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

"God Did Not Create Us This Way": An Investigation into the Experiences of School Counselors Working with Arab-Muslim LGBTQ Youth

Schools play a key role in supporting, protecting, and advocating for LGBTQ students. However, educational programs worldwide tend to exclude and marginalize LGBTQ issues, especially when it comes to ethnic and racial minorities. In the current study, we examined Arab school counselors' experiences of working with Arab-Muslim LGBTQ youth. After 100 counselors declined to participate, the study included semi-structured interviews with 60 female counselors in Arab-Muslim schools in Israel. Data were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Four main themes emerged: religious considerations, causal explanations of LGBTQ orientation, working practices, and supportive resources. Our findings point to the unique challenges facing Arab school counselors who are torn between their professional values and traditional norms. Among the strategies counselors used for managing this tension were separating LGBTQ orientation from LGBTQ adolescents, passive listening while avoiding proactive inquiry, and referring to LBGTQ orientation as a transient phase. Our findings emphasize the need to develop culturally relevant programs that address LGBTQ orientation for students, teachers, and families.

Is football coming out? Anti-gay attitudes, social desirability, and pluralistic ignorance in amateur and professional football

Past work consistently points to improved attitudes towards gay athletes and growing support for homosexuality, yet reports of a homophobic climate in amateur and professional football persist. Here, we explore two potential explanations for the prevalence of homophobia in football despite low levels of anti-gay attitudes: social desirability and pluralistic ignorance. We conduct an online survey among a football-affine and socio-demographically diverse sample in the UK. We find that anti-gay attitudes are rare. Importantly, estimates from a list experiment do not differ from the prevalence measured by direct questions, providing no evidence of social desirability. By contrast, second-order beliefs about anti-gay attitudes substantially and consistently exceed attitudes, pointing towards pluralistic ignorance as the most likely explanation. We conclude by emphasizing the need for transparent communication to reduce pluralistic ignorance and correct misperceptions among players, officials and supporters.

American Muslims' Attitudes Toward Homosexuality: Exploring the Effects of Gender, Religiosity, and Income Inequality

Literature on Muslims and Islam has not empirically assessed the impact of American Muslims' gender, religiosity, income inequality, and the interaction between the latter two factors, on their attitudes toward homosexuality. Using logistic regression models fitted to data from the 2017 Pew Survey of US Muslims (n = 712), this article assesses these factors' effects on their view that society should either accept or discourage homosexuality. Findings reveal that men, compared with women, and more religious individuals tend to express homonegativity; while those from higher-income households are likely to agree that society should accept same-sex relationships. Also, the religiosity-prejudice association is moderated by income inequality. These findings have important religious and social implications. Firstly, the prevailing approach of essentializing Islamic perspectives on homosexuality as being favorable or prejudicial overlooks that they are socially contingent. Secondly, policies contributing to Muslim minorities' economic well-being can encourage them to embrace liberal religious and social values.

"It is for God to judge"1: Understanding Why and When Islamic Religiosity Inhibits Homotolerance

In Western Europe, Muslims' cultural attitudes take center stage in debates in media and politics. In these debates, the claim that Muslims' religious interpretations cause them to be intolerant of homosexual people is often repeated. While previous public opinion studies have time and again shown that Muslims are indeed on average more homonegative than other people, the present study theoretically explores and empirically tests whether those differences are because of Islamic religiosity. This assumption is often made but has yet to be empirically addressed. Using unique data on young Muslim adults in the Netherlands and more direct measurements of religious interpretations on homosexuality, we find that Islamic religiosity as such hardly fuels intolerance of homosexual people. In fact, our results show that even believing that Islam forbids homosexuality does not necessarily fuel Muslims' intolerance of homosexual people. Rather, what is pivotal, is whether such beliefs are coupled with a willingness to judge, rather than leaving judgment to Allah. We conclude that only among young adult Dutch Muslims who believe it is up to them to judge homosexuality, do homonegative interpretations of Islam feed into intolerance of homosexual people.

Don't Be My Neighbor: Exploring Social and Value Predictors of Sexual Prejudice Expressed by Those Who Fully Accept Sexual Minorities

It is without a doubt that acceptance of sexual minorities is growing across the globe. Two major narratives are commonly assumed to be true about this increased acceptance. First, this acceptance is increased by proximity to the stigmatized. Second, this acceptance is enduring. These might not be entirely true as multiple attitudinal datasets frequently show a diversity among the accepting population, especially for those who express full acceptance of the stigmatized while refusing neighboring proximity to them. This inconsistency in acceptance is the main focus of this study. Using rejection of neighboring proximity to sexual minorities as a case for stigma and data from the Integrated Values Surveys (n = 52,796; 48.15% male), this study explores the similarities and differences between those who fully accept sexual minorities and those who express heightened sexual prejudice when rejecting neighboring proximity to sexual minorities. Logistic regression models show those in the accepting population who reject neighboring proximity to sexual minorities are more likely to be men, lower educated, highly religious, hold a traditional gender-related belief, and are attracted to right-wing political ideologies. While those with extreme sexual prejudice share sex, age, and traditional gender-related beliefs in rejecting neighboring proximity to sexual minorities, no effects for educational attainment and political ideology were discovered. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Sunni Islamic perspectives on lab-grown sperm and eggs derived from stem cells - in vitro gametogenesis (IVG)

An exciting development in the field of assisted reproductive technologies is In Vitro Gametogenesis (IVG) that enables production of functional gametes from stem cells in the laboratory. Currently, development of this technology is still at an early stage and has demonstrated to work only in rodents. Upon critically examining the ethical dimensions of various possible IVG applications in human fertility treatment from a Sunni Islamic perspective, together with benefit-harm (maslahah-mafsadah) assessment; it is concluded that utilization of IVG, once its efficacy and safety are guaranteed, could be permissible by strictly adhering to Islamic ethical principles related to marriage, biological/genetic relatedness, sexual intercourse, and moral status of the embryo/fetus versus that of the gamete. As a result, IVG will be acceptable for treating primary infertility, age-related infertility, and preventing genetic diseases. However, it will be unacceptable for application in posthumous reproduction, donor gametes, genetic enhancement, and procreation in same-sex couples.

What Shapes Attitudes Toward Homosexuality among European Muslims? The Role of Religiosity and Destination Hostility

Muslim migrants and their descendants in Western Europe have consistently been shown to hold more negative attitudes toward homosexuality, the more religious they are. In this article, we go beyond this mono-dimensional view of religiosity and develop a theoretical framework that combines (a) the role of different dimensions of religiosity in anchoring cultural attitudes and (b) the potential impact of destination hostility and discrimination on the retention of cultural attitudes toward homosexuality among Muslim migrants in Western Europe. For the analysis, we use eight rounds of the European Social Survey, enriched with country-level data. Findings indicate that Muslim migrants’ mosque attendance, as a dimension of religiosity, has the negative effect that was expected. Particularly, Muslims who grew up in Western Europe are negative about homosexuality if they attended mosque regularly, whereas among first-generation Muslim migrants, origin-country norms are a strong predictor of attitudes toward homosexuality. In addition, we find that perceived group discrimination drives the maintenance of negative attitudes toward homosexuality, especially among mosque attendees. These results imply that the development of more liberal attitudes among European Muslims is held back by a combination of socialization in conservative religious communities and hostility from host-country populations.

Religious Affiliation, Daily Spirituals, and Private Religious Factors Promote Marital Commitment Among Married Couples: Does Religiosity Help People Amid the COVID-19 Crisis?

Religious studies are a vital branch of social science that seeks to explain the beliefs of human society and deals with the practices and beliefs of individuals. This distinctive study focuses on such influential aspects of a healthy life, which could play a vital role in the marital quality and matrimonial commitment of individuals. The study principally focused on inspecting the role of religiosity in healthy marital commitment among individuals. It is a distinctive and central value in regulating a healthy social life. This research designed a conceptual model for assessing marital commitment, and the study model comprised two primary variables. The study received datasets through a survey questionnaire based on participants from five private and public sectors. The research study conducted an empirical analysis to test the proposed conceptual framework. The findings exhibited that the value of the R 2 model was 0.484, meaning the level of religiosity had a substantial impression on healthy and lasting marital commitment. According to the final outline of the model factors associated with building religious support factors (β = 0.491), the marital commitment had a better and healthier impact. The goodness-of-fit of the measurement of the conceptual model showed a value of 0.51, which indicated that the theoretical model had sufficient consistency and rationality, and accurately fitted the data. Such an advanced statistical model is missing from the previous literature. The study results provide helpful insight to elucidate the social dynamics of marital commitment. The findings designate that religious practices strengthen and promote nuptial commitment. The study is novel in the context of religiosity impact on martial commitment with a cultural background of Pakistan. The generalizability of the study does not apply to the entire population or other regions. Future studies can investigate other religious variables to explore further research findings. The findings are helpful for decision-makers and policymakers to concentrate on marital issues and challenges confronted by couples worldwide.