I am a Social and Political Psychologist that has been researching in the area of Psychology of Religion. What fascinates me about this discipline is that it goes beyond collecting people’s responses to understanding and examining their attitudes. Our aim is not limited to knowing what people think about a particular issue, but it expands to answer questions about why do they think and behave in a certain way and what we can do to change or sustain their behaviour.
The Christian faith dominates the field of Psychology of Religion. This is understandable since the West was the first to study religion using empirical scientific methods. As a Middle Eastern, I was keen to enrich the literature by expanding it to cover Islam and Muslims. In a recent study that I published in one of the top journals of the scientific study of religion, I examined the relationship between Muslim religiosity and prejudice towards the West. I wanted to investigate whether there was an association between being a religious Muslim and having negative attitudes toward the West. The sample of this study was collected from 17 Arab countries and from a variety of ages ranging from 18 to over 70.
The results were distressing and revealed that Muslim religiosity was strongly linked to hatred towards the West. It was expected to see a link between Islamic fundamentalism and negative attitudes towards the West; however, even intrinsic Muslim religiosity (moderate Islam) strongly predicted prejudice towards the West. In fact, the only groups that had favourable attitudes toward the West were the secular and nonreligious Arabs. What makes this finding intriguing is that it is different than what is found in a Western context. For instance, Christian fundamentalism is still linked to prejudice toward Muslims, but moderate Christian religiosity is not. Also, when we add ideological variables like Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Dogmatism to mediate this relationship, the Christian fundamentalism – prejudice link disappears. This means that in a Western context, Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Dogmatism have a substantial impact on prejudiced attitudes that the religiosity factor becomes insignificant. In comparison, Muslim religiosity remains even after including ideological factors like Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Dogmatism to try to mediate the link between Islam and negative biases towards the West. In other words, Muslim religiosity remains the dominant predictor for disliking the West regardless of it being moderate or reaching a fundamentalism level.
The crucial thing about these findings is that it shows that Islam is not like other religions and that this ideology needs to be understood and examined from a different scope. I have prepared a project entitled: “Conceptualizing and measuring Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East, and consequences for anti-Western prejudice.” This project will examine Islamic fundamentalism in more detail in the Middle East and test its relationship to anti-Western prejudice, its link to political Islam, and other related psychological traits. Long story short, I was quite surprised by the response of many Western universities that were hesitant to invest in this research. I was asking myself why is it ok to study and examine other religions but one of a sudden it might not be a good idea to study Islam? After all, this is science, and science should remain objective.
As a psychologist, I believe that if we are serious about finding a cure for a patient, then we must begin by a proper diagnosis. But if we insist that the patient is ok and does not need treatment than things will only get worse. That is why science is crucial to help us understand and work on finding solutions to deal with extreme ideologies rather than leaving things the way they are which will only bring more violence and risk stability and security in both the East and the West. And if the recent horrifying act of beheading a schoolteacher in France because of showing some pictures was not enough to bring a wake-up call then I’m not anticipating a bright future! If you would like to read the details of my study you can reach it through this link: Islam and the West
Bashar Albaghli is a Kuwaiti academic that specialises in the scientific study of religion. He was sponsored by Kuwait University and was supposed to go back to Kuwait and be a lecturer after he completed his PhD studies. However, he was prosecuted and sentenced to prison because of his political opinions against the Islamists and funding terrorism in the Gulf.
janicevanguilder says
Ya think!?
Brando says
There is another factor, adherence to LEFTIST ideology is linked to Hatred of Western Civilization. This is RULE ZERO:
rule zero means it is the Most Important detail of All,even before RULE 1.Here it is:
1.Leftists give Precedence to IDEOLOGY over TRUTH, if an AFFIRMATION Promotes Leftist Ideology, they will Ignore Truth.
Concerning Leftist Ideology,it says: WESTERN civilization is the Most EVIL in HISTORY, worse even than Muslim civilization.
THE BOOK BY CHILEAN LIBERTARIAN AXEL KAISER
In 2020 he wrote:” La Neoinquisicion:Persecución, censura y decadencia cultural en el siglo XXI/
The New Inquisition: Persecution, Censorship and Cultural Decadence in the 21st Century ”
He gives data,facts,cites studies,documents and says:
95% of TODAY’s Journalists in the WEST are LEFTISTS.
SO?
In conclusion, ALL that those journalists write in The NY Times, Vox,The Daily Beast,
Vice, Slate, The Washington Post, Liberation,
Le Monde, L’Humanité, The Guardian,
CNN, BBC.
is NOT to be Believed till it is VERIFIED elsewhere from Non-Leftist Sources.
TWO EXAMPLES
1.A few years ago a journalist went to ISIS TERRITORY and According to Him
( but I, PERSONALLY, believe he was LYING, to promote his Leftist Ideology )
discovered the ISIS SOLDIERS he talked with knew LITTLE about ISLAM, did Not talk about Islam and the Koran, were IGNORANT about Islamic theology.
2.Again a few years ago,another of those journalists said evidence proves the MYANMAR GOVERNMENT’s claim that MUSLIM’s there were committing
TERRORIST attacks against Buddists was just a SOCIAL NETWORK FRAUD created by the MYANMAR MILITARY.
And Most People Believed it.
jacksonl03 says
Frankly I don’t understand why one would need a lot of study to understand why true believing Muslims hate the West. Simply reading trough Muslim religious literature once or twice should make it clear: Muslims are instructed to hate anything and anyone, West, East, North or South, that isn’t Muslim. And if you truly believe a thing strongly like, say, you believe the sun will rise tomorrow morning you tend to act on or at least support that belief, don’t you?
And should you have any doubt about this Muslim hate intensity there are Muslim true believers demonstrating it and supporting it round the world every single day of the year. And have been doing so for centuries.
With respect for Bashar Albaghli I just don’t get it.
Michael Copeland says
“Enmity and hate shall forever reign between us” – Osama bin Laden
For others see https://gatesofvienna.net/2020/02/islams-agenda-muslims-speak/
alberto gorin says
same as israel same as in iraq same grap
surrender to islam
but they have modern western equipment loptops computers windows Linux ooh android
Giacomo Latta says
He scientifically exposes what is simply common sense.
alberto gorin says
there is a lot of brainwashing
in mosque online and was here Netherlands a mosque had something with money or or teaching and no journalist was allow to enter the mosque
how does someone do suicide bombs
here you have a suicide outfit Giacomo and blow you self up in a school
your respond be your qrazy but if your brainwashed
then you don’t think straight. However Robert believe its the Quran
i believe its the teacher its the mosque perhaps not the same don t have to agree
its the Japanese in the second world war feeling Superior to other religions
mom was in a camp in Indonesia
and today Muslims or islam
gravenimage says
Alberto, Imams in the Mosques are teaching the Qur’an. These are not really separate issues.
Glad your mother survived the Japanese camp–I know they were brutal.
Frank says
One thing i i dont understand about this Muslims is that why if there is any problem in their countries, instead of them running to Muslim countries (middle East) no, they will keep running to the western world where they said said it is haram
Michael Copeland says
It is the Hijra – migration to impose Islam.
Jason says
Read the quran. It’s states to invade western countries intrigrate into society and bring down from the inside.
gravenimage says
The Qur’an certainly covers Hijira.
Crusades Were Right says
Personally, I couldn’t care less what Mohammedans think about the West…
…just so long as they keep a respectable distance away from it while they are thinking it.
Three or four thousand kilometres will do!
lol
Boycott Turkey says
That’s still to close
Crusades Were Right says
I concede the point! ; ¬)
SKA says
It speaks volumes that this nominally Muslim scholar was severely punished merely for him attempting to undertake an objective and scientific study of Islam: Darkness hates the light!
Carol the 1st says
Fraudulent schizophrenia is the excuse Islam always falls back on and ordinary citizens feel somewhat stumped (“surely we’re all well-balanced and well-meaning?”). The author seems to be seriously examining and exposing a useful and science-based COUNTER-narrative.
Those scientists who don’t want to rashly throw away their careers suddenly turn deaf and dumb. It appears no one will get serious until it’s too late.
Westman says
The hatred is simply a matter of humiliation for failing the, “best of peoples” narrative.
Look at Egypt, for example. When Islam moved in it was the perfect environment in which to decry the failed civilisations of the past. A time to destroy and rob the antiquities except for those too large and complex. The European explorers come along and declared the pyramids and burial grounds to be great historical objects and start digging. Before you can say, holy Ahhotep, Egypt becomes famous for the Pharaohs and Islamic civilisation is just a weird backwater to the West.
The industrial revolution, coupled with science, leaves Islam in the dust; appearing primitive until oil money seeps into the sand to raise modern buildings and roadways that belie the actual ignorance and technical incompetence that remains. The Ottoman Empire is easily destroyed by the West in WWII.
In 1948 a new upstart appears, populated by the people Allah says he dislikes most of all. Major Islamic nations buy modern weapons, team up to destroy Israel multiple times,. and are proven too incompetent to succeed.
Islam joins the UN to get the world to eliminate its enemies. The major powers refuse. In fact it backfires when nations unite in Desert Storm. Then comes 9/11 and its aftermath.
Today Islam is at its own crossroads to adapt or eat more humiliation. It is looking out at a world no longer ruled by human physical force; a mirror image staring back, darkly, with a mysterious unseen force that Islam cannot comprehend.
Westman says
Typo, WWII should be WWI.
Peter Clemerson says
I tried to download the paper from https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2020.1824720, the site pointed to by Bashar Albaghli’s hyperlink, at which the article is supposedly to be found.
However, only the abstract is available as a result of the policy decisions of Taylor and Francis, the publishers of The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, the journal in which the article appears.
It is annoying that Bashar Albaghli is given space on this site to promote his paper while at the same time, the paper remains inaccessible in its entirety, unless you pay $44 for 48 hours viewing time or $319 to open a 30 day period during which you can download the entire article.
Unlike earlier posters, I believe it is important that methodologically reliable research be carried out into this topic. If ones own opinions are strongly held, they also need to be well founded. Albaghli and his co-author Leonardo Carlucci are to be congratulated for tackling such a contentious matter and doing so in such a way that their methods can be publicly examined. However, these methods can not be examined as easily as they should be. Only those who have access to relevant university library facilities or are prepared to spend unreasonable sums demanded by the publishers can do so.
If anyone knows of a method by which the publisher’s restrictions can be circumvented, please let me and other posters know via a reply.
Bashar Albaghli says
Dear Peter,
Thanks for your comments and encouragement.
Try this link on Researchgate.net where I made the study accessible for the public:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344433238_The_Link_between_Muslim_Religiosity_and_Negative_Attitudes_toward_the_West_An_Arab_Study
Hope this helps.
Bashar
Mojdeh says
Infidels are Mullahs that ruined Islam as well. Now PR Rohani is going to be impeached and become a refugees in USA. We will not allow that happens. No where in the world will give refugees to any Mullahs?
Speaker Ghalibaf Hits Back At Iran’s Rouhani As Nuclear Cold War Continues
The cold war between President Hassan Rouhani and his old rival, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (Qalibaf), Speaker of the hardline-dominated parliament, escalated on Thursday evening as Ghalibaf responded to Rouhani’s plea, just hours earlier, for the nuclear issue to be left in the hands of those “successful” in diplomacy.
Rouhani had not named anyone in his bitterly worded remarks accusing critics in parliament of being “over enthusiastic” in pushing draft legislation that would have compelled the government and Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to reduce cooperation with United Nations nuclear inspectors if sanctions were not soon lifted. Better to leave matters, said Rouhani, to those “who have over 20 years of experience and succeeded in diplomacy and defeated the United States in the UN over and over again.”
gravenimage says
Mojdeh, the Mullahs are not “Infidels that ruined Islam”–Islam has been appalling from the very beginning.
As for impeaching Rohani, they seem to be backing off:
“Hardline Iranian lawmakers back off from move to impeach president”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-politics-rouhani/hardline-iranian-lawmakers-back-off-from-move-to-impeach-president-idUSKCN24G1VD
Unless Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has changed his mind again in the past couple of months?
And why would you think that Rohani–who *hates* the United States–is coming here? I have not heard anything about this. Citations?
gravenimage says
New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West
……………………
No surprise there. Welcome to contributor Bashar Albaghli.
Fred van de Bunt says
Important with these type of studies is the definitions that are used, out of which hypothesis building and testing is conducted, and conclusions are drawn.
To use the definition context of this study, I think Islam has its authoritarian sharia laws, which support a strong “righteous” leadership under Muslim unity. In Western Europe Islam complements the left wing liberal believe in a strong unelected EU government, supported by numerous in great speed created EU laws that force Western European nations into submission. The left wing liberals, mostly (semi) government bureaucrats, reward each other with oversized salaries and overvalued network jobs. What those so called “left wing liberals” do in the top is complemented at the bottom in the streets by Islam, that submits citizens in authoritarian ways in whole areas in Western Europe.
Both, Islam and left wing EU liberalism, are authoritarian an as such are attracted to each other like Romeo and Juliet. This is how I see thing from Holland.
Carol the 1st says
A Brave New World mastered and controlled by Godlike humanity lovers (Islam, China, EU, and Leftards). Ingrates had better have faith or else!
OLD GUY says
Muslims hate the west, no SHIT. Who in the hell had to do a study to figure that out.
Ian Newton says
Thank you for your research Bashar Albaghli. .