Antisemitism and anti-Zionism in Iran: the effects of identity, threat, and political trust

Antisemitism and anti-Zionism constitute two important ideological building blocks of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This article is the first to present quantitative empirical survey data elucidating attitudes towards Jews and Israel among an opportunity sample of Iranians. This study examines the correlates of antisemitism and anti-Zionism in Iran with particular attention to the effects of identity, threat, and political trust. Consistent with emerging research into antisemitism and anti-Zionism, there was a positive association between both forms of prejudice, suggesting social psychological overlap between the constructs. Given the pervasiveness of antisemitic and anti-Zionist representations in Iran, there were no significant differences in levels of anti-Zionism or antisemitism on the basis of gender and educational orientations. Political conservatives did manifest greater antisemitism and anti-Zionism than political reformists, although both groups scored high on these scales. There was a significant interaction effect of Iranian national identity and political trust on anti-Zionism, and a significant interaction effect of Muslim religious identity and political trust on antisemitism. Political trust was by far the most powerful predictor of both forms of prejudice, followed by the perception of identity threat. These observations are considered through the lenses of Social Identity Theory and Identity Process Theory from social psychology

Fortress Holland? Support for ethnocentric policies among the 1994-electorate of The Netherlands

The Dutch have a long tradition of hospitality towards ethnic immigrants.\ud In the nineties, however, quite dramatic changes have taken place among\ud the Dutch. The central question addressed in this contribution is: to what\ud extent do specific categories within the electorate favour ethnocentric\ud policies? This question is answered by deducing hypotheses that are tested\ud using recent data polled within the framework of the Dutch National\ud Election Studies. Our crucial conclusion is that a rather widespread support\ud for ethnocentric policies is present in contemporary Dutch society,\ud especially among manual labourers, self-employed and lowly educated\ud people, but also among young cohorts and among modal income categories

The Ambivalent Role of Religion for Sustainable Development: A Review of the Empirical Evidence

Until recently, academia has largely neglected the impact of religion on sustainable development. However, empirical studies have shown that religion remains important in many societies and that its importance has been increasing since the beginning of the new millennium. This paper reviews the empirical quantitative literature on the effect of religion on development from the last decade. We start by disaggregating the concepts of religion and sustainable development into four religious and three developmental dimensions and proposing a framework to identify causal mechanisms. Numerous mechanisms are possible, and this complexity explains why only a few uncontested findings exist. Religion is ambivalent vis-à-vis development: although religious dimensions exert a positive influence on physical and mental health as well as on general well-being, scholars have found a negative relationship between religious dimensions and both income and gender equality. Studies agree that the dominance of one religious group together with parallel ethnic and religious cleavages increases the risk of conflict, while studies on the pro-peace effects of religious factors are largely missing. Methodological challenges relate to the availability of fine-grained data, especially for non-Western countries, and the use of concepts and definitions. Most importantly, the study of religion and development requires methods that allow for causal inference