State regulation of religion: the effect of religious freedom on Muslims’ religiosity

Substantial scholarship argues that regulation of religion suppresses religiosity in a community by reducing individuals’ satisfaction with their religious experience. To date this research has assumed that regulations are enforced on and affect religious communities uniformly. It has also focused h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religion, state & society
Main Author: Ridge, Hannah M. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge [2020]
In: Religion, state & society
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Islam / State religion / Religious policy / Religious freedom / Religiosity
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
BJ Islam
ZC Politics in general
Further subjects:B Islam
B Religion
B Regulation
B religious market theory
B Freedom
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:Substantial scholarship argues that regulation of religion suppresses religiosity in a community by reducing individuals’ satisfaction with their religious experience. To date this research has assumed that regulations are enforced on and affect religious communities uniformly. It has also focused heavily on Western Christian populations and aggregated national data. We suggest that state regulation of religious communities and behaviours impacts citizens differently based on their affiliation. Using individual-level assessments of freedom and religiosity from Muslim-majority countries, we show that, at the individual level, restricting freedom suppresses religious belief and behaviour. Restrictions on religious minorities, however, can increase religiosity. As such, we question the religious market theory literature’s conclusion that the freest religious markets must have the greatest levels of religious participation. We also raise concerns about current measures of religious freedom’s capacity to measure individuals’ freedom in Muslim-majority countries.
ISSN:1465-3974
Contains:Enthalten in: Religion, state & society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2020.1804781