Understanding (in)tolerance of Muslim minority practices: a latent profile analysis

Abstract

Research has examined tolerance of Muslim minority practices and anti-Muslim sentiments. We go beyond the existing research by applying latent profile analyses (LPA) on majority member’s evaluations of a range of Muslim practices and their feelings toward Muslims. We found five different subgroups of individuals among a sample of Dutch majority members (N = 831): a group that is positive towards Muslims and their practices (‘positive’), a group that is negative towards Muslims and their practices (‘negative’), a group that rejects all Muslim practices but reports positive feelings towards Muslims (‘intolerant’), a group that rejects only some practices and also has positive feelings towards Muslims (‘partly intolerant’), and a group that is not positive towards Muslims but accepts one practice (‘partly tolerant’). Furthermore, we show that these subgroups differ on key psychological variables (authoritarianism, status quo conservatism, and unconditional respect), and in their feelings towards other minority groups and (in)tolerance of other non-Muslim practices. We conclude that majority members can combine feelings toward Muslims and (in)tolerance of Muslim practices in different ways, and that the LPA approach makes an important contribution to the literature by providing a more nuanced understanding of how the public views Muslim minorities.