Muslims and the Religious Other

What is it about?

For many years, media and political discourses in Austria have claimed that the Muslim population rarely takes pluralistic positions, instead adopting a negative attitude towards other religions and people of another religion. The Islamist terror act that took place in Vienna on 2 November 2020 fueled this stereotype. In order to approach this debate objectively, this article examines Muslims’ attitudes towards the religious Other in an evidence-based manner. For this purpose, an empirical study (Author, 2017) has been reprocessed and reanalyzed. The present paper reveals the ways in which exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralistic attitudes are taken by Muslims; which religious schemes (traditionalist, tolerant or xenosophic) they prefer; and how they interact with non-Muslims in their social environments. In this way, the article illuminates the diversity of Muslims’ positions towards the religious Other and people of another faith; the impact of contextual conditions; and the role of media and its reception.

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