MUNCIE, Ind. - A person's religious affiliation coupled with a negative view of the world may play a major role in developing anti-Islamic attitudes, a new study from Ball State University concludes.

In a study that investigated how people perceive Arabs and Muslims after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America, Ball State sociologist Stephen Johnson believes he may have found a cause for some people to have a negative impression of Islam.

In a follow up to his 1992 study done to determine American feelings about Muslims following the Gulf War, Johnson surveyed about 400 people in the Muncie area in November of last year. He asked their views of Arabs and the Islamic faith.

The findings indicated that people who see the world as a threatening place in which one needs to be tough to survive and attended Protestant conservative churches were mostly like to hold anti-Islamic feelings.

"The responses to the survey indicated that there was some, but not a great deal of anti-Islamic feeling," Johnson said. "Our analysis indicated that what anti-Islamic attitudes exist is due to a person seeing the world as a threatening place and a conservative religious environment, which reinforces that view."

The latter could come from the generally negative view of Arabs expressed in the Old Testament, he said.

"The study found that conservative Protestants were more anti-Islamic than either Catholics or mainline Protestants," he said. "Analysis further indicated that the religious fundamentalism of conservative Protestant churches plays an important role in developing this perception."

The study also found:

• About 68 percent of the respondents disagreed with the statement that most Muslims support the activities of Osama Bin Laden while 16 percent were neutral and 16 percent agreed with the position.
• About 36 percent said there should be major restrictions or a complete embargo on Arabs being allowed to immigrate to America as compared to 65 percent who said that there should be few new restrictions or no restrictions at all.
• About 29 percent supported going to war with Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power, 22 percent were against such a war and 49 percent were not sure.

Johnson believes additional studies are necessary to determine the full extent of anti-Islamic attitudes resulting from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Gulf War.

In his 1992 study, Johnson found that people who felt more economically threatened, possibly by the idea of Arab countries cutting off America's oil supplies, and those who were religious fundamentalists were more likely to hold anti-Arab attitudes.

"Today we again face another major conflict with those who are Arab and/or Muslim, which has had negative consequences for people of Arabic ancestry and/or the Islamic faith in America," Johnson said. "Given the negative consequences for Arab-Americans and those of Islamic faith after Sept. 11, and probably into the future, a better understanding of anti-Islamic attitudes is important."

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Johnson at sjohso5@bsu.edu (765) 747-5485, or (765) 969-1921.)