Rejecting homosexuality but tolerating homosexuals: The complex relations between religiosity and opposition to homosexuality in 9 Arab countries

Abstract

Public debates portray Arab Muslims as universally opposed to homosexuality due to Islam. Those Orientalist claims are mirrored by large-scale studies that argue Muslims oppose homosexuality more than non-Muslims. We argue that assuming religion and opposition to homosexuality are unidimensional concepts obscures how they relate to each other and why; we study both "religiosity" and "opposition to homosexuality" multidimensionally. WVS data on 9000 Arab Muslims show, first, that although most respondents reject both homosexuality and homosexuals, one in five reject homosexuality but do not object to having homosexual neighbors. A substantial minority of Arab Muslims thus "hate the sin but love the sinner". Multilevel analyses show that stronger religious attachment increases opposition to homosexuality and homosexual people. However, all other dimensions of religiosity we study (textualism, mosque attendance, and altruism) also reduce some oppositions. Consequently, the argument that Arab Muslims' religiosity only leads to opposition to homosexuality is too simplistic.