation in level of economic development and income inequality, Muslim countries remain less tolerant even after controlling for these factors. On the other hand, controlling for other individual-level factors, nonpracticing Muslims in Western countries are more tolerant than are all others in both Muslim-majority and Western countries. This finding challenges common claims about the effects of Islam as a religion on tolerance, suggesting that it is Islamic political regimes--not Islam itself--that pose problems for social tolerance.
学者们对于伊斯兰教是否阻碍穆斯林占多数的国家发展自由民主存在分歧。我们通过评估伊斯兰教在个人和国家层面上对 23 个国家的种族、种族和宗教宽容的影响，为这场辩论做出了贡献。我们的分析基于一组多层模型，这些模型适用于世界价值观调查数据和来自不同来源的国家层面的背景信息。我们的研究结果表明，生活在穆斯林占多数的国家的人往往不如生活在西方国家的人宽容。尽管造成这种差异的很大一部分原因是经济发展水平和收入不平等的差异，但即使在控制了这些因素之后，穆斯林国家的容忍度仍然较低。另一方面，在控制了其他个人层面的因素后，西方国家的非穆斯林教徒比穆斯林占多数和西方国家的所有其他人都更宽容。这一发现挑战了关于伊斯兰教作为一种宗教对宽容的影响的普遍说法，表明是伊斯兰政治制度——而不是伊斯兰教本身——给社会宽容带来了问题。
