Factors that Influence how Sunni Muslims in
Western Michigan Perceive Violence
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study
Introduction
Approximately 84% of the world’s population considers themselves to be a
member of a religious group or faith (Global Religious Landscape, 2012); however, prior
to the attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, many Americans had little
understanding of the religions, faiths and cultures of the Middle East. Following
AlQaeda’s statements explaining the religious motivations behind the deadly 9/11 acts
and Aum Shinrikyo’s justifications for the sarin attacks in Japan during the 1990s, many
in the U.S. government began to recognize how the combination of religion, ideology,
and politics could result in violent and deadly outcomes (Gates & Steane, 2010; Reader,
2012; Weinberg & Eubank, 2010).
While many acknowledge that religion can be used to justify a wide range of
actions both peaceful and violent, there is little agreement on which specific factors
contribute to how a religious adherent perceives peace or violence. Understanding the
role religion plays in a society and recognizing how it interacts with other cultural
influences to shape an individual’s perceptions is critical to understanding how best to
engage with other cultures. In this study, I attempted to explain why notable religious
adherents and peace advocates such as Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. view violence as objectionable behavior while other religious leaders see
violence as an acceptable means to achieving an end. I examined the reasons and
conditions that shape the perceptions of a population in order to provide managers,
planners, and policy makers in governmental organizations with information that may be
helpful to make informed decisions.
In this chapter, I discuss the study’s background, offer the problem statement, and
outline purpose of the study. Additionally, I introduce the research questions and discuss
the nature of the study, along with my assumptions, and the study’s scope, limitations,
and significance.
Background
In recent research on religion and violence, scholars have worked to determine
whether religion encourages or inhibits violence (Huber, 2011; Kippenberg, 2010;
Sukma, Ma’ruf, & Abdullah, 2011). Bradley (2010), Cliteur (2010a), Cliteur (2010b),
Ibrahim (2009), and Scott (2009) have demonstrated how religious leaders use religion to
condone, advocate, and even direct believers to commit acts of violence while Walsh
(2012) and Van Pelt Campbell (2011) attempt to prove that an individual’s religious
beliefs can serve as encouragement for its believers to reject violence and to conduct their
lives through peaceful means. Additionally, a significant portion of the recent literature
(Falahi, 2010: Scott, 2009; Weinberg & Eubank, 2010) has been focused specifically on
how Islam or Islamic texts advocate violence and has neglected to address other roles that
Islam may play in the formation of individual perceptions.
Researchers who have examined the role of religion in the formation of individual
and group identity have suggested that globalization can be seen as a potential threat to a
society’s identity (Basedau, Strüver, Vüllers, & Wegenast, 2011; Sen & Wagner, 2009).
Other researchers (Aly & Striegher, 2012; Mani, 2012) have discussed how religion
creates individual and group identities that can ultimately form an in-group consisting of
those within the group or society and an out-group consisting of those who are not part of
the group or society. Studies have shown that protection of this religious identity using
these groups have been used as justification for violence (Ginges, Hansen, &
Norenzayan, 2009). While several researchers have conducted quantitative studies to
identify the factors that contribute to violence, insufficient qualitative research has been
conducted to examine the relationships, interactions, and consequences amongst the
various factors that contribute to the belief that violence is acceptable.
The behaviors of religious adherents have also been the topic of examination by
researchers to determine if the very nature of religion is violent or peaceful (Beyers,
2011; Ginges et al., 2009; Henne, 2012). In these works, there is a common premise that
religion is a critical factor in understanding why an adherent accepts or rejects violence.
What scholars have not thoroughly addressed in the recent literature is the notion that
religion, as an institution, may play a minor, supporting role in a religious believer’s
attitudes toward violence. My intent in this study was to identify how other factors can
influence the way that a Muslim adherent perceives violence. This research is needed to
help policy and decision makers understand the most relevant factors, beyond the
influence of religion, that affect people’s perceptions of violence.
Problem Statement
There is a problem in some governmental organizations responsible for making
critical decisions. Despite the continually growing need to engage people from different
cultures, there is often insufficient information to understand how and why individuals
from different cultures form and hold their beliefs. This problem has negatively impacted
some of the interactions Americans have had with individuals from other cultures because
they were either uninformed or misinformed about those they would engage
(Juergensmeyer, 2010).
A possible cause of this problem is a lack of relevant information about how
cultural norms are formed and maintained. Perhaps a study investigating which factors
most significantly influence a religious adherent could assist in making critical decisions.
Globalization is becoming an increasingly significant issue in international engagements.
Recent U.S. government involvement in the Middle East has demonstrated that
intercultural relations have also become more significant issue in recent years, but the
problem of insufficient information has not been fully resolved. In order to address
crosscultural interactions, it is necessary to know more about perceptions and how they
are formed. I determined that a case study designed to identify and examine the factors
that influence religious adherents may help to address this issue.
In much of the world today, violence is generally considered an unacceptable
behavior. Laws, ethical standards, and social norms are ways that a society indicates its
level of tolerance for violence against another person. They are also the means for
directing consequences against those who violate a society’s conventions. While the
specific principles of each society’s morality may differ, there are several similarities
amongst the factors that influence a society’s norms.
The economic and political environment in which a society lives has a significant
impact on the attitude of the individuals in that society. In highly developed nations with
effective, inclusive governments, individuals tend to be less susceptible to terrorist
violence than those in authoritarian regimes with significant social or economic
inequalities (Çinar, 2009). Religious beliefs can also influence how individuals in a
society perceive violence, especially if the holy texts of a particular belief contain
passages that can be interpreted to condone or even advocate violence.
Understanding not only which factors influence the perceptions and attitudes of a
society, but also how they influence a society’s beliefs is critical to successful
intercultural engagements. Despite the benefits of developing this understanding, some
researchers have been hesitant to broach this subject because of the sensitivity of the
notion that religion might encourage violence. Indeed, Cliteur (2010b) has noted “a great
reluctance to study this relationship” (p. 205), which can have potentially disastrous
results.
Although researchers have conducted quantitative studies to understand how
religion affects the commission of violent acts (Canetti, Hobföll, Pedahzur, & Zaidise,
2010; Johnson et al., 2009; Littleton, Axsom, & Grills-Taquechel, 2009; Littleton,
Kumpula, & Orcutt, 2011), insufficient effort has been made to understand how religion
interacts with other factors to affect the perception of violence. Understanding these
interactions can provide valuable insight to not only academics and scholars, but also to
planners and practitioners for use in international or intercultural engagements. For
example, from a national security perspective, Cliteur (2010b) suggested that “only on the
basis of a realistic estimate of the facts can a successful counterterrorist strategy be
developed” (p. 205) and if there exists a lack of relevant data to inform the critical
decision makers, the outputs could be as irrelevant as the inputs.
Addressing this issue is important because as sociologists have recognized,
understanding the complex interactions that influence human behavior can be critical to
improving interactions between different nations, states, and cultures. Since the inception
of their discipline, sociologists have studied religion to better understand its relationship
with society (Beyers, 2011; Cinoğlu, 2010). Specifically, they have worked to understand
how religion influences society and how a society in turn, influences religion. Émile
Durkheim and Max Weber are two of the most noted sociologists to contribute to this
understanding. While both authors attempted to explain how and why a society functions,
their diverse backgrounds and influences led them to different conclusions on the role of
religion in a society’s culture.
In the early 20th century, the French sociologist Émile Durkheim published “The
Elementary Forms of the Religious Life” in which he posited that religion reflects society
and serves to provide a community with the basis for its ethical and moral standards
(Anderson, 2012). He further argued that religion imbues social norms with a sacred
character, thus often evoking an emotional reaction to compliance or noncompliance with
the religious ideals (Durkheim, 1912; Anderson, 2012). Max Weber, a German
sociologist focused on the influence religion had on the economic development of a
society, examined whether religion promoted or discouraged the growth of capitalism
(Berger, 2009; Weber, 1958). After having examined several of the largest Western and
Eastern religions, he determined that while Protestantism promoted capitalism,
Catholicism and many of the religions practiced in Asia discouraged such worldly
pursuits that would ultimately result in capitalism (Berger, 2009; Weber, 1958).
In this research, I incorporated many of the basic tenets argued by these renowned
authors to examining the influence of religion on a group’s perceptions of violent actions.
While Durkheim’s notion that religion induces an emotional response seems to have
validity, Weber’s idea of an association between religion and social relationships also has
merit. Sociologists today have built on the theories of Weber and Durkheim to propose
various explanations for how religion affects a society, and I endeavored to further that
understanding by examining how religion influences perceptions and attitudes toward
violence.
Previous quantitative research serves as a sound point of departure to understand
how religious adherents form and sustain attitudes toward violence. In 2010, Canetti et al.
published an article in which they discuss how researchers have used quantitative studies
to examine the relationship between the religious beliefs of selected Israeli Muslims and
Jews and their support for religious violence. The results of these studies suggested that
the participants’ support for religious violence increased when they had a psychological
loss or perceived psychological loss. While these results offered important information to
better understanding the perceptions of adherents, the authors acknowledged the need to
conduct “more in-depth debriefing of smaller samples (that) may shed light on which
theories best explain the relationships revealed in (the) study” (Canetti et al., 2010, p.
584). In this qualitative study, I was able to provide some insight on the relationships
between the variables.
Additionally, several researchers have examined the relationship between the
individual and group identity that religions form in a society (Aly & Striegher, 2012;
Dingley, 2011; Schwartz, Dunkel, & Waterman, 2009; van Liere, 2009), but few have
examined the complex interactions between identity, religion, and the perception of
violence. I used a qualitative approach to comprehensively investigate the perceptions of
adherents to better understand these relationships. Specifically, I examined the
combination of factors and circumstances that result in a specific attitude toward violence
by religious adherents in Western Michigan.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this case study was to identify the factors that most significantly
influenced the perceptions and attitudes of Sunni Muslims who live in Western Michigan
in order to understand the conditions under participants found violence to be an
acceptable behavior. These factors were not limited to religious factors, but also included
secular considerations. For this research, I defined violence as the intentional use of
physical force or aggression against another person with the intent to cause injury, death,
or psychological harm (Violence, 2014). Because violence was defined as an action
against another person, situations which involve the use of physical force against a
facility or a location were not included in this research. I also did not address violence or
physical abuse between partners, but did include violence conducted as an element of a
conflict or war. I also examined terrorist attacks or assaults between individuals.
The participants for this research included self-identified Sunni Muslims living in
Western Michigan, and I collected data through individual interviews. My initial intent
was to collect data in religious facilities or worksites, but because of the potential
sensitivity of the topic, I made allowances to ensure the participants were comfortable.
Ultimately, the participants selected the locations for the interviews, with the majority of
the interviews held at work or school locations.
For this research, I used a qualitative case study design. Qualitative research is
used when “the researcher seeks to establish the meaning of a phenomenon from the
views of the participants” (Creswell, 2009, p. 16). By using a qualitative approach, a
researcher is able to deduce possible influencers to the perceptions under study rather
than prove or disprove predetermined factors. Case study research “is a qualitative
approach in which the investigator explores a real-life, contemporary bounded system…
through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information”
(Creswell, 2012, p. 97). This research design facilitated my study of the factors that
impact the beliefs of individuals within a specified culture or social group. By
understanding these factors, I could better understand why individual members of a social
group perceive violence as an acceptable or an unacceptable behavior.
Previous researchers (Abdullah, Sukma, Jamhari, & Musa, 2012; Basedau et al.,
2011; Bradley, 2010; Canetti, et al., 2010; Devji, 2009; Ginges et al., 2009) have
examined the relationships between religion and violence amongst Muslims in the Middle
East and Hindus in Asia, but few if any have examined the perceptions of these adherents
under the umbrella of American culture. Important factors in this research were the
economic, political, and social establishments of American culture because they have an
influence on the perceptions of the select adherents. For example, in the United States,
democracy influences on an individual’s perception of violence. Brooks (2009) argued
that democracy reduces terrorist violence, so a researcher may consider isolating the
influence of this factor to determine how democracy affects the way an individual
perceives violence in his or her environment. Because much of the recent research has not
been conducted in what are traditionally known as democratic countries, this factor has
not been effectively examined as an influence of a group’s perceptions.
My intent was to identify factors that influence the formation of perceptions and
attitudes toward violence in populations that generally do not commit heinous violent
acts, but that may, given specific conditions, condone, encourage, or support the
commission of violent acts. The specific processes that an individual follows to become a
terrorist or to commit violence against other people have been studied and documented,
but insufficient research has been conducted to understand those who provide the
necessary support for these individuals and their organizations. The results of this
research may facilitate an improved understanding of the factors that influence an
otherwise peaceful, law-abiding religious person to support an individual or organization
that commits violent acts against other people.
While many will suggest that religion alone can be sufficient reason for a
generally peaceful individual to support a violent action, researchers (Lusthaus, 2011;
Mani, 2012; Sen & Wagner, 2009) have emphasized that religion may provide a
supporting justification for accepting violence but that it was not the sole reason for
supporting violent acts. In this research, I examined the role religion plays in the
acceptance of violence, specifically violent acts committed against an individual. I also
investigated other relevant factors that allow religious individuals to accept, and in some
cases, provide support for, the conduct of violence.
For this research, the phenomena of interest were the attitudes, perceptions, and
beliefs of select Muslim adherents. Specifically, I examined how a group of Sunni
Muslims in Western Michigan felt about violence conducted against another person.
While this study addressed the role of religion in the perceptions of adherents, the
research also included other factors that may have an influence on whether an adherent
sees violence as an acceptable or unacceptable behavior. As previously mentioned,
because I conducted this research in the United States, American cultural influences were
acknowledged in the conduct of the study. Social, political, and economic considerations
were also recognized and included in the research to differentiate the cultural influences
found in other nations.
Because the factors that influence beliefs and perceptions are often difficult to
isolate, I endeavored to identify the most relevant considerations in understanding an
individual’s attitude toward violence. For example, I examined circumstances in which
religion may be used as a justification for violence rather than the primary reason for
conducting or supporting violence. Additionally, I examined how secular reasons such as
socioeconomic factors and political considerations affect a religious adherent’s
perceptions. Further, I examined sources of information to identify the most credible
sources and to determine what impact credibility has on the perception of the adherent.
Specifically, I examined situations in which a believer’s holy text directs their faithful to
commit acts of violence versus situations in which a community or political leader has
called for or advocated violence. Lastly, I investigated the impact of stress caused by
actual or perceived losses on perceptions toward violence. While the loss can be material
or psychological, actual or perceived, the impact in many cases can be the same. I thus
examined the impact of stress caused by loss on the adherent’s perception of violence.
Research Questions
The central question for this research was: What factors influence how Sunni
Muslims from Western Michigan perceive acts of violence committed against another
person? The three secondary research questions that support a comprehensive response to
the central questions were: (a) What role does religion play in the perception of violence
by a religious adherent? (b) What sources of information most influence an individual’s
attitude on violence (e.g. religious texts, formal religious teachings, family, school news,
other sources)? and (c) How do threats of perceived or actual loss affect how a religious
person perceives violence?
The intent of the central research question was to identify and examine the most
relevant factors that influence how a Muslim from Western Michigan forms perceptions
on violence, specifically violence committed against another person. In that examination,
I addressed the relationships and associations among the various factors to determine
what impact each has on others as well as the perceptions being discussed.
The secondary research question concerning the sources and the impact of stress
caused by loss were additional factors that may also influence the perceptions of this
group of religious adherents. Recognizing that the participants were limited to members
of a specific religious group, the role of religion must be understood, as must the role of
additional factors that emerged from the research including secular influencers such as
economic, social, and political considerations.
I used a case study methodology to gather the required data to answer the research
question. I was able to answer each of the four questions, including the central question
and the three more detailed sub-questions, using the data gathered from the interviews.
Additionally, I reviewed background materials, specifically the Muslim holy book the
Qur’an, to gain an increased understanding of this religion.
Because of the potentially large number of relevant economic, social, and political
factors that could have been identified and the lack of existing information on the
relationship between the factors, I used inductive methods to conduct this study. After the
interviews were completed and the data were recorded, I analyzed them to determine
patterns of commonalities and differences. During the analysis, I identified themes and
ultimately developed theories to offer a potential explanation for the existing attitudes and
perceptions of these religious adherents.
Theoretical Framework
I used the conservation of resources (COR) theory of stress as the theoretical
framework for this study. Introduced by Dr. Stevan Hobföll in 1989, researchers use this
theory to examine the various responses an individual may experience as a result of stress
caused by a loss, potential loss, or perceived loss. The basic premise of this theory is that
individuals “strive to retain, protect, and build resources and that what is threatening to
them is the potential or actual loss of these valued resources” (Hobföll, 1989, p. 516).
This theory is based on the concept that gaining, maintaining, and protecting resources
drives individuals to act. It further holds that these actions may or may not comply with
societal norms, resulting in behaviors that are considered to be otherwise unacceptable
(Hobföll, 1989).
This model differs from previous models in that this theory addresses specific,
observable behaviors individuals exhibit when faced with a stress-inducing situation.
Hobföll (1989) noted that much of the research conducted prior to his presentation was
largely superfluous and difficult to test. This theory, he asserted, provides “a specific set
of behaviors and cognitions that may be observed in order to support, clarify, or
disconfirm the model” (Hobföll, 1989, p. 521).
Hobföll (1989) also described several of the models that were current at that time
to illustrate the ambiguity that motivated him to develop a more concise, comprehensible,
and testable model to frame stress research. He described the theories of Cannon-Selye in
which these researchers defined stress as a response to external stimuli that may cause
humans to lose resiliency (Hobföll, 1989). He noted that their work overly simplified the
processes of human reactions to stress and did not sufficiently account for all of the
potential variables that could affect the way people reacted to stressors.
The resources that individuals are motivated to preserve can be classified into four
distinct categories: object resources, conditions, personal characteristics, and energies
(Hobföll, 1989). A house, for example, can be considered an object resource while a
marriage or tenure can be considered conditions as they pertain to the COR theory.
Personal characteristics and energies are more difficult to define, but examples of the
former include those personal assets that contribute to resilience, such as those things that
would increase an individual’s perception of their self-worth. Examples of energies
include time or money, not because of their intrinsic value, but because of their ability to
acquire other resources.
According to the COR theory, situations in which these resources are threatened
would create stress that would elicit an observable response from an individual. In
response to this stress, people employ a variety of coping mechanisms to mitigate the
loss, often by reprioritizing what is important or replenishing the resources that were lost.
Identifying the specific ways people replenish the lost or threatened resources is what
differentiates the COR theory from the ones developed prior to its introduction.
While I examined material loss such as land or wealth in this study, I also
examined factors such as individual and group identity to determine how the loss or
potential loss of these resources affects religious adherents. In addition to studying these
factors, the role of religion was also an important consideration as I conducted the
research. While my overarching objective was to identify factors that influence a
religious audience, secondary goals included (a) understanding how the credibility of a
source affects an individual’s perceptions, and (b) understanding how a loss or perceived
loss affects perceptions and (c) understanding the role of religion in an adherent’s
perception toward violence.
I also incorporated the idea of “loss-control strategies” in the research, which
according to Hobföll are employed by those who experience loss and have few resources
to provide options to overcome the stress caused by loss. These loss-control strategies are
described as “hav(ing) a high cost and poor chance of success” (Hobföll, 1989, p. 519).
Recognizing that these means of coping may not be consistent with local customs, social
norms, or laws, the COR theory offered not only the connection to the root cause, but it
could also play an important role in proposing solutions by addressing the stress caused
by the resource loss. By showing why a religious adherent would accept the conduct of
violence, potentially in contradiction to religious teachings, this research can potentially
offer insight into possible ways to mitigate the stress that causes the acceptance of this
behavior.
The COR theory was important to this research because it offered a possible
explanation to understand why people perceive violence as an acceptable behavior when
it would otherwise be deemed unacceptable. Researchers (Canetti et al., 2010; Johnson et
al., 2009; Littleton et al., 2009; Littleton et al., 2011) have conducted several quantitative
studies to identify relationships and associations between religion and the acceptance of
violence, but in this research, I uncovered additional connections to other, secular
considerations to help explain why religious adherents would find violence acceptable.
Nature of the Study
I conducted this study using a case study approach, which “involves the study of a
case within a real-life contemporary context or setting” (Creswell, 2012, p. 97). In this
research, I attempted to shed light on the way attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs of a
specific population of Muslim religious adherents are formed and maintained. This
approach allowed for a comprehensive examination of individual aspects of a select
group in order to “understand a specific issues, problem or concern” (Creswell, 2012, p.
98). In this situation, a case study approach was advantageous in identifying the most
significant factors that affect an adherent’s perceptions toward violence. A case study
design also allowed me to examine critical relationships between loss, identity, religion,
and other potentially important factors.
Phenomena and Key Concepts Being Investigated
I studied the attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs of select Muslims living in
Western Michigan. Specifically, I studied those beliefs that place importance on violence
and the acceptability of using violence. In the research, I attempted to better understand
the factors, both religious and secular, that have the most influence on those attitudes,
perceptions, and beliefs. Because the research was conducted in the United States, the
impact of American culture was also an important consideration along with other factors
such as social, political, and economic influences.
I identified three major categories for use in the data collection and analysis. The
first major category provided data I used to answer the questions concerning the
theoretical framework, the COR theory. I analyzed the data to differentiate several types
of resources including material, social, political, and economic resources.
Following identification of these resources, I made an assessment to determine the
influence each of these factors has on an individual’s perception of violence. Specifically,
I attempted to demonstrate how threats to or losses of these resources affect the
perceptions of violence of some religious adherents. Additionally, the impact of a threat
to an individual’s identity was also factored into the analysis of the collected data.
Individual and group identity was examined to determine how the threat to or loss of
these factors affects perceptions of violence.
The second major category that I used in this research addressed the role of
religion in a person’s perceptions of violence. For example, religion can serve as the
primary reason for an adherent to feel that violence is an acceptable behavior (Falahi,
2009; Ibrahim, 2009), or it can serve as the primary reason that a believer advocates
peace over violence in specific situations (Van Pelt Campbell, 2011; Walsh, 2011). In
addition to being the primary reason for a person’s attitude toward violence, religion can
also be used as a secondary or supporting reason influencing an individual’s attitude
toward violence (Huber, 2011, Kippenberg, 2010; Post, Ali, Henderson, Shanfield,
Victoroff, & Weine, 2009).
The last category I used to guide the research design was the set of data that
served to illustrate the relationships and associations between the factors previously
discussed. In this research, for instance, the influence of religion alone did have some
impact on the perceptions of adherents toward violence, but when combined with a
threatened social or economic loss, the attitude often changed.
By gaining a better understanding of the factors that influence this group of
religious adherents, policy makers and planners will be better equipped to develop plans
and policies to interact with people from different cultures. In addition to identifying and
describing a society’s sacred practices, religious beliefs can also affect its morals, norms,
and daily rituals. Religion can in some cases complement societal norms, and in others
can contradict those ethical standards. Understanding what affects the attitudes of
religious adherents to act consistent with or counter to their beliefs can help policymakers
and planners develop better-informed plans for international or intercultural engagements.
Nations like Myanmar (Burma), Saudi Arabia, and Iran incorporate their religious
beliefs into the official functions of the governmental systems. Other nations like the
United States, France, and the United Kingdom have attempted to separate religion from
their state functions. Whether a society’s religion is more like the former or the latter,
their religious beliefs will certainly have some level of impact on the attitudes of the
people within that society. Considering that over 83% of the world’s population
selfidentifies as being an adherent of a religion (Global Religious Landscape, 2012), the
results of this research have potential applicability to much of the world’s population.
Those factors that influence the perceptions of religious adherents can be sacred or
secular, and understanding the interactions and influences of both kinds of factors is
critical to developing a comprehensive engagement strategy.
Violence today is a limiting factor in many international or intercultural
interactions. It restricts humanitarian aid in the event of a man-made or natural disaster,
and it restrains interactions between different cultures. If mitigations cannot be
incorporated to ensure the security of the participants, exchanges may be reduced or
eliminated completely. Understanding how a religious adherent perceives violence as
well as the reasons for those perceptions can help policy makers improve interactions
between members of different cultures and lessen the provocations that often end in
violence.
Methodology
I planned to use face-to-face interviews as the primary data collection method. If
this strategy did not yield sufficient participants or if face-to-face interviews became
impractical, I would use the Walden University’s participant pool as a secondary option.
Because I was able to identify a sufficient number of participants during data collection,
the participant pool was not used. Given the sensitivity of the topic and the potential
resistance that I predicted in finding participants, convenience sampling was the only
viable option for selecting participants from the local Muslim population. To gain a
reasonable number of participants, I recruited two key communicators to facilitate the
participation of Muslim adherents.
Brief surveys were conducted to collect demographic information and general
information on an individual’s beliefs. I used the results of the surveys to qualify
individuals to participate in the research, and these results had no impact on the questions
included in the interviews. Although surveys are generally used when conducting
quantitative research, in this situation I used the questionnaire to ensure potential
participants met specific requirements for the research.
I transcribed and coded the interview data using NVivo. The data were
categorized into concepts that I then used to identify patterns and trends and to develop
potential theories. The survey responses were also input into NVivo and used as an
additional source of information. After all of the data had been consolidated and
analyzed, I determined that the results were sufficient to produce logical theories.
Operational Definitions
Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are considered the
Abrahamic religions because each acknowledges the significant role of Abraham, the
father of Isaac and Ishmael. Whether he be the father of a people or a prophet of God,
Abraham is an important historical figure and provides a point of commonality for these
three religions (Lubar Institute, 2013).
Adherent: An individual who identifies with a specific religious belief, group, or
tradition. An adherent may or may not be a member of a specific denomination but may
simply maintain similar beliefs (ARDA, n.d.).
Attitude: A generally long-standing way of thinking or feeling, which is often
reflected in actions or behaviors (Attitude, 2014).
Beliefs: The acceptance that an idea, notion, or statement is true, or the acceptance
of the existence of an object or entity (Belief, 2014).
Christianity: A monotheistic religion that “views sin as a core human problem that
can only be absolved through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God” (ARDA, n.d., para C).
Fundamentalism: The belief that humanity has been given the teachings that will
guide them to salvation and those teachings must be followed precisely and completely
(Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 2004).
Hinduism: One of the world’s oldest religions still in existence today. Hindus
believe in one Supreme Being, whose being pervades the world as it destroys and
recreates the world in an unending cycle (Hinduism, 2008)
Identity: The way an individual perceives him or herself as part of a racial, ethnic,
religious or other social group (Sen & Wagner, 2009).
Islam: A monotheistic religion whose adherents view their beliefs as not only a
religion but also a way of life. Muslims comply with their holy text, the Qur’an, which is
said to be a collection of the exact words of God. Muslims also follow the Five Pillars,
which serve as the basis for their behaviors.
Monotheism: Belief in the existence and supremacy of only one God and that all
in existence is God’s creation (Wainwright, 2013).
Orthodox: Refers to an interpretation of religious doctrine using a conventional or
traditional reading (Orthodox, 2014)
Perception: The way people understand elements in their environment, or how
people comprehend the way events occur (Perception, 2014).
Polytheism: A belief in and worship of more than one god, contrary to
monotheistic beliefs (Polytheism, 2015).
Practicing: A descriptor of an individual who observes the philosophy, teachings,
and rules of a specific belief or religion (Practice, 2014).
Religion: A belief system of faith and worship (Religion, 2014.)
Secular: Those things, including attitudes, activities, and behaviors, that are not
religiously or spiritually based (Secular, 2014)
Stress: “The brain’s response to any demand” (Adult Stress, n.d., para 1). This can
manifest in individuals as a wide variety of symptoms from quickened pulse and faster
breathing to depressed or malfunctioning immune, digestive, and reproductive systems.
Terrorism: “The unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to
intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in
furtherance of political or social objectives” (CFR, 2010, para 0.85).
Values: “Core beliefs that guide and motivate attitudes and actions” (Definitions
of Values, 2009).
Violence: The intentional use of physical force or aggression with the intent to
damage, hurt, main or kill (Violence, 2014) but for the purposes of this research this
definition was limited to physical force or aggression against another person.
Assumptions
I made several critical assumptions when developing the design for this research.
My primary assumption was that the results of this study would not be representative of
the global population of Muslims. According to recent statistics on religious adherents,
Muslims number close to 1.6 billion across the globe (Global Religious Landscape,
2012). Given the small sample size that I used for this research, it was not reasonable to
expect the results to be representative of the larger population. Additionally, this research
sample was limited to a specific geographic area, so the vast quantity of cultural factors
that would affect the perceptions of the religious across the globe were not taken into
consideration. This case study was neither designed nor intended to produce results that
would represent the wider population of Muslims.
I also made assumptions about the samples taken from the target population. The
first assumption concerned the level of religiosity among the participants. I accepted that
the individuals in the study shared a similar level of religiosity. None would be atheists or
anti-theists and the participants would all be active participants in regular religious
activities. Because the participants were members of a local mosque that is known to be
moderate in its approach, I determined that it would be reasonable to assume a moderate
religiosity for the group of participants. Additionally, an assumption was made that the
Muslim participants would be members of the Sunni denomination. This assumption is
also valid because the participants were selected from a mosque that adheres to Sunni
practices.
The next assumption concerns socioeconomic status. I made the presumption that
the entire sample population would be comparable in socioeconomic status (SES), based
on income, occupation, and education. Additionally, I assumed that the participants’ SES
would be average or close to average for Western Michigan and specifically Kalamazoo
and Calhoun Counties. For this area, the average person would be a homeowner, with at
least a high school diploma, and make approximately $44,000 a year (U.S. Census, 2014
a; U.S. Census 2014b).
I made a third assumption about the sample population, based on where they
lived, and subsequently their access to information. I predicated this assumption on the
idea that the participants had lived in the area long enough to have assimilated to the
societal norms of the area. Additionally, because of their SES the participants should
have also had access to similar media, including cable television, radio, and internet as
well as social networks such as friends, family, co-workers, and religious organizations.
Lastly, I understood that the participants were generally-law abiding and had the ability to
effectively communicate in English.
These assumptions were necessary to identify the participants as members of a
culture-sharing group. While the participants shared a religious belief, this aspect of their
lives did not, in itself define this collection of people as a culture-sharing group. The
assumptions made about socioeconomic status, assimilation, and accesses were all
important to understanding the societal influences that affected the perceptions of the
participants.
While there is no specific quantity of commonalities that determines or defines a
culture-sharing group, a collection of people must share some attributes to be considered
a culture-sharing group. For this research, the participants’ religion, English proficiency,
and interaction locations were verified and other attributes such as socioeconomic status,
residence, and accesses were assumed to be similar.
Scope and Delimitations
This research offers insight into the factors that most influence the perceptions and
attitudes of a Muslim adherent. Scholars debate the influence religion has on a believer,
with some supporting the position that religion allows a person to accept violence and in
some cases, to behave violently themselves (Ibrahim, 2009; Mani, 2012; Vail, 2010). In
contrast, other researchers take the opposing position that religion influences a person to
advocate peaceful behaviors (Van Pelt Campbell, 2011; Walsh, 2012). Others still argue
that religion can influence an adherent to promote either peaceful or violent behaviors
depending on the situation (Kippenberg, 2010; Malka & Soto, 2011).
The intent of this research was not to join the existing discussion on whether
religion has an inherently positive or negative influence on individuals, but to understand
how religion, along with other factors affects the beliefs and attitudes of religious
adherents. My goal in conducting this research was to better understand the complexities
involved in the development of perceptions, specifically those perceptions that recognize
violence as an acceptable or an intolerable behavior. In this research I examined the effect
religion has on an adherent’s attitudes toward violence and to better understand if
religion, alone can shape these attitudes.
The scope of this study varied significantly from earlier studies in that previous
research to examine perceptions of religious adherents had been conducted primarily
using quantitative approaches. Additionally, this earlier research involved those who had
endured a significant level of stress, whether the stress be a specific traumatic incident or
years of suffering caused by war or other conflicts. In much of the previous work,
researchers surveyed participants to understand the relationship between the stress
endured because of trauma and a particular response. Few scholars have conducted
research that would allow the participants to articulate the reasons, rationales, and
interactions as they understood them, to explain the relationship between religion and
attitudes toward violence.
In this case study I included significantly fewer participants than previous
research, initially planning on a minimum of five and a maximum of ten adherents, which
I predicted would provide sufficient information to develop a theory. Additionally, I
selected participants from members of a specific religious community in the Western
Michigan area, primarily Kalamazoo and Calhoun Counties and I used coding to identify
themes and similarities within the collected data.
The participants could either be male or female, as gender was not a critical
consideration for this study but for future research it may be a discriminating factor and
they were selected from members of the Sunni sect of Muslims. I identified this
requirement in both the initial conversations and the demographic questionnaire.
The age of the participants was also not a limitation as long as the participants
were adults and not minors. The research was open to elderly participants or participants
over the age of 65, which according to the Walden University Institutional Review Board
is a vulnerable population (Research Ethics Review, 2010), but this population was not
deliberately solicited for this study. Additionally, there was no requirement or criteria
based on political affiliation, as political alignments were not addressed in the study
The intent of the research was not to produce results that are generalizable across
the wider population of Muslim adherents or across other religious groups, but to offer
insight on some of the possible ways that some believers are influenced. Although the
responses in this research may be similar to responses from adherents living in other
countries, the cultural influence of living in America is an important consideration. The
cultural influence of living in a predominantly Christian nation and specifically living in
the Western Michigan area would have a significant impact on the perceptions of the
participants. As a result, the results of this research would not be as applicable when
generalizing across a wider, more diverse population.
Because I attempted to examine how cultural norms and other influences affect
the perceptions of religious adherents, I recruited individuals that were generally average,
economically, religiously, and socially for the Western Michigan area according to the
data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. For this reason, those considered wealthy or
destitute were not included in this study. Also, I did not consider atheists, anti-theists, and
fundamentalists as average for this research and would have excluded them from the
study. Additionally, those who were visiting and did not live in the Western Michigan
area were not included in the study to allow for greater consistency in the quality of
factors that influence the participants.
As far as the inclusion of vulnerable populations, I did not intentionally recruit
minors, residents of a facility, the mentally or emotionally disabled, subordinates, clients
or potential clients, those in crisis or the economically disadvantaged (Research Ethics
Review, 2010). Because potential participants may include individuals whose first
language is not English, participants were screened to ensure they were fluent in English
and could fully comprehend the questions and accurately communicate their responses. If
a potential participant was not fluent in English, I would have excluded that individual
from the study.
While the scope of the research served to establish boundaries for the study, I
imposed additional constraints based on pragmatic reasons of limited resources and
access to participants. For example, acknowledging the difficulty in determining
religiosity, those self-identified Muslims who did not actively participate in religious
activities were not be selected to participate in the research. By deliberately selecting
participants who attended a specific mosque, those who identified themselves as religious
adherents but did not actively participate in religious events would have been eliminated.
Using the COR theory as a theoretical framework did not constrain the research,
but the theory provided focus to the study. Hobföll’s definitions of specific resources
allowed me to categorize resources that the participants identified during the interviews.
A critical step in the data analysis was to identify and classify resources using Hobföll’s
1989 research. If a resource, as defined by Hobföll could potentially has value to a
participant, I did not exclude it from the study.
This research is potentially significant because there are few studies that address
the association between relevant secular factors and violence among the followers of
Islam. Recently many researchers have either examined the broad relationship between
the Abrahamic religions and violence (Baldwin, 2012; Huber, 2011; Kippenberg, 2010:
Lusthaus, 2011) or studied the relationship between Islam and violence (Joll, 2010;
Sirseloudi, 2012). While the research to understand the association between religion and
violence is important, there exists a potential gap in the research to understand the role
religion plays in the perceptions toward violence and how it fits in with other secular
factors.
There exists another potential gap in qualitative research that examines the role of
religion in the perception of violence. Many of the researchers studying this topic have
used a quantitative approach to examine the relationship between religion and violence.
Much of this quantitative work addresses the nature of the relationship between variables
and few of the studies go beyond this to address the reasons why the relationships exist as
they do. In this study, I used a case study approach to examine the many factors that are
critical to forming and maintaining perceptions. I also attempted to address the
oftencomplex relationships that contribute to forming perceptions and attitudes in a
religious adherent.
The overwhelming majority of the world’s population acknowledges some level
of religious belief. According to the Pew Research Group’s 2010 study “The Global
Religious Landscape,” over 83% of the world’s population identifies with a specific faith,
leaving 16.3% of the world who does not associate themselves with a particular religion
(Global Religious Landscape, 2012). Within that 16.3% figure of the Religiously
Unaffiliated, many declare a belief in a God or higher power, and some even practice
religious rituals although they claim no formal association with a particular religion or
belief (Global Religious Landscape, 2012). With this research I attempted to fill an
existing gap in the literature by examining how religion, in conjunction with other secular
factors affects perception of a religious adherent.
Also, as globalization becomes more important in almost every aspect of modern
life it becomes increasingly important to understand the different cultures of the world.
Whether the situation be a non-governmental organization responding to a humanitarian
crisis, or a company building a manufacturing facility, or a military unit conducting a
tactical mission, the need to understand the attitudes of different societies is critical. The
need to understand a society’s attitudes toward violence can be critically important in
certain circumstances.
The results of this study may be used to help public and private organizations as
well as individuals to recognize the importance of understanding cultural norms of other
societies and to better understand the role religion plays in influencing those norms. By
demonstrating an understanding of another individual’s way of life, the opportunities for
improved business and personal relations are improved. Understanding other cultures
may also allow nations to cooperate and collaborate more effectively, with potential to
decrease tension and conflicts within and between countries (Basedau et al., 2011;
Cliteur, 2010a).
Limitations
There were several limitations that must be acknowledged with this study. These
limitations included issues with applicability/transferability and bias due to the sampling
strategy and concerns with dependability and credibility of the results.
Transferability and Bias
Because the research was conducted using a case study methodology and a
convenience sampling strategy, the obvious weaknesses in this research were the inability
to generalize based on the results and bias. The sample size for this study combined with
the means of selecting participants would make generalizing the results across a wider
population problematic. Participants selected using convenience sampling should not be
used to generalize across a broader audience because the sample was neither random nor
representative.
Additionally, there was potential for inherent bias with using convenience
sampling because the reasons the participants were selected were not always evident or
impartial. The times, locations or associates used to select participants may also have had
an indirect impact on the results of the study. An example of this would be if participants
were chosen because of their availability during specific hours during the day. This
strategy would have eliminated those individuals who worked during those hours and
may have resulted in selecting more retired or unemployed participants, who may have
had different perceptions and attitudes than their working counterparts. One way to
address this bias was to clearly and accurately identify how the participants were selected
and identify those factors that may have influenced the results. Although a random or a
purposeful sampling strategy would allow for less bias than a convenience sample,
circumstances limited the options requiring a convenience sample to be used for this
research.
Additionally, bias may have been introduced into the study through the data
collection and analysis process. The wording of the questions and interpretations of the
responses may have also reflected biases. To address these biases, I enlisted the
assistance of an objective individual, who could impartially view the process to identify
evidence of potential bias.
Dependability and Credibility
The dependability of the research was slightly difficult to manage with this study,
as the factors that affect an individual’s perception can frequently change and are often
difficult to accurately identify. Additionally, truthfulness of the participant was also a
concern for this research, but through in-depth conversation some contradictions were
identified and addressed. Ultimately, if a participant is unwilling to be completely
forthcoming, or cannot clearly articulate the reasons for his or her attitudes and
perceptions, the results may not accurately reflect all of the factors that influence how an
individual thinks or forms beliefs. The results of this research were heavily dependent on
the participant’s willingness and ability to provide accurate and honest responses.
Lastly the instruments used in the research, specifically the questions posed to the
participants did facilitate generally credible results because questions that were repeated
or reworded and reiterated identified inconsistencies in the responses of the participants.
By identifying any inconsistencies, additional questions could be asked to resolve any
conflicts.
Significance of the Study
Within the agencies and organizations of the federal government that regularly
engage populations from different cultures, there are policy makers that need accurate
information about the people they interact with. Decision-makers base their choices on
the most accurate information available and the results of this research will hopefully add
another consideration for those who bear the responsibility of making those oftendifficult
choices. This research provided conclusions that include options and considerations that
have only been superficially examined in this context.
Summary and Transition
Attempting to understand how and why an individual develops and maintains a
specific attitude toward violence is a complex endeavor but the consequences of not
understanding this process could potentially yield disastrous results. In this case study I
did not provide results that can be easily applied across the wider population of religious
believers, but in my conclusions, I identified factors that could influence how critical
attitudes and perceptions are formed within a specific population.
Much of the existing literature focuses on the influence of religion on perceptions
and not many studies sufficiently address other factors that may also influence the
attitudes of religious adherents. Recognizing that religion plays a key role in the
formulation of an individual’s perceptions, understanding the way religion interacts with
secular factors is worthy of research and may result in information that will aid
organizations as they send their personnel abroad. Specifically understanding the impact
of a resource loss to an individual may offer some insight to understanding how
perceptions toward violence are formed and preserved. The COR theory provided this
research with a coherent outline to frame the study and to identify resources that have
value to individuals and may influence their perceptions.
In Chapter 2 recent studies examining the relationship between religion and
violence as well as literature exploring how religion positively or negatively influences
behaviors are summarized. Additionally, I discuss studies conducted using the COR
theory in this chapter. In Chapter 3 the methodology of this research is explained,
specifically the means of collecting and analyzing data from individual interviews and the
processes put in place to reduce bias. Lastly, in this chapter I summarized the steps that
were taken to protect the participants involved in this research.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
Introduction
Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, many Americans quickly came to
the realization that not only did they know little about the group that organized the
attacks, but also that on a wider scale they had little understanding of the culture of the
people of the Middle East. As globalization increasingly extends America’s reach across
the world, the need for decision-makers in governmental organizations to better
understand the world’s many different cultures also grows (Aly & Striegher, 2012;
Fettweis, 2009).
Individuals working with federal agencies like the State Department and the
Department of Defense who frequently interact with people from different cultures have a
critical need to understand not only the traditions and values of those they engage with,
but also the beliefs and attitudes that make up those cultures. An important aspect of
understanding a society’s culture is identifying the belief system or religion a society
adheres to and understanding the influence that religion has on the attitudes and
perceptions of its adherents.
My intent in the literature review was to examine recently published literature to
better understand how scholars see the role of religion in religious adherents’ perceptions
of violence and to identify relevant gaps. In much of the existing recent literature,
researchers have frequently looked for a causal relationship between religion and the
acceptance of violence or peace. Political and social factors have also been identified as
contributors to religious violence, and several researchers have discussed how group and
individual identity affect how individuals perceive violence. In this review, I also
examined relevant research to identify the factors that scholars understand to be the most
influential on an adherents’ perceptions of violence.
The review began with an examination of studies in which researchers have used
the theoretical framework I selected for this research, the COR theory. I reviewed eight
studies that incorporated this theory, examining various phenomena were summarized to
better understand how the COR theory had been previously applied, and to appreciate the
range of conclusions that have resulted from the research.
In the next portion of the review, I examined how researchers have used different
methodologies to study similar phenomenon in the field. Badahdah and Tiemann (2009),
for example, used case studies to examine how religion affects the way Muslims choose a
mate, while other researchers (Nayback-Beebe & Yoder, 2012; Yechezkel & Ayalon,
2013) conducted case study research to identify reasons why violence occurs and why it
is endured. Additionally, in this portion of the review I assessed how ethnographic
research has been used to study many of these same phenomena. Ethnography was used
by both Critelli and Willett (2012) and Lee (2010) to examine how Islam influences the
perception of violence among Pakistani Muslims and Black Muslims in the United States,
respectively.
I then explored articles on the relationship between religion and violence
(“religious violence”) and those on the relationship between religion and peace. In this
portion of the review, I examined elements of religious beliefs to assess their impact on
peaceful or violent behaviors. In these articles, religious directives interpreted from holy
texts were the primary motivators for either violent or peaceful actions. Included in this
examination was research by Sukma et al. (2011) that showed how Indonesian and
Malayan Muslims objected to religious violence, and a study by Cliteur (2010b) who
argued that specific scriptures in the Qur’an direct Muslim adherents to commit violent
acts. Taking a third position on the issue, Post et al. (2009) argued that religion can serve
to advocate both violent and peaceful actions.
In the next section of the review, I examined literature on the political and social
causes of “religious violence,” which often manifest as terrorism. In this portion of the
review, I examined religion as either a single factor or a justification for behaviors that
ultimately results in a political or social change within a society. In these articles,
researchers discussed behaviors that are primarily motivated by a reason other than
religion. Ginges et al. (2009), for example, examined reasons why both Muslims and
Jews would support suicide attacks to achieve specific political and social goals in the
Palestinian Conflict.
Lastly, I examined literature on the relationship between religion and individual
and collective identities. Authors like Aly and Striegher (2012) and Schäuble (2011)
focused on simply describing the many different ways that religion can influence an
individual’s or a group’s collective identity, while others like Stăiculescu and Stan (2012)
and Chirot (2011) posited that religion creates an in-group/out-group situation that
encourages violent actions.
Literature Search Strategy
Initially I accessed policy and administration databases in the Walden University
library to find articles about religious violence focused on the impact the behaviors had
on public policy and politics in a society. Three databases I accessed were Political
Science Complete, Business Source Premier/Complete, and Political Science Complete:
A Sage Full-Text Collection.
Next, I queried the military and security databases to find relevant articles that
addressed the subject of religious violence. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the
notion of religious violence has gained significant interest in the defense, security, and
intelligence communities. I queried the Military and International Security and Counter
Terrorism Reference Center, the Military and Government Collection, and the
Homeland Security Digital Library databases.
In order to find articles that addressed individual behaviors, attitudes, and
perceptions, I queried the Walden University’s available psychology databases including
PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, and Psychology: A SAGE Full-Text
Collection. Lastly, I accessed two multidisciplinary databases, ProQuest Central and
Academic Search Complete, to find any articles that may have been overlooked in the
other searches. I found the majority of the articles concerning the theoretical foundation
used in this research in the multidisciplinary databases.
To find additional relevant articles, I used a series of keywords in a variety of
combinations, depending on the number of potential articles in the selected database. For
example, I would generally begin with a search using the terms religion and violence and,
based on the results, would adjust by either adding more terms or reducing the number of
terms until I had a list of no more than 20 articles. If the search included a Boolean
system, I could also remove non-relevant articles by inserting terms after applying the
“not” function. For example, if my initial search resulted in several articles that involved
violence against women and focused on domestic abuse, I could remove those articles by
inserting the term women after the “not” function. The keywords I used in these searches
were: religion, religious, violence, religious violence, terrorism, and conservation of
resources. In total, I conducted approximately 25 different keyword searches in the
various databases to collect the requisite material.
In addition to using keywords to identify relevant articles for the literature review,
I used additional criteria to limit the search and ensure the information facilitated an
appropriate level of scholarship. To ensure the articles would still be relevant when the
dissertation was completed, I limited the search to articles that had been published in
2009 or later. This would provide relevant information for the study, yet still be relatively
timely when the dissertation was finally completed.
In the past 10 years and largely because of the 9/11 attacks, there has been a
significant increase in research on the subject of religion and violence. While some
authors have focused their efforts on examining the various religious texts to determine
the cause of religious violence, others have chosen to conduct research, mostly
quantitative, to better understand the relationship between religion and violence. In all
cases, though, the published information has included critical information to better
understanding the relationship between religion and the conduct and acceptance of
violence.
Theoretical Framework
The COR theory of stress (Hobföll, 1989) focuses on an individual’s response to
stress, and specifically stress caused by the loss, perceived loss, or threat of loss of
resources. This model is based on the assumption that people “strive to retain, protect,
and build resources and that what is threatening to them is the potential or actual loss of
these valued resources” (Hobföll, 1989, p. 516). Resources in this context can mean
material resources or psychological resources, and responses can vary from depression
and despair to implementing gain strategies to rebuild the lost resources.
Hobföll (1989) developed the COR theory because he found that the models of
stress that existed in the late 1980s only offered a weak link to research that was being
conducted at the time. The COR theory provided a more substantial and comprehensive
model to explain specifically what individuals will do and will not do as a result of
experiencing stress.
Hobföll (1989) proposed that psychological stress can best be understood by
examining how individuals perceive their wealth in terms of resources, both
psychological and material. The theory further holds that individuals endeavor to “retain,
protect and build resources” (Hobföll, 1989, p. 516). Additionally, the theory proposes
that in order to mitigate a potential loss of resources, those individuals who have a limited
ability to protect or rebuild their resources may resort to “loss-control strategies that have
a high cost and poor chance of success” (Hobföll, 1989, p. 519) such as violence against
those who threaten their resources.
The COR theory attempts to describe what individuals will do in order to gain
resources as protection against a potential loss and what they will do when faced with a
loss or threat of loss of resources (Hobföll, 1989). Furthermore, Hobföll (1989)
associated stress with an actual loss, a perceived loss, or the threat of a loss of resources,
and included four categories of resources: object resources, conditions, personal
characteristics, and energies. Lastly, Hobföll discussed coping strategies and the
relationship between the appropriateness of these behaviors and the level of stress that the
individual is enduring.
While some scholars would advocate that religion can be the root cause of violent
behaviors, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that in many cases, religion is not the
underlying cause, but merely a convenient and ready-made rationalization for condoning
or accepting the conduct of violence. As an integral part of a society’s culture, religion
can be used as a broadly understandable and sustainable framework to justify or explain
behaviors that are often contrary to a society’s standards, morals, or norms.
Through the COR theory, Hobföll strives to explain why people react to external
stimuli as they do, and he identifies observable behaviors that can result from stress
caused by loss or a perceived loss. Only by understanding the root cause of the behaviors
can those actions and attitudes be appropriately addressed to reduce or eliminate the
acceptability of violence.
Hobföll’s theory can also be critical to understanding why individuals in a
religiously-based society would perceive violence as an acceptable or an unacceptable
behavior. Whether there be a threat be to a material or psychological resource, the COR
theory can help to explain why a religious adherent would accept or reject violent
behaviors.
Recently, researchers utilizing the COR theory have conducted quantitative
inquiries in their attempts to identify relationships between a violent act or traumatic
event and resultant behaviors or attitudes (Canetti et al., 2009; Canetti et al., 2010;
Johnson, Canetti, Palmieri, Galea, Varley, & Hobföll, 2009, Littleton, et al., 2009). In this
study I built on the existing quantitative research by investigating and identifying
additional reasons that may cause individuals to develop approving or disapproving
attitudes and perceptions toward violent behaviors.
Researchers have also examined how the COR theory can help to explain the
reactions of victims of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Littleton et al., 2009;
2011). Specifically, the relationship between PTSD and a psychological resource loss was
examined in the context of the university shootings at Virginia Tech (Littleton et al.,
2009) and Northern Illinois University (Littleton et al., 2011). Furthermore, researchers
have used the COR theory to examine how coping strategies can impact PTSD symptoms
after an individual experiences a traumatic event (Kuo, 2011; Walter & Hobföll, 2009).
The researchers examined how cultural coping mechanisms could reduce symptoms of
PTSD (Kuo, 2011) and how the reduction of the stressors affected PTSD symptoms
(Walter & Hobföll, 2009). Building on the previous works of these authors, I examined
factors such as the relationship between an event-driven stressor and how an individual
perceives violence in my study.
Additionally, researchers have examined how religion mitigates long-term effects
of trauma, like the Holocaust, specifically exploring how religion affects an individual’s
worldview and psychological functioning after a prolonged trauma (Palgi, Shira, &
BenEzra, 2011). The results of this study indicated that religion was critical to an
individual’s ability to recover after a resource loss because the support networks present
in the religious community served an important function in the healing process.
In recent quantitative studies, researchers examined the relationship between an
individual’s religious beliefs and their support for violent acts (Canetti et al., 2010;
Johnson et al., 2009). In 2010, Canetti et al. concluded that religion was less important
than a perceived social injustice in determining support for violence while in the 2009
study, Johnson et al. identified several factors that were more influential than religion
when discussing reasons for support of political violence. These researchers collectively
identified a view that religion may not be as important as previously believed when
attempting to understand how perceptions and attitudes toward violence are formed.
Review of Literature Related to Key Variables and Concepts In the next
portion of the chapter I identified and described recent research that relates to this study.
Specifically, in this section I described recent research that was conducted using
different methodologies and different variables, but addressing many of the same issues
that were addressed in this study.
Review of Similar Research using Different Methodologies
Although I conducted this research using a case study design in order to focus on
a specific, bounded situation, this topic could also be and has been examined using other
research designs.
Review of case study research. Case study research is used to “develop an
indepth understanding of a single case or explore an issue or problem” (Creswell, 2012,
p. 97). Using a case study design, I examined several factors that influence how an
individual’s perceptions of violence are formed. Previous researchers have used case
studies to study similar issues, such as identifying when violence is occurring (Carvalho,
2014), why violence occurs (Stăiculescu & Stan, 2012), and why violence is tolerated
(Nayback-Beebe & Yoder, 2012; Yechyhezkel & Ayalon, 2013).
Additionally, researchers have used case studies to examine the often-complex
relationship between an adherent and his or her religion. For example, researchers have
studied how religion can impact major life decisions, like choosing a potential mate
(Badahdah & Tiemann, 2009). Other researchers examined how religion enabled the
formulation of group and individual identities which in turn, facilitated a need to protect
the in-group, often through violence (Stăiculescu & Stan, 2012). Kars, in his 2009
manuscript used case studies to examine how four religious scholars used the concept of
“distance” to describe their relationship with their beliefs. This methodology is suitable
for conducting a deeper inquiry into a limited situation to better understand the relevant
factors and their relationships (Creswell, 2012).
Review of ethnographic research. Researchers have also used other qualitative
designs, like ethnography to examine the influence of religion on an individual’s
perceptions and behaviors. Ethnographic research has been used to examine the way an
individual’s beliefs influence how that person perceives violence (Critelli & Willett,
2012; Fuist & Josephson, 2013; Lee, 2010; Schäuble, 2011) and to better understand how
individuals respond to a traumatic loss (Zraly & Nyirazinyo, 2010; Wexler, 2014).
Socio-cultural factors, including religion, that affect an individual’s resilience and
ability to cope with trauma were examined in a study with Rwandan genocide-rape
victims (Zraly & Nyirazinyo, 2010) and in research with Alaska Natives who had
historically been denied their culture (Wexler, 2014). Schäuble (2011) also used an
ethnographic design to study how society reacts to traumatic events, but in her work, she
examined how a society applies religion to specific locations to create “sacred spaces”,
which memorialize Croatian massacre victims and serve to create places of great
importance and healing to this society.
Other researchers have chosen to use an ethnographic design to examine how
religion created and reinforced communities within a society. Lee (2010) studied the role
Islam played in creating a community around a mosque that serves a primarily African
American community. She employed this methodology to understand how Islam appeals
specifically to this population and to identify how the Black Muslim community
positively influences an inner-city society. Additionally, researchers used ethnographic
research to better understand how religion can influence the way individuals interpret
boundaries in intergroup relations (Fuist & Josephsohn, 2013). In this 2013 study the
researchers queried adherents from several different faiths to determine how religion
affected the way they categorized others and how they saw themselves in relation to
others.
While these scholars identified positive or neutral effects of religion, other
researchers have suggested that religion could also serve as a negative influence in a
society. Researchers used an ethnographic approach to examine social norms in Pakistani
society and the relationship between religiously-based customs and violence against
women (Critelli & Willett, 2012). Using an ethnographic design allowed the researchers
to better understand the complex social, political and historical environment that allows
women to become victims of violence in this primarily Muslim nation.
The interpretation of a variables like groupings or boundaries can be influenced by
several factors and can fluctuate as the understanding of the individual changes. To most
effectively gather and analyze the information necessary to evaluate these concepts,
research requires an in-depth exchange rather than a one-sided questionnaire. In many
cases, ethnographic research methods can best facilitate the required exchange of
information to understand these complex concepts and to better explain why people
behave as they do.
Variables Affecting Perception of Violence
There were four critical concepts that I examined in this research: the relationship
between religion and violence, the effects of religion on individual and collective
identities, the formation of an in-group/out-group situation and the way religion was used
to justify or legitimize violence for secular purposes. A fifth variable, the credibility of
information sources, specifically religious texts, was also an important factor in
understanding whether an adherent accepted or rejected violence.
The relationship between religion and violence has been a contentious subject and
researchers would often take one of two positions: that religion promotes peace (Van Pelt
Campbell, 2011; Walsh, 2012) or that religion facilitates violence (Falahi, 2009; Ibrahim,
2009). A third faction in this debate including Huber (2011), Kippenberg (2010) and Post
et al. (2009) supported both positions and argued that religion can be used to either
facilitate peaceful or violent behaviors in its adherents. In conducting this research, I did
not attempt to determine which position had more merit, but I investigated the conditions
under which religion was used for peace and those conditions under which religion was
used for violence to understand the factors that have the most influence on an individual’s
perceptions.
One consequence of a religious society is that individuals would often form
identities, individually and collectively as a result of the shared beliefs (Basedau et al.,
2011; Gates & Steane, 2009; Ginges et al., 2009). While a shared identity through
religion could strengthen a society by providing a sense of unity (Schwartz et al., 2009),
this notion of an identity based on religious beliefs could also be problematic and
potentially lead to violence if either the individual or the group perceived their identity to
be threatened (Sen & Wagner, 2009; van Liere, 2009).
Researchers have also suggested that an individual’s perception of violence was
affected when an in-group/out-group relationship existed, whether it was formed due to
religion, race, ethnicity or other variables. Within religious cultures, an in-group and an
out-group were formed when individuals saw their religion as the only true religion and
others as false religions (Canetti-Nisim, Halperin, Sharvit, & Hobföll, 2009; Mani, 2012;
Reader, 2012; van Liere, 2011). While this alone may not have caused violence, it often
established a mindset in which the out-group was often dehumanized and became
vulnerable to a lower standard of behavior from the in-group (Ginges et al., 2009; van
Liere, 2009).
Additionally, there was a viewpoint that religion may not directly cause violence,
but may be used to justify or legitimize a violent action (Sen & Wagner, 2009; Lusthaus,
2011) especially when the violence is a result of political or social motivations (Sheikh,
2012). Religion has been used to provide a framework which can be easily understood by
a devout audience and to rationalize politically-motivated violence (Çınar, 2009; Cinoğlu,
2010). Isolating and identifying the roles of religion, politics, and social causes in
conflicts was helpful to better understanding the reasons religious adherents accepted or
rejected violent acts.
Understanding the importance of the credibility of sources, especially the
credibility of the Qur’an was also critical to this research. Researchers like Ibrahim
(2009) discussed the different ways the holy texts of the Abrahamic religions were
interpreted by their believers. In this discussion, Ibrahim (2009) suggested that the
Christian and Jewish texts were descriptive and explained past events while the Muslim
holy text was prescriptive and dictated how Muslims today should behave even today.
Couple this with Cliteur’s divine command theory (2010a; 2010b) in which believers
were bound by the literal interpretations of their religious texts and obligated to comply
with the written words, and it became clear how some Muslims might understand
violence differently than their Christian and Jewish counterparts.
Relationship between religion and violence in current research. The research I
examined in this portion of the literature review was categorized into three general
themes: articles that discussed the influence of religious texts, articles that suggested
religion could be used to facilitate peace and/or violence and articles that discussed the
reasons that religiously-based organizations were significantly more violent than
nationalistic or politically-based organizations. Although each of these positions
contained significant differences, they all attempted to define the nature of the
relationship between religion and violence.
Positive and negative influence of texts on perceptions. Because religious texts
provide guidance and direction to followers of numerous religions, they have also served
to provide explanations for the way adherents perceive violence. The three Abrahamic
religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism are often examined together as monotheistic
religions with a common background. Many passages found in the holy texts of the Bible,
the Qur’an, and the Tanakh are generally recognized to contain numerous references to
violence. The differences in the texts are minimal but the intent of the scriptures, whether
they be descriptive or prescriptive and whether the adherent subscribes to a literal
translation of the text will impact how violence is perceived.
Esias Meyer, in his examination of violence in the Old Testament discussed the
violent passages in the holy texts of the monotheistic faiths through the writings of three
religious scholars: Regina Schwartz, Jan Assmann, and Gerlinde Baumann. In his
evaluation, Meyer (2011) did not argue the existence of violence in the Old Testament,
but he suggested that religion can also serve as a positive influence to counter the violent
acts found in the holy texts of the Abrahamic faiths.
Although he did not fully support the proposals of Schwartz and Assmann, who
suggest that “monotheism as portrayed in the Bible is, in itself inherently violent”
(Meyer, 2011, p. 17) Meyer indicated that Baumann’s position may be the most viable in
providing solutions to the violence in today’s society. Gerlinde Baumann, according to
Meyer advocates contextualizing the references and striving to understand the historical
meanings of the texts. These seemingly contrary viewpoints reflect the difference
between advocating a literal translation of the texts and being willing to contextualize the
information found in scriptures.
In the 2009 article by Ra’anan Boustan, Alex Jassen, and Calvin Roetzel, the
authors examined violence in Christian and Jewish scriptures, specifically discussing the
ways religion is used to frame and legitimize violent actions. Fundamentalists, striving to
comply with a literal interpretation of their religious texts, would often apply the contents
of religious texts authored thousands of years ago to modern situations. An example of
this is the passage in Deuteronomy to destroy the Canaanites and how this directive has
been applied in modern times to Irish Catholics, Native Americans, Palestinian, and other
enemies of the Israeli state (Boustan, Jassen, & Roetzel, 2009).
Other researchers like Raymond Ibrahim (2009) compared the three Abrahamic
religions, examining the attitudes toward violence as indicated by the violent passages in
each of the holy texts. He discussed the existence of historical violence in Jewish and
Christian texts and compared them to the edicts or passages that direct or command
violence in Qur’anic texts. In the author’s conclusion, he suggested that all three
Abrahamic religions contained violent passages, but only the Qur’an commanded its
adherents to conduct violence today (Ibrahim, 2009).
In his review, Ibrahim (2009) also discussed how the three Abrahamic texts
guided their adherents and shaped their attitudes toward violent acts. Specifically, he
provided references to specific passages from each of the texts that could influence an
adherent’s attitude toward violence. Although this article only included one source of
information (religious texts), to some believers, their holy text may arguably be the most
critical source of information in shaping perceptions on violence.
In his 2010 Forum Philosophicum article, Paul Cliteur also argued the existence
of an important relationship between religious texts and violence. Cliteur not only
suggested that the relationship between religion and violence existed but he also argued
that when violent passages from the holy texts were combined with those who subscribe
to the notion that these texts are the true word of God; the response can often be violent.
Cliteur (2010b) in this article described the divine command theory (DCT), in
which religious adherents are obligated to comply with the commands and will of God,
regardless of man’s laws and societal norms. Applying the DCT to violent passages in
holy texts, specifically the scriptures of the Abrahamic religions, can lead to the belief
that violence is acceptable behavior. This examination of the DCT addressed the way
religion affects perceptions and attitudes of religious adherents toward violence.
While numerous researchers have debated the intent and impact of religious texts
on followers of the three Abrahamic religions, in recent years, the association between
violence and the text of the Qur’an, specifically has been a frequently-discussed topic. I
examined well-known verses such as Sura 9:5 (the Verse of the Sword) and 4:34
(concerning the dominion of man over woman) in this portion of the review as well as the
idea that the Qur’an should be interpreted in the context that it was written (Falahi, 2009).
Obaidullah Fahad Falahi discussed religious violence in Islam and posed an
atypical position in his article on Qur’anic verses that deal with violence. In addressing
the relationship between the Prophet Muhammad and his polytheistic tribesmen, the
Qurayshite mushrikūn, the author attempted to interject historical context “to remove the
confusions and misunderstandings created by some selective readings of the ayat of the
Qur’an” (Falahi, 2009, p. 71).
One of the verses that the author discussed is the well-known Verse of the Sword,
Sura 9:5. This verse, which is frequently cited by Muslim extremists and terrorists,
advises “wherever you encounter idolaters, kill them, seize them, besiege them, wait for
them at every lookout post” (Qur’an 9:5, Oxford World’s Classics). The position of the
author is that this was a message intended for the Prophet concerning the polytheistic
Qurayshites and not meant to be an enduring directive for future generations (Falahi,
2009).
Because the Qur’an is often seen as the enduring and literal word of God passed
down to believers through the Prophet Muhammad, many adherents are hesitant to
interject historical context into their interpretation of the text. Understanding when an
adherent would accept a literal translation of the holy text versus incorporate historical
context was critical to understanding the factors that influence an adherent’s perception of
violence.
In Rachel Scott’s article about Qur’an 4:34, she discussed this much-debated
passage from the Islamic holy text. This passage not only explained man’s authority over
woman but also directed physical punishment for those women who did not conduct
themselves appropriately. This passage, which advised men to beat their wives if they
were disloyal or behaved inappropriately, could not be questioned because according to
many Muslim scholars the Qur’an, as the word of God, should not be read contextually or
situationally (Scott, 2009).
This was one of many passages that outwardly appeared to advocate and even
direct physical violence against others, whether the others be Muslims or non-Muslims.
In many Islamic cultures, a literal translation of their holy text is a much more commonly
accepted idea than among their Christian or Jewish counterparts (Scott, 2009), as the
Qur’an is arguably the most important text many Muslims will have.
Expanding the examination of faiths and beliefs beyond the monotheistic religions
only changed the discussion slightly. The Hindu text, the Ramayana, for example, is
much like the Qur’an in that it includes references that would advocate violence against a
woman for disobeying a man (Bradley, 2010). Walsh (2012) on the other hand, proposed
the less frequently cited position that religion is a proponent for peace rather than
violence and that “violence, intolerance, and supremacist perspectives” (are)
“unfortunate, unintended consequences” (p. 39).
Tamsin Bradley, in her 2010 article discussed how religion was used to facilitate a
male-dominated Indian society which often resulted in violence against women. This
article focused on the influence religion had in this Hindu society, specifically examining
the way religious texts affected the way society perceived the male-female relationship.
Bradley (2010) discussed how religion indirectly contributes to violence against
women through the way it influences Hindu culture. In the Hindu epic, the Ramayana,
the relationship between men and women was illustrated in the actions and behaviors of
Rama and his dutiful and faithful wife, Sita. In Hindu culture violence is the mechanism
that was often used to enforce the obedience and faithfulness of women (Bradley, 2010).
Additionally, Bradley (2010) suggested that because religious beliefs were passed
down through the holy texts, which are interpreted “by an elite group of religious leaders,
who are usually male” (p. 362) females have limited ability to interpret the texts to their
benefit. This article not only discussed specific Hindu texts and passages that contribute
to the acceptance of violence, but it also discussed several different sources of
information that may have contributed to the attitudes of Hindus toward violence.
Paul Cliteur in his book Freedom of Religion, discussed how religion itself is not
only violent by nature but that modern religion has recently manifested itself as
fundamentalist and often more violent than in previous times. Cliteur (2010a) did not
limit his position to the monotheistic religions, as many authors do, but he examined
Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and other world religions. He also acknowledged
that while some adherents may have seen religion as a peaceful influence, he refuted the
argument that peace was the only outcome of religion.
Cliteur (2010a) examined the motivations of the religious terrorist acknowledging
the divine command theory, in which God’s commands supersede directives, instructions
and guidance by man, even if that guidance exists in the form of a law. Cliteur suggested
that religious fundamentalism, which at best condones, and at worst supports religious
violence was a critical element in the discussion when trying to understand the
relationship between religion and violence.
Thomas Walsh in his 2012 article took a contrary position from that of many of
his contemporaries in that he advocated the idea that religion, although it had contributed
to violent actions has also been an instrument of peace across numerous fields and
activities. Walsh (2012) argued that religion’s role in today’s public affairs had advanced
peaceful interactions more than violent ones through “calls for non-violence,
unselfishness, forgiveness, reconciliation, and just war theory” (p. 35).
This article was one of the few that extensively discussed how religion was used
to shape perceptions of adherents toward peace instead of violence. While other articles
superficially touched on the peaceful consequences and effects of religion, Walsh (2012)
discussed in depth how the role of religion had changed to become a less violent
influence on its adherents. Walsh (2012) in this article listed several religions, including
Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, and Buddhism which through
their sacred texts advocated peace over violence.
Like his colleague, Walsh (2012), George Van Pelt Campbell (2011) proposed
that religions offered their followers peaceful solutions as opposed to the violence caused
by fear and anger. Van Pelt Campbell suggested that globalization may have contributed
to the fear and defensiveness that often resulted in violence and cited Christian scriptures
that addressed peaceful responses to this fear. The author (2011) continued to quote
specific passages in the Old and New Testaments that supported his premise that the
religion of Christ promoted peace, not violence.
This examination of the Christian Bible focused primarily on the New Testament,
only referencing passages in Genesis of the Old Testament and not addressing the
numerous passages that would seem to advocate violence. Despite acknowledging the rise
of “religious violence” resulting from globalization, Van Pelt Campbell argued that
“these religious resources contribute to the common good by delegitimizing violence and
promoting human flourishing” (p. 49). He, like Walsh (2012), suggested that religion is
not the cause of the violence seen today, but the solution to it.
Situational influence of texts on perceptions. An equally compelling argument in
the debate to understanding how religious texts affected adherents is the position that
these sacred writings could be used to advocate either violence or peace, depending on
the specific situation. In the literature found to support this position, the three
monotheistic religions were examined, but much of the recent efforts focused specifically
on Islam and how the Qur’an influences Muslims. Additionally, supporters of this point
of view (Bouhana & Wikström, 2010; Kippenberg, 2010; Vail, Rothschild, Weise,
Solomon, Pyszczynski, & Greenberg, 2010) have proposed several theories that would
explain this situational relationship between religion and violence.
Noémie Bouhana and Per-Olof Wikström, in their 2010 article attempted to apply
the Situational Action Theory (SAT), generally relevant to criminal activities, rather than
to acts of terrorism. Their proposition was based on the belief that there was no workable
framework for terrorism and that the SAT iwa well-suited for understanding terrorism,
organizing knowledge about the subject and framing research about this specific kind of
violence (Bouhana & Wikström, 2010).
Through the SAT the authors proposed the notion that moral norms inform an
individual’s perceptions and decisions, and in this case, would contribute to the
explanation for how people perceive terrorist acts (Bouhana & Wikström, 2010). Cultural
considerations such as religion, tradition and customs would also be important factors in
understanding how terrorism might be perceived as a moral action. In arguing the merits
of this organizational tool, the authors also discussed how religious radicalization,
religious fanaticism, and general religiosity contribute to an individual’s moral position
on terrorism and terrorist acts in addition to non-religious considerations such as
education, employment and criminal history.
Kippenberg (2010) in his article about the Thomas-Theorem discussed the
relationship between religion, particularly the monotheistic religions, and violence
advocating that the relationship was not objective and consistent, but subjective according
to the person or people involved and dependent on the specific situation. The author also
discussed the actions and behaviors of religious groups that some would have considered
cults or terrorist organizations and argued that dismissing their behaviors as not genuinely
religious may be a mistake. Kippenberg (2010) instead endorsed a position that
examining the actions in context may produce more positive consequences.
The author compared the law enforcement responses to the Branch Davidians at
Waco, the Peoples Temple at Jonestown, and the Freemen of Montana arguing that when
religious groups were dismissed as terrorists, cults or fundamentalists and little or no
effort was given to understanding the group’s concerns, the results were disastrous.
Kippenberg (2010) suggested that when officials worked to contextualize the behaviors
of the religious groups, it would be possible to reach mutually agreeable resolutions.
The Terror Management Theory (TMT) as described by Vail, et al., (2010) is a
theory that attempted to explain how religion alleviates the fear caused by the human
awareness of death. The authors argued that the anxiety caused by the fear of death and
the unknown after life ends was mitigated by religion which served to offer not only an
afterlife, but a means to achieve or earn that afterlife. Assuming that the TMT was valid,
an individual’s anxiety about death may influence his or her religiosity.
This level of religious devotion, may also in turn have affected how an individual
perceived violence as a valid response to potential threats. Research has been recently
conducted suggesting that “attendance at religious services…is strongly related to violent
defense of one’s worldview” (Vail et al., 2010). This research also indicated that an
individual’s anxiety about death was reduced when a member of another religion dies,
suggesting that the threat posed by adherents of other faiths can be reduced by violence
against members of that group (Vail et al., 2010).
In their 2011 article explaining the results of their research with Indonesian
Muslims, Sukma et al. discussed the results of their research in which they queried
Muslim Indonesians about their attitudes on internal and international acts of terrorism.
The results indicated that most Muslim Indonesians would be considered moderately
religious and would not support the terrorism as a form of jihad. Additionally, the
research indicated that a majority of those queried also rejected the notion that those who
perished while conducting terrorist acts are martyrs (Sukma et al., 2011).
In determining their level of religiosity, the respondents were questioned about
their tolerance for believers of other faiths. While most surveyed indicated that they
would not object to living with adherents of other religions or allowing non-Muslims to
teach in public schools, most of the respondents rejected the notion of having another
religious group build a religious facility in their neighborhood (Sukma et al., 2011).
Although this survey did not provide information on what would provoke a violent
response, it did provide a single reference point for understanding what would be
acceptable, or conversely a threat to this Muslim audience.
This survey also provided valuable information about sources of information that
the respondents found to be credible. The article reports that “most of the respondents
believed the news reported in the national and international mass media” (Sukma et al.,
2011, p. 33) and about half surveyed felt the national printed media was responsible in
reporting the news. Although this survey discussed how the national and international
media were perceived it does not include sources that communicated verbally and more
intimately among the population.
Postet al., (2009) discussed several commonalities found among suicide terrorists,
focusing on the terrorism associated with militant Islam. The authors attempted to explain
why suicide terrorism is often condoned and in some cases encouraged by religious
leaders and provided reasons that Islam is especially suitable to facilitating suicide
terrorists.
Despite the many prohibitions in the Qur’an and other holy texts against suicide
terrorism, it was still in certain situations considered to be an acceptable behavior.
Specifically, for Muslims, jihad, which is translated to mean struggle or strife, was also
understood to command the devout to “take up the sword against those who take up the
sword against Muslims” (Post et al., 2009, p. 16).
The idea of a defensive jihad involved “taking up the sword” or committing
violence in defense of those who threaten Muslims (Post et al., 2009). This notion of
perceiving a threat which would justify violence, may also be explained through the COR
Theory. In acknowledging the potential of a threat to Muslims, it may have been a
rational interpretation of jihad and a reasonable response in this situation to take up arms
and commit violent acts, including suicide terrorism.
Wolfgang Huber in his 2011 article discussed the relationship between religion
and violence by examining three different propositions on the subject. Specifically, Huber
(2011) examined the monotheistic religions as they existed in South Africa and discussed
whether religion leads to violence, whether religion leads to non-violence or whether the
relationship between religion and violence are contingent. Ultimately the author
concluded that the most convincing characterization of the relationship would be
contingent.
The author’s examination of how religion may lead to violence revealed factors
that can influence an individual’s perceptions of violence. For example, Huber (2011)
argued that the exclusivity of monotheistic religions affects a person’s attitude on
violence. Particularly notable among fundamentalists groups, religion facilitates a truth
that is often lost in the complicated and blended world which results from globalization.
Influence of religion on severity of violent actions. In addition to conducting
critical examinations of select religious texts to determine if the religious influence leads
to peace or violence, scholars such as Henne (2012), Fettweis (2009) and Reader (2012)
have also examined the impact religion has on whether the members of an organization
would be willing to engage in violence in support of their cause. Results of these studies
indicated that for a variety of reasons increased religiosity or even a stated religious goal
produced a more violent conflict (Shaw, Quezada, & Zárate, 2011; Vail et al., 2010).
Peter Henne’s 2012 article explained the results of a quantitative study in which
the researcher examines the influence religion has on attacks conducted by suicide
terrorists. In his conclusions, the author suggested that religiously-motivated
organizations conducted attacks that were more severe than those organizations that did
not include religion as a motivation (Henne, 2012).
Given the conclusion that these religiously-driven organizations conducted more
lethal attacks, implications can be made about the perceptions toward violence within
these organizations. The question remains, though, as to how these acts were perceived
by those outside of the organization. Additionally, it was unclear how including religion
facilitated more severe attacks. The two questions in this case that should have been
raised included one that compared the level of violence conducted to the level of violence
accepted and one that identifies why different levels of violence are accepted by
adherents.
Christopher Fettweis, in his 2009 research, offered a historical view of the terrorist
group Al-Qaeda and suggested that terrorists could be categorized into two distinct
groups, nationalist and ideological terrorists. He argued the goals or objectives of a
terrorist organization would dictate the choice of target, employment means and strategies
(Fettweis, 2009). A terrorist with nationalistic goals, for example, who strived to gain
independence or autonomy from an existing government, used limited strategies whereas
an ideologically-driven organization leaned toward more brutal strategies that were often
seen as irrational (Fettweis, 2009).
Fettweis (2009) also argued that while an ideological terrorist organization could
be religiously-based, the people involved might have a wide range of motivations. In
examining Al-Qaeda and other religiously-based terrorist groups, he explained that these
types of organizations are not unknown in history and the religiously-based terrorist
organizations of today are simply reincarnations of terrorist organizations that have
existed for centuries.
Although the article did not explain how religion was used to justify or condone
violence it did explain why a religiously-motivated organization would employ more
extreme measures than a nationalistic terrorist organization.
Ian Reader in his 2012 article examined the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo and the
1995 sarin gas attack of the Tokyo subway. Reader (2012) attempted to explain why this
organization would conduct such a lethal assault on innocent victims and compared this
attack to the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center in September of 2001. This
article discussed how Aum Shinrikyo, as a religiously-grounded organization, would feel
less constrained by conventional moral standards as they “claim spiritual and moral
imperatives to destroy existing society” (p. 192). The claim of guidance or a directive
from a higher authority to conduct the violence was another commonality that many
violent religious organizations share.
Moira Shaw, Stephanie Quezada, and Michael Zárate, in their 2011 article
discussed the results of their quantitative research in which the relationship between
religion and support for violent warfare was examined through the lens of moral
certainty. The results of this research suggested that religion could be used to achieve
greater moral certainty which led to an increased support for violent warfare.
This research initially identified a positive relationship between religiosity and
moral certainly, specifically, when religiosity increased, so did moral certainty (Shaw et
al., 2011). Additionally, the researchers determined that greater moral certainty, when
associated with religion, as opposed to another reason, (e.g. a geopolitical purpose) led to
increased support for violent warfare. Understanding how moral certainty affects a
religious adherent’s perception of violence could be critical to understanding how
religion influenced those attitudes and perceptions. Additionally, the credibility of an
information source could affect how well the information was accepted by the adherent
and had the potential to influence the level of an individual’s moral certainty.
In Lucien van Liere’s article about the influence of religion in India, the author
examined violent conflicts in Indonesia between Christians and Muslims. Ultimately, he
suggested that “religions are not the primal cause of conflict but are fueling up existing
ethnic or separatist conflicts” (van Liere, 2009, pp. 246-247). He also discussed how
religion is used by each of the groups to vilify and dehumanize the other, magnifying the
intensity of the conflicts in that nation.
In the article the author discussed three elements that contribute to the conduct of
violence in Indonesian conflicts: the hot place, the cycle of vengeance, and
dehumanization. Religion is potentially involved in two of the three elements described,
specifically the hot place and dehumanization. The hot place, which included the notion
of a hot date was similar in concept to the sacred time described by Ron Hassner in which
a specific location (or date) was selected for its importance to or feelings it invoked from
an audience and dehumanization was often a result of an in-group/out-group aspect to
many religious beliefs (van Liere, 2009). These elements of violence as noted in this
article, which were intended to explain the actions of the aggressor were similar to factors
identified as having influence on a religious audience’s perception of violence.
In van Liere’s 2011 article, he discussed how a series of riots between 1999 and
2001 on the Indonesian Island of Maluku, started out as a conflict based in economic,
political and social reasons then was subsequently framed in religious terms, changing the
nature of the conflict by increasing the violence and lethality of the struggle.
Van Liere (2011) suggested that using religion to frame the conflict helped people
to empathize with the struggle. “As a result, traditional theological language was used to
indicate the victimhood of the in-group and to legitimate violence toward the out-group”
(van Liere, 2011, p. 323). The religious framing of the riots, even though it was not the
original basis of the conflict gave people a familiar context to identify with and it also
fueled the need to inflict violence on the out-group.
Political and social causes of violence in current research. “Religious violence”
or violence conducted in the name of religion is often a justification or a means to
legitimize violence conducted for reasons other than ideology (Basedau et al., 2011;
Mani, 2012; Sheikh, 2012). Frequently, violence is conducted in the name of religion to
promote nationalism (Sen & Wagner, 2009) or legitimize state violence (Lusthaus, 2011;
Moten, 2010). Another common reason for conducting “religious violence” is to end a
perceived social injustice (Gates & Steane, 2009) or to correct a disparity in resources
(Chirot, 2011). By framing the conflict in religious terms, not only can the conflict can be
easily understood but it provides a sustainable motivation for people to support the cause
(Lusthaus, 2011).
Religion as a justification or rationalization for the conduct of violence. In his
2010 article Hüseyin Cinoğlu argued that terrorist organizations have used religion,
particularly Islam, to justify their violent acts. The author theorized that there are four
basic ways that religion is used to guide the actions of terrorist organizations: to
legitimize violence, to alleviate negative consequences of alienation, to absolve the group
from acquiring widespread approval, and to assist in the identification in potential targets
for attack (Cinoğlu, 2010).
The author did not propose that the primary objective of the terrorist organization
was to truly protect religion or in this case, Islam, but he suggested that religion is merely
exploited for the group’s purposes. Cinoğlu (2010) also posited that although the
interpretation of Islam used by terrorist organizations is significantly different from the
one used by mainstream Muslims, many of these terrorist groups had considerable
support from moderate Muslims. This article discussed how religion is used by
organizations to legitimize violence in the minds of other adherents, whether they be
supporters, followers, or adversaries.
In his 2009 article, Bekir Çinar examined terrorism today, through the lens of
historical, political, social, economic, ideological, and religious motivations but
ultimately identifies terrorism as a result of an injustice or injustices in a state’s political
system. While these other factors may influence or affect an organization’s method of
addressing their grievances, Çinar (2009) concluded that the core reasons for conducting
terrorism are political injustices.
Çinar (2009) also suggested that “religion per se is not a direct cause of terrorism,
but people can find justification for terrorism in religion” (p. 111). The author argued
that religion can be used to frame the struggle in a way that an audience can understand it
in order to garner support, but is not the basis for the action (Çinar, 2009). The author
also suggested that religion can make violent acts palatable to a religious audience, but he
neglected to explain specifically why this occurred. Although this article acknowledged
the feasibility of using religion to justify violent acts, it did not provide specific factors,
or reasons why a religious audience would accept violence.
Mona Sheikh, in her 2012 article about the use of religious justifications by the
Pakistani Taliban agreed in concept with Cinoğlu (2010) and Çinar (2009). Between 2007
and 2011, the author examined a variety of Taliban communications focusing on the
religious justifications for the violence conducted by this group. One conclusion that
Seikh drew from this research was that the Taliban’s use of religion to justify their
actions would “pave the way for extraordinary action, i.e. violence, suspending the
possibility of negotiation and dialogue” (Sheikh, 2012, p. 439).
Sheikh (2012) also suggested that religion, in this case Islam, was used to frame
the narrative that was conveyed through the Taliban’s communications. In many of the
materials examined the author noted that Islam was portrayed as being threatened,
specifically through threats to mosques and seminaries and through threats to sharia law
(Sheikh, 2012). This notion also aligns with Hobföll’s COR theory in which violence is
justified when critical resources are threatened.
In an explanation of the theory of the four waves of terrorism, Leonard Weinberg
and William Eubank argued that the world is presently in the fourth wave of terrorism,
having endured three other waves of terrorism, starting almost a 100 years ago. The
previous three waves of terrorism involved political aims (anarchy, national liberation,
and national self-assertion) and the fourth is defined as one in which religious radicalism
frames the resistance movements (Weinberg & Eubank, 2010).
Weinberg and Eubank (2010) explained that nationalism was the commonality
across all four waves and that religious radicalism was only an aspect of this last period.
They also suggested that the religious violence was not limited to a specific religion but
has been committed by Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu adherents as well as members of cults
like the Aum Shinriyko and Heaven’s Gate.
This article suggested that this inclusion of religious justifications for violent
behavior was an element of this wave of terrorism and would in time end, like the other
waves. This also supposed that the perceptions of and attitudes of adherents toward
violence were limited to this wave and would also change. Understanding how this wave
came to pass and what would ultimately influence it to end may help researchers and
scholars to better understand why people have perceived violence as they do.
“Religious violence” conducted for social or political reasons. According to
Matenia Sirseloudi in her article about violent radicalism among the Turkish Diaspora in
Germany, there were three main factors that influenced this population’s vulnerability to
religious radicalism. These three primary drivers of radicalism included the religious
movement in Turkey, the role religion played to the immigrant community, and the
occurrence of a personal crisis. Additionally, an individual’s status as a first or
secondgeneration immigrant could significantly influence whether members of this
community would be vulnerable to the draw of religious radicalism (Sirseloudi, 2012).
Sirseloudi (2012) noted that one of the ways Islamist activism manifested itself
was through Jihadi Islamism, or armed jihad. She posited that this type of activism was
based on a notion that Islam was threatened and violence must be used to defend Islam
against its enemies. These enemies could be “corrupt” regimes, such as Egypt or Saudi
Arabia or global enemies like Israel and the United States.
This rationale for defensive violence was rooted in religion and in many ways,
could be explained through the COR Theory. The perceived threat is to the ummah or the
global community of Muslims and as a result would provoke a violent response to defend
the community from the enemies that would try to destroy them.
In Moten’s 2009 article about the ways different states perceive terrorism, the
author examined the concept of terrorism, comparing the way in which many western
nations define the idea with the way many Muslims see terrorism in the world today. The
author also suggested that what western nations call religious violence is a reasonable
response by Muslim populations to U.S. and U.K.-led aggression into Muslim lands
(Moten, 2010).
To illustrate this point, Moten (2010) suggested that the U.S./U.K. activities in the
Middle East are less about weapons of mass destruction or Middle East security and more
about the attempts of western nations to remove Islamic governments and install those
that would “acquiesce to U.S. dominance of Middle Eastern and international affairs” (p.
52). The article also suggested that the Muslim response to these attempts at
marginalizing or replacing Islamic governments would be considered terrorism, due to
the impracticality of waging a conventional war against the world’s only remaining
superpower.
Moten (2010) also discussed the humiliation and resentment that many Muslims
felt over the American actions in Iraq, the U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia, and other
atrocities either conducted by or backed by the United States. This psychological loss
may have been for many, sufficient to evoke a violent response, such as terrorist acts
against those forces occupying traditionally Muslim lands.
Jeffrey Haynes, in his 2009 article discussed the influence of transnational
religious organizations on the international order. In this article the author focused
specifically on two transnational religious groups: the American Evangelical Protestants
and al-Qaeda and he discussed how they have conceptually and empirically influenced
the international order through their roles in international relations (Haynes, 2009).
This article included a discussion on not only how these organizations affected
international relations and international order but also it contained a possible explanation
for how religious organizations perceived international order. In particular, the article
explained how a U.S.-led international order may be an unacceptable solution to some
Muslims (Haynes, 2009). In this article Haynes also examined how Wahhabism and the
philosophies of Sayyid Qutb led to the 1998 fatwa, which declared jihad against
Americans and Jews and authorized the killing of members of these two groups (Haynes,
2009).
Haynes (2009) examined statements made by captured al-Qaeda operatives as
well as intercepted communiqués from an African al-Qaeda affiliate that articulated their
concerns about the Muslim lands that America had occupied, the wealth that Americans
had stolen and the humiliation Muslims had endured due to American actions. This
article, through these perceived losses, examined some of the reasons and justifications
for the al-Qaeda terrorist activities in Africa.
In Cavanaugh’s 2011 article the War on Terror is examined and ultimately the
author suggested that this conflict was less of a war between secularism and religion and
more of a conflict between two different ideas of a state social order. After the 2001
attacks, many Americans considered this terrorist act to be an example of religious
violence conducted between an extremist religious organization (al-Qaeda) and a secular
nation (the USA). Cavanaugh expressed his disagreement with this position.
The author argued that despite American claims that religion and church are
separate entities from the state functions, the identity of the nation was more deeply
entrenched in religion than the citizens of our nation acknowledged (Cavanaugh, 2011).
Cavanaugh (2011) cited the comments of then-President George Bush as he linked piety
with 9/11 and President Obama’s references to “God”, “hallowed ground” and those who
were “sacrificed” in the attacks on September 11.
Cavanaugh (2011) also referenced a 2001 New York Times Magazine article in
which the author, Andrew Sullivan proposed that monotheism contributed to terrorist
acts, but Cavanaugh rebutted this idea with the notion that the real enemy of Islamic
fundamentalism is secular fundamentalism. Secular fundamentalism, posited Cavanaugh,
segregated religion from politics and could be perceived by Muslims to have
marginalized Islam, thus creating the conflict.
In Daniel Chirot’s 2011 article, the author examined the background and rationale
for religious violence through the books of several noted authors in the field, specifically,
Mark Juergensmeyer, Eli Berman, Roxanne Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman.
Chirot (2011) discussed Juergensmeyer’s contention that a secular, modern state could
give rise to an extremist element and Berman’s argument that the impetus for
religiouslybased terrorism was economically driven. He also recommended Euben and
Zaman’s publication to those who would be interested in learning about Islamist
extremism (Chirot, 2011).
In examining these three books, Chirot (2011) discussed several theories to
explain why religious violence occurred, including a threat of material or psychological
loss (such as land, identity or honor), divine command, and as a response to a threat to
their religion. Chirot (2011) examined several potential reasons for religious violence yet
eliminated none.
This article discussed several different ways that a threat or a perceived threat to
an individual’s resources could potentially facilitate a violence response from a religious
audience (Chirot, 2011). These behaviors, exhibited by members of various religions
across the world could be examined and possibly explained through the COR theory of
stress.
Tim Krieger and Daniel Meierrieks, in their 2011 article discussed causes of
terrorism, specifically focusing seven different factors of transnational terrorism:
economic deprivation, socioeconomic and demographic strain, political and institutional
order, political transformation and instability, identity and cultural clash, global economic
and political order, and contagion. The authors examined the origins of transnational
terrorism as well as the targets of transnational terrorism in their pursuit to identify
relevant factors that contributed to transnational terrorism (Krieger & Meierrieks, 2011).
The discussions of economic deprivation as well as the examination of
socioeconomic and demographic strain and identity and cultural clash were all potentially
relevant to the research that was conducted. These factors could be studied using the
COR Theory with material resources as well as psychological resources being threatened
to provoke a violent response. For example, Krieger and Meierrieks (2011) discussed
several different studies that have considered the effects of poverty and few opportunities
for advancement reaching no consensus, as the results appeared to conflict with each
other.
Poverty, inequality, education and fewer opportunities were some of the factors
that the authors (2011) suggested may have influenced the growth and existence of
terrorist activity, which contributed to understanding how threatened resources affected a
person’s perception of violence.
Donald Gates and Peter Steane, in their 2009 article introduced the concept of a
political religion, in which a religious ideology was linked with a political cause, often
resulting in violence or combat to achieve the goals of that cause. The authors also
associated political religion with fundamentalism and terrorism in recent events such as
the Mumbai, London, Bali, and Madrid bombings (Gates & Steane, 2009).
The authors reiterated the common theme that religious violence was inherently
linked to political objectives and that the resultant violence often stemmed from secular
or political goals (Gates & Steane, 2009). The article touched on many different religions
but focused on Islamic fundamentalism and described this group of Muslims as “a more
extreme and recent manifestation of politicized religion” (Gates & Steane, 2009, p. 315).
Gates & Steane also proposed that terrorism can also be considered a type of
spirituality in which violence is the righteous response to an evil enemy. The researchers
(2009) argued that political religion links spirituality with social inequalities which, when
combined create an environment that easily facilitates violence.
In the 2010 article by Christopher Joll, the author discussed the religious influence
on violence occurring between Buddhists and Muslims living in southern Thailand. The
author argued that any conversation about religious conflict in southern Thailand must
also include a discussion about unemployment, politics, education and the local economy
(Joll, 2010) as all of these factors influence religious violence in the area. The author also
discussed issues raised by COR theorists when he claimed that
Muslim resistance in Thailand came about as a result of Thai government interference in
Islamic matters (Joll, 2010). In protecting their religious culture, the Muslims began a
reform movement which attempted to 1) regain control of Islamic institutions from the
Thai government and to 2) strengthen these weakened and fragmented institutions (Joll,
2010). The author also suggested that religious violence was often a result of a complex
political environment that raised questions of legitimacy for both the Thai government
and many of the Islamic institutions.
In this article the author discussed theories suggesting that Islam was central to the
violence found in southern Thailand as well as ideas that Islam had no role in the violence
but in the end, he summarily rejected both extremes (Joll, 2010). The conclusion that Joll
reached was that religion’s role was to frame or justify the conflict and it was not a
primary driver for the violence.
In the 2011 article Jaco Beyers examined the role religion plays in a society where
conflict is present between influential groups. Religion, explained Beyers, can be the
cause of conflict between the authorities of a civil society and its citizens, particularly
when religious leaders compete for power with the civil authorities. Additionally, religion
can be the cause of conflict between different elements of a society, as they struggle for
influence within a population.
Although the author focused on conflict rather than violence, many of the reasons
identified as causes of conflict are the same ones identified by other authors as reasons
for violence. For example, Beyer (2011) suggested that competition for authority and
control amongst religions can lead to conflict, as can “limited resources available to
society and religions” (p. 6).
In this article Beyers (2010) suggested that the struggle for adherents and
authority could have acted as a catalyst to incite conflict or potentially violence in a
society. The conflict between religion and civil society or between the different elements
of a society could have caused a religious group to perceive a threat, whether that threat
was real or not. This conflict in turn may have caused such a threat that an adherent
would have felt that violence was justified to protect their resources. Beyers explained
how religion can be used in shaping perceptions and he also addressed how people
responded to the threat of violence.
In the 2013 article by Nil Satana, Molly Inman, and Johanna Birnir the authors
proposed that the exclusion from governmental activities of ethnic minorities who have
different religious beliefs than the majority population will invite the use of terrorist
tactics. Religious differences alone, the authors noted, do not normally facilitate the use
of these extreme tactics, but when combined with exclusion of an ethnic and religious
minority from the government, violent activities are often the result (Satana, Inman, &
Birnir, 2013).
In this quantitative study the authors combined the two factors of ethnicity and
religion, so conclusively identifying the impact of religion, alone on the propensity
toward violence would be difficult to do. Of note is the fact that political exclusion of the
ethnic/religious minority was associated with terrorist activities which supports the COR
theory but did not sufficiently explain whether or not religion contributed to the
acceptance of violence over other factors such as ethnicity.
This research did not explicitly speak to a perceived loss of resources, but it
suggested that a perceived relative deprivation or a denial of resources could also incite a
religious adherent to violence. This situation expanded the scope of the COR Theory to
considering adherents who experienced stress because they felt that their resources did
not equal those of the majority, instead of only including adherents who experienced
stress because of a change in resources, specifically a loss.
Effects of religious and political motivations combined. Malka and Soto (2011)
analyzed the results of a quantitative study in which the attitudes of religious Americans
toward torture of suspected terrorists were examined. The intent of the research was to
better understand the relationship between religiosity, political alignment, political
discourse and attitudes on torture. The results indicated that overall, religious Americans
did not support torture of suspected terrorists and that high religiosity was not a
significant factor in determining if a person would or would not support torture of
terrorism suspects.
In this study the researchers focused on a specific situation in which violence
would be directed toward a suspected terrorist, which informs my research by providing a
possible condition that would prompt religious adherents to find violence unacceptable.
The results of this research suggested that high religiosity when combined with a
conservative political alignment increased the individual’s willingness to accept torture
(Malka & Soto, 2011). In this situation, political alignment was identified as a potential
factor in understanding when an adherent accepts violence.
Mark Juergensmeyer (2010) discussed the conflict between religious traditions
and secular nationalism as nation-states strive to identify the basis for the authority of
their political system. The author suggested that both religious and secular national
constructs provided the nation-state with order, coherence, and meaning and offered the
leadership a clearly understandable authority to rule (Juergensmeyer, 2010).
When faith was used as the foundation for a political system, it was often unclear
whether religion was truly the reason a state conducted violence (e.g. God’s will or to
protect the religion) or if religion was being used as a justification to commit violence
and the ultimate goal was not religious (e.g. power, money, resources). Although
intertwining religion and politics has been at the very least, cumbersome for many world
leaders the notion of religious nationalism had the potential to serve both peaceful and
violent ends for a religious constituency. For a religious audience, political goals could
serve as a reason or rationale for the commission of violence, which speaks to both the
central question in this research, discussing the role religion plays in the justification of
violence.
Faisal Devji, in his 2009 article offered a unique perspective and insight on the
rationale behind Islamic martyrdom. Devji (2009) suggested that humanitarianism drives
the militant actions of al-Qaeda as the nations of the world search for order in today’s
global society. The author cited the communications of al-Qaeda who “routinely
invoke(s) the plight of suffering Muslims in exactly the same way that humanitarians do
of victims in general” (Devji, 2009, p. 175) to support his position.
He also quoted speeches of al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman
alZawahiri in which they encouraged Muslims to stand against Western aggression as did
Muhammad the Prophet and his family (Devji, 2009). The al-Qaeda leaders, or militants,
as they are referred to by the author, also describe Muslim martyrdom as a victory blessed
by Allah in which the martyr will receive immortality in the afterlife.
Much of the verbiage of the al-Qaeda leaders spoke to the shame, humiliation, and
degradation inflicted upon the ummah (Muslim community) by the western nations
(Devji, 2009). This perceived psychological loss was frequently and constantly
mentioned as the reason for the violent actions taken against the United States and its
allies.
In a 2012 article about the perceptions of terrorism in a Muslim nation,
Kamarulnizam Abdullah, Rizal Sukma, Ma’ruf Jamhari and Mazilan Musa discussed the
results of a quantitative study in which support for violence and terrorism was examined
amongst a group of Muslims in Malaya. The results indicated that religion and ethnicity
both had a bearing on the level of support for political violence conducted in Malaya
while gender, race, and occupation additionally influenced an individual’s perception of
terrorist acts (Abdullah et al., 2012).
The results of this research also indicated that politically-inclined individuals
would support politically-motivated violence and the more religious individuals would
support religiously-based terrorism (Abdullah, et al., 2012). This research did eliminate
education as a factor to determine support for violence, as the results indicated that the
attitudes toward violence of less educated individuals differed little if any from the
attitudes toward violence from people with more education.
Abdullah et al. (2012) explained that religious individuals would support terrorism
if it was religiously-motivated, like their politically-inclined counterparts would support
politically-motivated violence but offered little connection between the support and the
motivation beyond the aggressiveness or passion of an individual. In this article the
author addressed the role of religion in understanding motivations and perceptions.
In 2013, Ron Hassner published an article explaining the importance of “sacred
time” and discussed how religiously significant dates influenced the conduct of war.
Specifically, Hassner (2013) discussed how these sacred times affected motivation,
vulnerability, constraint, and outrage in combatants and civilians. Of the four potential
consequences of initiating a conflict the potential attacker would weigh motivation and
vulnerability, which are positive effects for the attacker, against the negative effects of
constraint and outrage, to determine the course that would offer the greatest benefit
(Hassner, 2013).
The author also posited that even though many of today’s discussions about
religion and violence address the actions and behaviors of extremists and fundamentalists,
the way moderates interpret sacred times has a greater influence on combat nowadays.
Additionally, he argued that the extremists conducting violence constituted a small
minority of the acts of war and that more discussion should have be directed at
understanding how war conducted during sacred times affected the attitudes of the
moderates.
My research addressed how factors such as sacred time or space, affected the
perceptions of Islamic religious moderates. This article provided examples of how
religion could provide significant meaning in the minds of adherents to a specific date
through the idea of a “sacred time.”
Identity and violence in current research. In examining the relationship
between religion and violence, several theories have been developed linking religion,
identity and the willingness to accept violent actions. Some theories concerned violent
reactions when an individual’s identity is threatened, and others concerned the way
religious adherents behaved toward those not in their group, whether the group was a
socioeconomic, ethnic, or religious collective.
Religion and collective identity. Religion, in a society could serve the purpose of
creating a sense of community and contributing to the development of a collective
identity (Dingley, 2011). If the ideals of that society were threatened, violence may serve
as a means to restore the threatened status (Dingley, 2011; Sen & Wagner, 2009). In this
situation threats to a society’s collective identity could originate from internal or external
sources and so the actions, which served a specific purpose, were not necessarily directed
at any particular individual or organization.
James Dingley in his 2011 article discussed religion from a functionalist
perspective suggesting that religions served the critical purpose of providing order for a
society in addition to affording individuals with a collective identity and a sense of
community. Dingley (2011) additionally suggested that when these ideals were
threatened, religion was often used as the rationale for violent acts to restore the
threatened condition.
The article discussed how perceived threats to the traditional order could often
result in a response that was not constrained by the normally accepted rules of a society
(Dingley, 2011). For example, the establishment of Israel was seen by some as an attack
on the Muslim community and as such, retaliation against Israel would be tantamount to a
holy war. Additionally, “because it is holy, the normal earthly rules can be called off, so
enabling any tactic, such as suicide bombers, and against all targets, civilian or not,
because all are engaged in opposing the attack on Allah” (Dingley, 2011, p. 331).
In the article by Ragini Sen and Wolfgang Wagner about fundamentalism in post-
Ghandi India, the authors discussed how Hinduvta, the ideology that advocated Hindu or
Indian nationalism, has affected the Indian culture. They explained how three of the
major Hindu sacred texts, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana, and the Bhagavad Gita each
included several instances of violence and they discussed how these texts were often used
to rationalize the violent acts of Hindu fundamentalists (Sen & Wagner, 2009).
This research was significant because many articles have been written to discuss
how Islam, Christianity or Judaism influenced violent behaviors and this was one of the
few articles that assessed the causes of religious violence seen in Hindu history and
within Hindu culture. The authors examined how Hinduism has been transformed from a
faith to an ideology by fundamentalists, justifying social or political goals for Indian
society.
Some of the factors that the authors identified as contributing to violence in India
were the erosion of a Hindu or Indian identity and an increasingly secular society. To
some Indians these two situations may have created an environment in which Hindus felt
that their religions or Hindu way of life was threatened and so a viable response was
violent action.
Religion and conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa were examined in a 2011 article in
which elements of religion were discussed as factors that contributed to violent conflict.
The authors argued that religion could be a significant factor influencing armed conflict if
conditions such as religious politicization or tense relationships between different
religions existed (Basedau et al., 2011).
In this article the author discussed specific ways that religion might have
influenced violent behavior such as how religion helped to form an individual’s identity,
how the supernatural or transcendental nature of religion justified extreme acts such as
violence and finally that religious adherents may have interpreted guidance from their
Supreme Being as directing them to conduct violence (Basedau, et al. 2011). This
quantitative research attempted to identify which religious factors are most influential in
facilitating violence, potentially through armed conflict. This article examined religious
factors that influence a society’s decision to engage in armed conflict.
Religion and consequences of in-group/out-group. Another widely held theory
concerning the relationship between religion and identity involves the idea of acceptable
actions in a situation involving an in-group and an out-group. The in-group/out-group
notion suggests that when a conflict arises, members of the in-group would be more
inclined to accept violence to defend their possessions or status against members of the
out-group (Lusthaus, 2011; van Liere, 2011; Trisk, 2011). Unlike the situation involving
the restoration of a status quo, this situation involves the dehumanization or vilification of
a specific group of people, who are perceived as different, or unlike the in-group (Reader,
2012; Schwartz et al., 2009).
Schwartz et al. (2009) discussed the role of cultural, social, and personal identity
in terrorism, specifically religiously and ethnically-motivated terrorism. They argued that
the confluence of a cultural identity that was collective or fundamental in nature, a social
identity that was based on an in-group threatened by an out-group premise, and an
authoritarian personal identity would best facilitate violent terrorist activity.
The authors in this article discussed the importance of a cultural identity that can
be classified as collectivist and was influenced by an absolutist religion. In an absolutist
religion, adherents believed that the only true religion was theirs and all others were false
(Schwartz et al., 2009). This notion of being the only true religion often led to an us
versus them mentality where the believers of different religions were often threatened by
another group’s beliefs and behaviors.
When examining an individual’s social identity, the broad notion of us versus
them became more relevant to an adherent’s daily life and an in-group and an out-group
were formed (Schwartz et al., 2009). It is at the level of an individual’s social identity
where out-group members were dehumanized (e.g. referred to as “infidels” or simply “the
enemy”) and the perceived threat was clearly identified by religious leaders, family
members, and peers. This article not only addressed the in-group/out-group concept, but
it also addressed the role religion played in formulating perceptions through collective
identities.
Janet Trisk (2011) examined the argument that adherents of monotheistic religions
were more prone to acts of violence and discussed the writings of noted scholars Regina
Schwartz, Laurel Schneider and Grace Jantzen on the topic. Trisk (2011) addressed
Schwartz’ references to the violence found in the Hebrew Bible and how scarcity of
resources from land to God’s goodwill drove the actions of the descendants of
Cain. She also noted Jantzen’s observation that the true idea of monotheism lay not in the
fact that there was only one God, but with the idea that God only conferred His goodwill
on one people, His chosen people (Trisk, 2011).
In addition to addressing religious motivations for conducting violence, Trisk
(2011) also argued that monotheism was a critical factor in understanding
religiouslymotivated violence. According to Trisk (2011) monotheistic religions
facilitated an identity for the chosen people, giving rise to the idea that all others were not
chosen and as a result would be considered less than human.
This in-group/out-group notion of good vs bad was an argument that was
commonly heard when discussing the reasons why adherents of monotheistic religions
were more prone to perceiving violence as acceptable. Additionally, scholars discussed
the idea that God protected the oppressed, often with violence, as another reason why
monotheism would facilitate the acceptance of violence (Trisk, 2011).
In the 2009 article by Daphna Canetti-Nisim, Eran Halperin, Keren Sharvit, and
Stevan Hobföll, the authors reported the results of their quantitative study in which they
examined how psychological stress produces exclusionist political attitudes. The results
indicated that exposure to psychological stress, (caused by exposure to or experiencing
terrorist acts) led to a feeling of a perceived threat which in turn led to exclusionist
attitudes toward the minority population (Canetti-Nisim et al., 2009). The study was
conducted with 469 Israeli Jews and it measured their attitudes toward the minority
population of Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCI).
The notion of a perceived threat was one of the principal elements of the COR
theory. The perceived threat posed by the PCIs was directly linked to the negative
feelings and exclusionist attitudes experienced by the Jewish Israelis (Canetti-Nisim, et
al., 2009). This exclusionist attitude could also be linked to dehumanization and
ultimately the commission of violence against this group.
In this situation exposure to stress (terrorist acts) did not directly cause the
religious audience (Jewish Israelis) to develop exclusionist attitudes toward the PCIs, but
when mediated by psychological distress and perceived threat the relationship between
exposure to terrorism and exclusionist attitudes became clearer (Canetti-Nisim, et al.,
2009).
In the 2012 article by Anne Aly and Jason-Leigh Striegher, the authors disputed
the notion that religion is a critical factor in radicalization and argued that individuals
became radicalized through a four-phase process in which religion played a much lesser
role than many would believe. They examined this four-phased model using the
background and experiences of Jack Roche, Australia’s first convicted terrorist.
The authors argued that religion is an element of each of the four phases but is, in
the case of Jack Roche, only one element of a larger set of political and social goals. Aly
& Striegher (2012) theorized that religious factors when combined with social, political,
and economic factors would have considerable influence in the radicalization process but
alone, would not have the same effect on the individual becoming radicalized.
In the examination of Jack Roche’s radicalization Aly & Striegher (2012)
described how religion, specifically Islam, was used in the radicalization process as a
source of identity and “as a vehicle for group bonding, a moral template for constructing
in-group/out-group boundaries” (p. 859). While this examination focused on Islam and
Roche’s involvement with the Jamā’ah Islāmiyyah, elements of this case were potentially
applicable to other religions and other violent organizations.
Rama Mani in her 2012 article examined the role of religion in violent conflict.
Specifically, Mani (2012) discussed the role of religion throughout man’s history and
proposed what its role could be in the future, either as an instigator of violence or a
proponent of peace. The author acknowledged that religion has been used as a motivator
for peace, but it has also been the cause and impetus for violent behaviors between
cultures and societies (Mani, 2012).
Mani (2012) discussed several ways that religious fundamentalism serves as an
effective framework and justification for violence. The author did not focus on a specific
religion but discussed fundamentalism across many different religions and the ways that
it served as a medium to violent behaviors more so than more moderate versions of
religious beliefs. The article touched on several commonly held beliefs such as the view
that religion facilitates an in-group/out-group notion in which the out group is inferior
and could be subjected to actions that one would not commit with those of the same faith.
In the 2011 article by Jonathan Lusthaus about the legitimization of violence by
national governments, the author argued that religion played a significant role in state
violence even if the nation was outwardly secular. Religion, Lusthaus (2011) suggested,
permeated cultures despite the stated religiosity of a national government. Based on this
theory Lusthaus concluded that religion played a role in the conduct of and legitimation
of state violence.
There was a common theme throughout this article that examined narratives and
holy texts of the three monotheistic religions in that religion facilitated violence by
creating an in-group that is worthy of God’s goodness and an out-group that did not
follow the true word of God (Lusthaus, 2011). The author discussed how religion and
religious rhetoric affected the actions of the United States, Iran, and Israel, where the
governments claimed various levels of secularization.
The antagonistic positions that the governments of these three nations took were
often facilitated by religion, whether the basis was an interpretation of the holy text, the
religious framing of a conflict or position, or the in-group/out-group model produced by
religions (Lusthaus, 2011). In the article, the author argued that while a primary role of
religion is to justify a conflict or attitude, religion also influenced the conduct of
adherents during conflict.
In their 2009 article, the authors Ginges et al. discussed the results of their
quantitative research, specifically four studies, in which they examined the relationship
between religion and support for suicide attacks. The four studies primarily involved
Palestinian Muslims and Israeli Jews, but they also included Indonesian Muslims, British,
and Mexican Christians, Indian Hindus, and Russian Orthodox (Ginges et al., 2009).
The results of this research suggested that when dehumanization and identification
with the group conducting violence was combined with more frequent attendance at
religious services, support for suicide attacks increased (Ginges et al., 2009). This would
seem to indicate that religious attendance, dehumanization, and identification with
specific groups were all important factors in understanding how adherents perceived
violent acts.
Recognizing that this research focused on perceptions of an extremely violent
behavior, specifically suicide attacks, the results could offer critical information to my
research on what factors affected attitudes and perceptions of violence. Examining
religious attendance and membership in a religious group could be important to
understanding how an adherent perceives violence.
Summary
The main sections of this literature review examined three major themes
describing reasons that an adherent might support or oppose violence. The first major
section of the review includes articles that discussed the nature of the relationship
between religion and violence. While some researchers cited specific passages in holy
texts to support their argument that religion is a primary reason behind an individual’s
support for violence (Boustan et al., 2010; Cliteur, 2010b, Falahi, 2010; Meyer, 2011),
others took a slightly different position, maintaining that religion was intended to be a
rationale for peaceful actions (Van Pelt Campbell, 2011; Walsh, 2012). Religious texts,
these authors claimed, were misused and misinterpreted by those who would commit or
condone violence in the name of their beliefs. Proposing a third position in this spectrum,
scholars like Kippenberg (2010) and Huber (2011) suggested that religion was a generally
neutral concept that was used situationally, for both violence and peace. Also, included in
this section of the review were articles that discussed the way religious influences made
violent actions more severe, especially among religiously-based organizations (Fettweis,
2009; Reader, 2012).
In the second major section of this literature review I examined political and
social causes of what is often referred to as “religious violence”. This portion of the
review included articles in which religion served as a justification to committing violent
acts (Basedau et al., 2011; Mani, 2012; Sheikh, 2012) and in some cases, religion was
even used to rationalize violence conducted by a state when the primary reason for
violence is secular (Lusthaus, 2011). Researchers have also contended that religion could
also serve as a secondary or tertiary reason to justify violence when coupled with a loss or
perceived loss, such as a threat to a nation’s boundaries (Hayes, 2009; Moten, 2010). In
this section of the literature review I attempted to distinguish primary reasons for the
acceptance of violence from secondary or support reasons for the conduct of violent acts.
The third major section of this literature review included articles in which
researchers examined the relationship between identity and religious violence. Several
authors (Gates & Steane, 2009; Schwartz et al., 2009; Sirseloudi, 2012; van Liere, 2011)
suggested that religion was a critical part of a culture such that it facilitated the
formulation of individual and group identities in adherents. Taking this idea a step
further, other authors argued that a group identity led to the creation of in-groups and
outgroups, distinguishing acceptable religious groups from unacceptable religious groups
(Canetti-Nisim et al., 2009; Sen and Wagner, 2009; Stăiculescu and Stan, 2012; van
Liere, 2009). This alienation of those who adhere to other religious beliefs was often the
cause of religious violence as well as a reason for the acceptance of violence conducted
against the out-group.
Accepting that some form of relationship exists between religion and the way
adherents perceive violence, the exact nature of the relationship has not been clearly
articulated in recent literature. Specifically, there has been disagreement on whether
religion is the cause for adherents to accept violence or whether religion is the basis for
adherents to behave peacefully and in a non-violent fashion. Additionally, if a causal
relationship does not exist between religion and violence, then the question arises about
how that relationship should be characterized.
What still needs to be studied is the way that religion is interpreted and
incorporated into an adherent’s understanding of which behaviors and actions are
acceptable and which are not. The importance and credibility of the holy texts should be
studied along with how an adherent resolves conflicts between his or her beliefs and the
social norms of a society. Only by understanding the individual’s reasons and rationale
can we truly begin to understand how these attitudes are formed and how they can
ultimately be changed.
This research, through an in-depth examination of the opinions and views of
Sunni Muslims in Western Michigan, offers insight on the role religion plays in the
formulation and maintenance of perceptions of violence. This research, unlike previous
research, weighed the importance of an individual’s identity against the importance of
other social influences to determine which factors have the greatest impact on an
individual’s perception of violence. This research also examined those situations in which
religion was a primary driver for the way an adherent perceives violence and those
situations where religion served as a secondary justification for the acceptance or
opposition to violent acts.
Additionally, much of the previous research on this topic that used the framework
of the COR theory, was conducted with quantitative research. Through inductive
(qualitative) methods, specifically a case study design, this research may fill an existing
gap by providing a deeper examination of the most relevant factors that affect how an
individual perceives violence.
Chapter 3: Research Method
Introduction
The intent of this case study was to identify and analyze critical factors that
influenced the perceptions of violence of Sunni Muslims in Western Michigan.
Recognizing that culture, in general, and religion, specifically, plays a significant role in
how these perceptions are formed, the role of religion in the formulation and preservation
of perceptions was of critical importance in this study. Further, I investigated how secular
and religious factors interacted to influence the attitudes of the adherents about violent
actions.
In this chapter, I discuss the selected methodology and explain the specific
processes that I used in the study. Specifically, I explain why I selected a case study as
the research design, and then I discuss my role as a researcher, the research setting, and
the sampling strategy. Additionally, I also explain how the data were collected and
analyzed, the procedures that were in place to ensure the participants were appropriately
protected, and finally how the results were presented.
Research Design and Rationale
The central question for this research was: What factors influence how Sunni
Muslims from Western Michigan perceive acts of violence committed against another
person? The three supplementary research questions that support a comprehensive
response to the central questions were: (a) What role does religion play in the perception
of violence by a religious adherent? (b) What sources of information most influence an
individual’s attitude on violence? (e.g. religious texts, formal religious teachings, family,
school news, other sources) (c) How do threats of perceived or actual loss affect how a
religious person perceives violence?
The central phenomena I explored in this study were the beliefs and perceptions of
Sunni Muslims living in Western Michigan. Specifically, I examined how this group of
religious adherents perceives violence and whether they understand it to be acceptable or
unacceptable in certain situations. The factors I examined included not only religious
influences, but also secular influences on religious individuals. In addition to examining
the individual factors that influenced perceptions, I also attempted to identify and better
understand the relationships and associations between these factors to appreciate how
these interactions affected individual perception.
When determining whether to conduct this research using quantitative or
qualitative research methods, I took several factors into consideration. First, I considered
that the intent of the research was not to prove or disprove an existing hypothesis, but to
explore, from the perspective of the participants, the potential factors that may have an
influence on how religious adherents form perceptions. The decision to pursue the
research using a qualitative method was made to identify a wider range of potential
factors or variables that might have influence on an individual’s perceptions.
Several of the previous studies that used the COR theory to examine the
relationship between religion and violence were conducted using a quantitative approach,
but those studies focused more on refuting or validating an existing hypothesis. Because I
explored different factors that influence perception, I determined that an inductive
approach was more appropriate.
Once I identified the approach, I considered several different qualitative designs.
The first option was to conduct the research using ethnography, but this design was
rejected because the intent was not to understand the entire culture of a population, but to
better understand a single aspect of a culture, specifically how individuals in that society
perceive violence. I considered other qualitative designs and eliminated them because
they also were less appropriate to achieve the goals of this research. For example, I
considered but excluded phenomenology because the study was not intended to describe a
specific experience but to understand how life experiences and influences are interpreted
and translated into attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs. I also considered grounded theory,
but determined that is was not the most effective design to address the complexities an
individual’s perceptions. So, it, too, was eliminated as an option.
I selected a case study design because it allows for an in-depth examination of a
specific group of participants, limited to a specific time and location (Creswell, 2012).
Additionally, a case study is well-suited to exploring a population to better understand not
only what influences a culture, but also to understand how and why those factors have the
influence they do. Because I could examine a breadth of factors including religious,
economic, political, and other social influences on an adherent’s perceptions of violence,
I determined that a case study would provide necessary and critical limits for the
research.
Role of the Researcher
The qualitative researcher’s role includes several different tasks. In traditional
qualitative research, the researcher can serve as a complete observer, a complete
participant, a participant as an observer, or a nonparticipant/observer as a participant
(Creswell, 2012). For this study, I openly collected data but was not directly involved
with the activities. Thus, I was a nonparticipant observer.
In qualitative studies, the researcher also serves as the collection instrument, so
the opportunity for researcher bias to affect the results is greater than with a quantitative
study. Fink (2000) described seven distinct functions that the qualitative researcher
performs, from determining what will be studied and how it will be studied, to reporting
the results of the research after it is complete. Because this case study involved
understanding and interpreting an individual’s perceptions, those stages where researcher
bias could most affect the results were carefully planned and conducted. Specifically, my
role in the designing, interviewing, and analyzing steps was critical to minimizing bias in
this study.
In the designing stage, the selection of the population and development of the
interview questions were important to reducing the likelihood of bias because of my
experiences. I was responsible for drafting the interview questions and demographic
questionnaire. Additionally, I administered the interview questionnaire after having it
peer reviewed by another PhD candidate.
In this study, I alone collected and analyzed the data to reduce variation in the
interpretation. I was also responsible for transcribing the contents of the conversations
and to transferring the data (both transcribed and audio files) into the program I used to
store the data. I was also solely responsible for conducting the analysis on the gathered
information. The analysis was conducted in two stages, with the first stage of coding
performed to identify patterns from the words used by the participants and the second
stage of the coding performed to identify conceptual similarities, which require
interpretation on my part. Lastly, I was responsible for ensuring that the data were
properly secured to protect the privacy of the participants.
Personal and Professional Relationships
The participants who contributed to this research had no professional relationship
with me. Any potential participant who was at the time in any kind of senior-subordinate
or instructor-student relationship with me would have been eliminated from the study. In
terms of personal relationships, there was the potential for a participant in this study to be
my associate, colleague, or acquaintance. In order to participate in the research, though,
the relationship between the participant and me could not be one where one person had
influence over the other, and any such relationship would have to be clearly identified
prior to collecting data.
Managing Bias
Like much of the research conducted using qualitative methods, there were several
opportunities for the introduction of bias to this study. One place in the process where my
bias may have entered the study was during the drafting of the interview questions. In
order to reduce bias when wording the questions, I had an objective, nonparticipating
colleague review the draft prior to finalizing the questionnaire.
Another place where my bias could have been introduced into the study was in the
data analysis stage where the results of the interviews were coded and interpreted for
meaning. Again, I used an unbiased peer to ensure the data were interpreted consistently
and according to the intentions of the participants.
Ethical Issues
This research complies with the three ethical principles of beneficence, justice,
and respect for persons, as outlined in the Walden Institutional Review Board (IRB)
application (2010). As such, I appropriately addressed any ethical issues prior to data
collection. Because of the sampling strategy, some issues commonly faced by researchers
were not relevant in this study. For example, as previously mentioned, if a potential
participant had a professional relationship with me, they would not have been allowed to
participate, thereby minimizing the risk of perceived coercion to participate.
Additionally, the participants could select the location of the interviews. This minimized
the risk of an unwanted intrusion of privacy. Lastly because there were no physical
requirements in this research, the risk to the participants’ health was also minimal.
The greatest ethical concerns in this research involved the privacy of the
participants and the security of the data collected. As discussed in Chapter 1, I allowed
the participants to provide input into the selection of the location for the interviews to
minimize or reduce undue psychological stress and to facilitate the collection of honest
and frank information.
In order to reduce the possibility of an unintended disclosure of confidential
information, I took several measures to secure the collected data. The digital data were
secured on a laptop that is protected with a password, and I kept a backup copy of the
data on an external hard drive that was physically secured in a safe. Any hard copies of
the data collected during this research were also stored in the locked container.
In the original data collection plan, all of the interviews were to have been
conducted in a public facility like a library or a religious facility such as a church,
mosque, or temple. The interviews were to occur in a location where the content of the
conversation could not be overheard by others, such as a private room in a library or an
isolated space in a religious facility. The ideal location would also allow the participants
to be comfortable and to feel secure in providing their honest input. The location would
provide the participants and me privacy and should allow me to conduct the interviews
without distraction or interruption.
The theory behind the requirements of the location was that the more secure the
participant felt, the greater the probability of gathering honest and open input. The
sensitivity of the topic was also an important concern because some people may have
been hesitant to offer frank input. These procedures should have increased the comfort
and confidence of the participant, thus increasing the credibility of the information. These
procedures also supported the requirements to comply with research ethics.
Methodology
The processes used to collect and analyze the data for this research are defined in
this section. The rationale for the sampling strategy, an explanation of the instrumentation
used in this study as well as data collection and analysis plans are also articulated in this
portion of the chapter. Additionally, issues of trustworthiness and ethical procedures are
discussed as they pertain to this research.
Selection of Participants
The population that was studied in this research included Sunni Muslims living in
the Western Michigan area. Only adults were included in this research and there was no
age limit to participate beyond the minimum age of 18 years. Elderly participants (those
over the age of 65) were not be intentionally recruited, but they were not eliminated if
their age was the only potentially disqualifying factor.
The level of an adherent’s religiosity was an important consideration as the
participants should have been neither self-proclaimed extremists nor atheists. All of the
adherents were moderate in their beliefs, although specific criteria to definitively define
“moderate” were not identified. For this reason, if the participant self-identifies as closer
to moderate than fundamentalist or atheist in the demographic questionnaire or in
discussion, he or she would be considered a viable candidate. There was also no means to
verify the religion, sect, or school of a potential participant, so the way the individual
self-identifies his or her faith was accepted to be accurate.
SES and access to information were also considerations for this research, but
factors such as gender and political affiliation were not important in this study. The intent
was to include participants that represented the average individual for the area. Potential
participants would have been rejected due to a significantly high SES or limited access to
information, but neither gender nor political affiliation, as discriminating factors, was
addressed or identified in this research.
In determining the sample size for this research, several factors were considered.
The first question to be addressed was to identify if the intent was to include many
participants gaining little information from each (breadth) or if the intent was to include
few participants gaining a lot of information from each participant (depth) (Patton, 2002).
Because the intent of the research was to better understand many factors and how they
interacted, the most appropriate approach would be to examine this topic in depth,
indicating a smaller sample to be used in this study.
Another consideration in determining the sample size for this research was to
identify the point where adding more participants would yield little new information, or
achieving the point of redundancy. While it is generally understood that there are no
standard rules and no fixed number of samples that is appropriate for any approach or
study (Patton, 2002), there are guidelines that can help a researcher to achieve the point
of saturation, which would help to determine a reasonable starting point.
The last considerations for determining the sample size were the approach and the
data collection method used in the research. For this study, a case study approach was
taken so potentially one person could be a reasonable sample size for this study. The
number of samples for this research could have also extended as high as 2500, which is
the number of self-identified Muslims in Western Michigan, specifically Kalamazoo and
Calhoun Counties (Association of Religion, 2010). A more practical and realistic sample
size would be based on the data collection method, interviewing key informants, which
would dictate a sample size of five people (Nastasi, n.d.). For this research, the plan was
to interview five to ten participants, understanding that if each interview revealed
significantly new information, more participants may have been necessary to reach the
point of saturation.
As previously mentioned, saturation or redundancy is achieved when no new
information is gained by interviewing additional participants. The standard of achieving
saturation is an ideal that provides researchers with a rationale to determine an
appropriate sample size, but it may not be practical when considering environments in
which there are limited resources (Patton, 2002).
Because of the sensitivity of the topic, a constraint for this research was the
willingness of potential participants to discuss this issue in depth with one who does not
share their faith. Muslims in the United States may be hesitant to discuss their feelings
about violence with a non-Muslim. For this reason, achieving saturation may not have
been a realistic option due to a potential reluctance of the local Muslim population to
participate.
Although the actual characteristics of the sample could not be accurately
described until the participants were chosen, I identified several expected characteristics
in anticipation of the selection. Given the time constraints to recruit for and conduct the
interviews, I predicted that the participants would either be retired, unemployed,
selfemployed or employed only part time, as people who are employed full time may not
be available to participate. Additionally, I anticipated that the gender of the participants
would be evenly divided between male and female participants.
Lastly, I expected that the participants would be either immigrants or firstgeneration
Americans. Because many immigrants retain their culture after having come to the
United States, including their religion, it is likely that Muslim participants would be
ethnically Middle Eastern or African. For this reason, it was important to also screen
participants for English comprehension.
I identified, contacted, and recruited participants through a variety of means. The
primary means of identifying Muslim participants was through contacts at the religious
facilities. Additionally, I identified participants through social or commercial interactions.
Contacts at a local university in several different departments could also facilitate
introductions to key contacts and individual participants. Once a participant was
identified, the individual might also serve as a key communicator in order to identify and
recruit other participants. Contact for all of the potential participants was made face-
toface or over the phone in order to pre-screen for eligibility and to explain the intent and
purpose of the research. I had planned to use the Walden participant pool as a backup to
identify and contact participants for this research, but in the end, it was not required.
Instrumentation
The data collection instruments in this research consisted of two questionnaires
and equipment used to record the interviews. The first of two researcher-developed
questionnaires was a form used to collect limited demographic information to confirm the
eligibility of potential candidates. Information such as the individual’s religion, age, and
place of residence were identified with this form to ensure that participants were suitable
for this research. Using this questionnaire I screened for the previously mentioned
criteria, so those not meeting the requirements would have promptly been excluded. The
questionnaire could be completed in a variety of ways, including face-to-face with the
researcher or it could be completed by the potential participant and sent to or otherwise
given to the researcher to determine if the potential participant met the eligibility
requirements.
I used the second questionnaire as the primary data collection instrument to
conduct the interviews. For this research, the interviews were semi-structured, with this
questionnaire being used as a guide to elicit responses in broad areas. Because of the
sensitivity of the subject, I anticipated that some of the participants would prefer to
engage in one-on-one interviews rather than discuss the issue in a group setting. For this
reason, no focus groups were conducted during this study. If the Walden participant pool
had been utilized, both the demographic questionnaire and the interview questionnaire
could be completed through the website.
Lastly, scripture from the Muslim holy text, the Qur’an, provided the researcher
with background information to develop questions for the interview. Recognizing that to
many Muslims, any version of the Qur’an not written in the original Arabic would be
considered a translation of the Qur’an, I found and used a reputable version, the Oxford
World’s Classic translation of the Qur’an for this research.
The data collection instruments, as described were ultimately sufficient to answer
the research questions. The central research question was adequately answered through
semi-structured interviews, which were used to facilitate a wide range of responses.
While structured interviews would have provided a more consistent set of responses, the
nature of semi-structured questions allowed me to gather a wider range of responses,
restricted only by the participants and not limited by the knowledge of the researcher.
This allowed me to produce a more comprehensive list of relevant factors that influenced
perception.
The three secondary questions addressing the role of religion, sources of
information and threats of perceived loss were focused in areas that provided a general
direction and a starting point for the discussions. Although I expected the interviews to
address information not explicitly mentioned in the three sub-questions, the three areas
covered by these supporting questions facilitated conversation into topics critical to this
research. What was unclear at the outset of the study was the importance of: the role of
religion, the source of the information and the threat of loss in influencing an adherent’s
perceptions of violence.
The basis for the data collection instruments used in this study were the Qur’an
and the literature sources identified in Chapter 2. I developed the questions to elicit a
wide range of responses to explain what influenced an individual’s perceptions of
violence. Religion, as discussed in several articles was one of the factors that was being
examined in this research, but it was not the only potential influence that may have
affected perception. The literature offered several different perspectives on the influence
of religion and several of them were examined in this research through the interview
questions.
I also expected additional factors discussed in the literature such as threats to
identity, material resources and psychological resources to emerge as potential factors
that affected an adherent’s perceptions. The basis for one series of questions in the
questionnaire is the COR theory as described in several of the articles summarized in the
literature review.
Another consideration identified in the literature, source credibility, was also
examined in this study and was an important factor in the development of the data
collection instruments. A portion of the questions addressed how the credibility of a
source of information affects perception, which was again based on information gained
from the review of the literature in Chapter 2.
Content validity for the interview questionnaire was established through peer
review of the developed questionnaires with the support of an unbiased and impartial
colleague. Because there was no subject matter expert to identify if the instrument was
effective in eliciting the range of existing factors that affect an individual’s perceptions,
an unbiased peer was be used to aid in establishing the effectiveness of the instruments.
Recognizing that individual perceptions and factors that influence them, could not be
accurately predicted before the interviews, definitively establishing content validity of the
instruments was difficult.
Prior to actual data collection I assessed the interview questions for content
validity to the extent possible, specifically to determine if the questionnaire would be
adequate to gather all of the relevant information that exists. If the questionnaire did not
allow me to consistently gather the information necessary to sufficiently answer the
research questions, I would have to modify the instrument prior to data collection and
reassess it until the relevant information could be gathered.
Because I developed the questionnaire using open-ended queries, the instrument
was sufficient to elicit the required responses to answer the research questions. The
interview questionnaire addressed how the credibility of sources, the threat of loss, and
religion affected an adherent’s perceptions. The questionnaire also provided the
participants with the opportunity to respond to generally-worded questions discussing any
other relevant factors that would justify the commission of violence.
For this research one instrument was used to elicit the information required to
answer all of the research questions. A single questionnaire was developed to use in
individual interviews. The intent of the questionnaire was to provide discussion starters
and not to serve as a set of fixed and unalterable questions that must be unfailingly
followed during the interviews.
Data Collection Procedures
The two primary methods of data collection for this research were an examination
of relevant artifacts, specifically the Muslim Qur’an and face-to-face or phone/Skype
interviews. If face-to-face/phone interviews could not be conducted, the university’s
participant pool would have been included as an alternative data collection method. The
information gathered from the religious text was used to develop the interview questions
and was also to help provide background on potential cultural influences experienced by
these populations.
For the primary research question as well as the supporting sub-questions, I
collected data primarily in worksites or other public locations. Given the sensitivity of the
topic and recognizing that some participants may not be comfortable in one of these
locations, additional consideration was given to participants who preferred to provide
their information in a less public forum. For example, participants who preferred to
conduct the interview in a study room in a library or a dining area in a restaurant could
certainly be afforded consideration for their request.
I conducted all of the data collection for this study, which included interviewing
all of the participants for this study. No external resources were used to collect data for
this research and no archival data sources were used beyond the religious texts previously
mentioned that provided background information.
The original plan was that data collection events would be conducted over a
period of approximately three weeks. The intent of this research was to conduct five to
ten individual interviews, scheduling an interview every other day. Each interview was
expected to last approximately one hour. This would have allowed sufficient time to
prepare for the upcoming interview as well as to allow time to transcribe the interviews.
With this timeline I also assumed that participants would be available at this interval. In
the questionnaire there were only ten questions, so the possibility existed that the
engagements would have lasted less than the expected 60 minutes. In order to gain
sufficient information to answer the research questions, I anticipated that I may have to
include additional questions, beyond what was listed on the questionnaire.
I documented the interviews using a hand-held audio recorder, if the participants
did not object to the interviews being recorded. If the participants were not comfortable
with the recording, hand-written notes would be the data collection instrument for that
particular interview. The data, whether recorded digitally or through hand-written notes,
were transferred to a laptop, which was password-protected and to a backup device which
was secured in a locked container. I also maintained a copy of the transcribed interview
on the laptop and on the external backup drive. Following the data transfer, the recorder
was cleared of all information. Because of the sensitivity of the subject, no video was
collected of the interviews. Observation was not used to collect data, but observation of
participant non-verbal behaviors during the interviews was a consideration to ensure that
participants were comfortable during the process.
If the university participant pool had been used to collect data, the information
would have been recorded through the website. The data collection instruments
previously identified would have been used if the data collection was conducted through
face-to-face interviews or the Walden participant pool.
If during the conduct of the study it became too difficult to enlist a sufficient
number of participants in the area identified, I would have considered other options. One
of the alternatives was to extend the data collection period and another option was to
extend the recruitment area to other counties in Michigan. If these situations were to
occur, some of the assumptions previously identified, specifically assumptions about
access to information may no longer be applicable to this research. This intent, these
assumptions, and this process were applicable to all four of the research questions for this
study.
After the completion of each interview I thanked the individuals for their
participation and asked if they had any questions about their input or the study in general.
The participants were then advised that they could change any of their responses and
asked at that time if they would like to do so. Additionally, the participants were also
informed that they could be sent a transcription of their comments to ensure the analysis
accurately reflects their input as well as a summarized copy of the study following the
completion of the research if they wished.
The last step in the debriefing process was to remind the participant of the
information contained in the Consent Form, specifically the contact information of the
researcher and the contact information for participant advocates at the university and to
finally offer them their gift certificate.
Following the interviews, the only planned contact with the participants was to
provide them with their transcribed comments in order to verify accuracy of the analysis
and to provide them with a summary of the study results, if requested. No follow up
interviews were planned, although if the participants identified errors in the analysis of
their interview, additional questions may have been required to elicit a more accurate
representation of the participants’ intent.
Additionally, if a participant requested to revisit his or her responses or requested
to discuss the analysis or the results of the research, this request would be honored to the
fullest extent possible. There were no other situations that would require an additional
interview with the selected participants.
Data Analysis
The data collected from the individual interviews was sufficient to answer all of
the research questions, including the central question and the three secondary questions.
Following the data collection, I conducted data analysis to identify patterns, trends, and
themes among the statements of each of the participants. The responses were examined
and evaluated to identify relevant information for the study’s research questions.
A critical topic addressed in the interview questionnaire was the issue of how the
credibility of information affects an individual’s perceptions. In this portion of the
questionnaire, the participants initially identified those sources of information that they
believed to be the most credible. Afterwards they discussed why these sources were
considered to be more credible than others. During the analysis of the collected data, I
identified any similarities and common sources identified by the participants.
Another major theme that was examined in this research was the concept of loss
and how either loss or perceived loss affected an individual’s perceptions. In the
questionnaire I included questions that addressed threats to loss of material items,
energies (money, time), and identity. During the analysis, I examined each of the
resources identified by the participants but focused on the importance of identity and
understanding what responses a threat to an individual’s identity would elicit.
The last major area in the questionnaire addressed an individual’s attitudes
towards his or her religion and how the adherent understood religion to condone or
condemn violence. Specifically, the participant was asked what they understood their
religion to teach about violence and whether or not they believed it to be appropriate to
commit acts of violence to preserve his or her faith.
Coding was the primary means to identify the most meaningful themes, patterns,
and trends when conducting the analysis of the data gathered from the individual
interviews. While some coding categories were identified prior to data collection, I
deleted some categories and generated others during the data analysis process after the
actual data were collected.
For this research, one of the proposed categories for coding the data was Religion
Influences Identity. This grouping was intended for those statements made by participants
demonstrating that an individual’s religious beliefs or teachings had some effect on how a
person perceives themselves. This code was not to identify whether the influence had a
positive or negative impact on an individual’s identity. The intent of this code was simply
to identify those statements that suggested that religion could have an effect on how a
person saw him or herself.
Another coding category Religion Supports Peace, was intended to identify those
statements made by participants that indicated their religious beliefs would support
peaceful behaviors. This category was intended to be used with those statements that
show that religion advocates peace, and not necessarily with those statements that
demonstrated that religion supports violence.
For this research, I used the software package NVivo from QSR International
during the data analysis process. The audio files from the interviews were transferred to
the file created for this research and then transcribed using the functions included in the
research software. The transcribed interviews were then used to identify patterns and
themes among the different statements.
Prior to conducting data analysis, I also used the software to organize and assist
with coding the articles for the literature review. By organizing and coding the articles in
the software, it was significantly easier to identify patterns in the data collected. The
information gained from the coding also provided insight into the statements made during
the interviews. For example, while analyzing the articles used in the literature review, I
identified the pattern of political and social causes for justifying violence. This insight
allowed me to better understand the complexities of an individual’s attitudes and
perceptions, which were invaluable when interpreting the data collected from the
participants in the study.
During the data analysis process the intent was to identify commonalities and
similarities among the statements made by the participants. Discrepant cases, by
definition are statements or positions that are dissimilar from the majority of the
information gathered. For this reason, once a statement was identified as being discrepant
or unlike any other statement, I checked it against other discrepant statements to see if
there were similarities within this group. If there were no similarities among the
discrepant cases they were noted and considered for mention when the results were
summarized.
A discrepant case, in itself could be significant even if it described a diverse view.
For this research, patterns and trends formed the basis for the majority of the discussion
but considering the small sample size, it would be less than responsible to wholly dismiss
a position simply because it was dissimilar from the others. Mentioning discrepant cases
as opposing or contradictory ideas was certainly a consideration for this study because
presenting a wide variety of positions generally adds credibility to research.
Trustworthiness
In evaluating the trustworthiness of a qualitative study, many researchers have
determined that the customary criteria used for assessing quantitative research are
inappropriate for use with qualitative work. The traditional characteristics of validity,
reliability, and objectivity, used in quantitative work, are generally less appropriate for
qualitative work, but the characteristics of credibility, transferability, dependability, and
confirmability are more often the guidelines used by qualitative researchers (Creswell,
2012).
Credibility in a qualitative study involves establishing that the results of the
research measure what was intended and additionally that the results are valid from the
perspective of the participants (Trochim, 2006). For this research triangulation, peer
review, and saturation were used to increase the credibility of the study results.
Triangulation involves comparing the results of different sources of data to
determine commonalities and differences. For this study, the different sources of
information were the results of the interviews. The archival data or the material taken
from the Qur’an, which was critical to the interpretation of the collected data, was also
considered a distinct source as it influenced triangulation. Achieving saturation, which
occurs when no new, relevant data arise, was also a strategy to increase the credibility of
the results. Lastly, peer review was employed in order to reduce the bias and increase the
objectivity of the analysis.
Transferability in qualitative research addresses the ability to generalize the results
of the research across a wider audience or to other settings or contexts (Trochim, 2006).
For this research, the transferability of the results would ultimately be the responsibility
of the person attempting to generalize the information, but an accurate, thorough and
detailed description of the processes and content can provide critical information in
making that decision (Trochim, 2006).
For this research transferability would be dependent on the clarity, accuracy, and
ability to comprehensively articulate the context of the research, including the scope,
limitations, and assumptions. By ensuring that the context of the research is clearly and
accurately explained, the researcher would have fulfilled the obligation to anyone who
requires the information to make a determination on generalizing the results of the study.
Dependability in qualitative research is much like reliability is in quantitative
research. This quality describes to what extent the results are repeatable and with
qualitative studies, dependability specifically describes how well the qualitative
researcher has accounted for the setting and any changes that may occur within that
setting. Additionally, the researcher should discuss how any changes affect the way the
study was approached and conducted (Trochim, 2006).
In this chapter, I describe the conditions and setting for each of the interviews as
well as any changes in conditions that occurred over the time period that the data were
collected. These changes included significant changes in the social, economic or political
climate that affected the community in Western Michigan. While a major event like the
9/11 attacks could significantly influence how people perceive violence, a less important
event like a federal shutdown also could influence the perceptions of potential
participants.
Confirmability, in qualitative research describes whether the results of a study
could be corroborated or validated by another researcher. The degree to which the results
can be confirmed by a source external to the research is important in establishing
trustworthiness of the data (Trochim, 2006). Because the procedures used in qualitative
research differ so significantly from the processes used in quantitative research, the
traditional quantitative goal of objectivity, or remaining detached from the data so as not
to influence it is not viable with qualitative studies (Objectivity, 2013).
For this research, I enlisted a colleague in the doctoral program to corroborate the
results of the study which were documented and included in the analysis. The peer
researcher identified instances where contradictions or errors existed in the analysis as
well as examined the data collection and analysis procedures to identify inconsistencies
or examples of bias.
The concepts of inter- and intracoder reliability involve implementing procedures
to ensure the consistency of coding during data analysis. Intercoder reliability involves
two researchers independently coding data and subsequently gaining consensus on the
results while intracoding reliability speaks to the consistency of the way a researcher
codes data (van Den Hoonaard, 2008). This data collected in this study were only coded
by one researcher so of the two concepts, intracoder reliability was a consideration while
intercoder reliability was not.
Specifically, for this study, I addressed intracoder reliability by ensuring the
coding structure as well as the application of the various categories was consistent and
uniform. As an additional measure to ensure consistency an objective, I received support
from a peer researcher who verified the consistency of the coding process. This fellow
researcher was not required to code all of the data, but was asked to check the existing
coding to ensure the uniformity of the work.
Protection of the Participant’s Rights/Ethical Procedures
All research that involves human subjects must receive the approval of the
Institutional Review Board (IRB) prior to data collection to ensure that appropriate
measures will be taken to protect the welfare of the participants. The IRB examines the
proposed research to weigh the risks against the benefits of the study to ensure any
potential risks are “reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits” (Endicott, n.d., slide 5).
The board also examines the procedures of the research to ensure it conforms to the
relevant laws, regulations and ethical standards (Endicott, n.d.).
The three ethical principles that guide the IRB in their endeavors are: justice,
beneficence, and respect for persons. These three principles address the requirements for
the researcher to ensure the benefits and burdens of the research are fairly distributed, to
maximize benefits and minimize potential harm to participants and lastly to protect those
participants who may be particularly vulnerable (Endicott, n.d.). Prior to giving their
approval to conduct any research the IRB examined the proposed research procedures to
identify situations which may unnecessarily put the participants at risk or situations that
would violate applicable laws or regulations.
All research that involves the collection of data from humans, including pilot
studies requires IRB approval. Research that is exclusively hypothetical or literature
reviews do not require approval from the IRB but interviews, surveys, and even research
that conducts analysis on data collected by another source requires IRB approval
(Endicott, n.d.). Additionally, once the IRB has given their approval for research to be
conducted, if a change must be made to the procedures the proposed change must also be
approved before the research can continue. Because of the criticality of protecting the
participants, any researcher should not, and I did not begin data collection without the
approval of this board.
During the conduct of the research the university IRB approved my proposed
study prior to the collection of any data (#07-16-15-0327771). The IRB reviewed the plan
to conduct the research to ensure that all legal, ethical, and regulatory requirements were
addressed prior to the collection of any data (Endicott, n.d.). The IRB also weighed the
risks associated with the research and ensured that the risks did not outweigh the potential
benefits that might be gained from the conduct of the study.
The IRB examined the collection instruments, the planned measures to ensure the
confidentiality of data collected, the proposed means used to protect the privacy of the
participants, and they ensured that all participants were provided with sufficient
information to be able to make an informed decision about participating in the study
(Endicott, n.d.). Once the IRB approved the proposed plan, data collection began. If for
any reason I would have needed to deviate from the approved plan after receiving IRB
approval, the IRB would have been informed and I would have made a follow-on request
to alter the original plan. No changes to the approved plan could be made without the
consent of the IRB.
When recruiting research participants, it was important to ensure that the
recruitment materials and processes were clear, candid, and not coercive. The participants
were made aware that participation was completely optional and were advised that they
had the ability to refuse to participate or to end their participation at any time, especially
if the participants were members of vulnerable populations (Endicott, n.d.). Informed
consent, which is a process conducted prior to data collection, was critical in ensuring
that potential participants had an opportunity to gain the information needed to make a
decision on participation (Endicott, n.d.).
For this research, the primary means of recruiting participants was through the use
of key communicators. Additionally, participants were not to be recruited from any of the
groups identified as vulnerable populations, although it is possible that a key
communicator might have referred a potential participant who may have been a member
of a vulnerable population. Key communicators were advised of the criteria and requested
to exclude members of vulnerable populations, but ultimately individuals from these
groups may have been selected to participate if membership in a vulnerable group was
not known.
An important aspect to the ethical principle of Respect for Persons involves the
idea that participant inclusion in the research must be completely voluntary (Endicott,
n.d.). If during the conduct of the research a participant expressed a desire to end his or
her involvement with the study, the participant would have been allowed to do so without
any coercion to be involved further.
Additionally, significant events that occurred during data collection would have
been reported to the university either for action or for information. For example, if during
the conduct of data collection an unforeseen risk arose, or if an already approved process
needed to be changed, I would have been required to submit a request for Change in
Procedures Form (Endicott, n.d.). Or if a participant had become highly upset during data
collection the IRB would have been made aware of the incident through an Adverse
Event Report (Endicott, n.d.) These reporting mechanisms ensured the protections
afforded the participants would remain in place even if the situation or process
significantly changes.
I, as the researcher documented one agreement with each of the participants
during this study. The Adult Consent Form outlined in general terms the procedural
requirements as well as some risks and benefits of participating in the study.
Additionally, the Consent Form identified my role as the researcher, my contact
information, and contact information for the university representative who could address
participants’ rights issues.
The Confidentiality Agreement was a contract made to reinforce the importance
of not improperly disclosing the information that was collected from the participants. The
Confidentiality Agreement identified my obligations, as a researcher to prevent disclosure
of the information provided by the participants (Endicott, n.d.). During this study I did
not employ an outside entity to perform transcription duties, but if an external service had
been used, the individuals performing those duties would be required to sign a
Confidentiality Agreement also.
The demographic questionnaire for this research included requests for personal
information, specifically the participants’ names, phone numbers, and e-mails. Due to the
sensitivity of the topic, though, the participants were not required to provide this
information. The participants were advised that neither their involvement in the study nor
the analysis would be affected by their decision to include or exclude their personal
information. Participants were further advised that without the personal information only
follow ups, including the accuracy verification of the transcribed interviews would not be
possible.
Because personal information was being requested from the participants, the data
collected were considered confidential versus anonymous. While it is important to protect
any data collected during research, the criticality of securing confidential information that
contains the personal information of the participants is even greater than securing the
anonymous data collected from participants.
Minimizing the risk that participants were exposed to during the conduct of
research was a key consideration in this study. This reiterates the importance of the
ethical principle of beneficence (Endicott, n.d.). I included steps to ensure the security of
the collected data, to reduce the risk of loss of personal information. A data breach in this
study may not have caused a risk to the physical health of the participants, but a data loss
could certainly violate the privacy of the participants who provided information to this
research.
As previously noted, the collected data were maintained on a password protected
laptop. I secured a backup copy of the data on a storage drive that was maintained in a
locked container. The interviews were recorded, when the participants allowed, using a
digital recorder. After the digital files were transferred to the laptop where they were
organized and transcribed, the audio files were deleted from the recorder. The raw data
will be maintained for the required five years and afterwards the digital data will be
deleted, and any paper copies will be burned or shredded.
There were no additional ethical considerations to be addressed when developing
the plan to provide appropriate security for the collected data. By ensuring the privacy of
the participants during the data collection process and by protecting the data after the
collection was complete, the relevant ethical issues should be addressed. During the
conduct of the research no individuals from protected groups were recruited. For this
reason, the data collected did not require additional protections beyond the ones that were
previously described. Additionally, because of the kind of data that were collected there
was no need to provide additional security measures beyond the ones previously
identified. For example, if the research had included protected health data, additional
security measures would have been considered (Research Ethics Review Application,
2010), but in this case the existing measures were sufficient.
The participants each received a small token of appreciation for their participation,
specifically a $10 gift certificate to a local store, but that gesture would neither influence
the quality of the data nor the procedures for securing and protecting the data. The
minimal value of the gift certificate precluded any real chance that the token would have
a significant impact on the outcome or the need to secure the data any differently than
what was already planned.
Exploratory Study
An exploratory or pilot study was not conducted as part of this research.
Presentation of the Results
Tables, graphs, and charts are effective tools to illustrate distinctions within or
changes in large quantities of data. Because of the small number of participants that were
included in this study, tables, charts, and graphs would be less effective in illustrating the
conclusions drawn from this research. Depending on the results, it was originally
anticipated that a bar graph, either vertical or horizontal would be appropriate to compare
the number of times a specific factor is identified as influencing an individual’s
perceptions. Ultimately a scatter chart was used to illustrate the results of the study.
Discrepant cases were addressed using a four-step process. The first step was to
verify the accuracy of the information provided. The digital files as well as the
transcribed files were checked to ensure that an error hadn’t been made in documenting
the words and phrases correctly. The second step was to verify the interpretation of the
information. Discrepant cases were checked in context to ensure that the participant’s
intent had not been misunderstood.
If a discrepant case could not be rectified or aligned with other data through these
procedures, the plan including enlisting the support of an objective peer to verify that the
discrepant case was truly discrepant and not an interpretation error. The objective peer
then followed the same two steps described above; first confirming the accuracy of the
transcribed files then validating the accuracy of the interpretation. If after the completion
of these four steps the discrepant case remained significantly different from the other
data, the results would be noted as an inconsistency and entered into the results as an
irregularity.
Summary
Chapter 3 describes the methodology that was used in this research. The chapter
describes the design that was used to conduct this research as well as the rationale for
selecting a case study design. This design, over other qualitative or quantitative designs
facilitated thorough and in-depth responses to the research questions outlined in previous
chapters.
Additionally, in this chapter I describe the sampling strategy that was used to
select the participants for the study. Recognizing that convenience sampling is one of the
least desirable strategies to employ, it was ultimately the most practical strategy to use
because of the sensitivity of the topic. Bias and credibility are significant considerations
for any research that includes convenience sampling, so I put mitigation strategies in
place to address these issues.
In this chapter, the procedures for conducting data collection and data analysis
were also described. The primary strategy for data collection was to conduct face-to-face
interviews, recording the conversations using a digital recorder. In the event that face-
toface interviews could not be conducted the alternate plan was to gather data through the
university’s participant pool. The criteria for selecting the participants and the questions
asked would have remained the same regardless of the data collection method.
The plan for data analysis is also discussed in Chapter 3, explaining how coding
was used to identify patterns and themes in the responses provided by the participants.
Identifying the consistencies and similarities in the participant responses facilitated the
formation of theories that would eventually lead to answers for the research questions.
Lastly, in Chapter 3 I discuss the importance of protecting the participants in the
study and explain what processes will be emplaced to ensure those who contribute to this
research are safeguarded from harm. In this chapter, the recruitment procedures are
explained as well as the processes to ensure the security of the data that is gathered.
In Chapter 3 I also provide descriptions of the intended processes and procedures
that were used in the research, but Chapter 4 is where the actual conduct of the study is
discussed. Data collection and analysis, coding and identification of patterns, as well a
summary of the findings are discussed in this chapter. In Chapter 4 I confirm the use of
strategies identified in Chapter 3 and I identify when deviations were made, explaining
the rationale for changing the intended process. Lastly in Chapter 4 I address how the
findings answer the research questions.
Chapter 4: Results
Introduction
The purpose of this case study was to identify the factors that had the greatest
influence on the attitudes of Sunni Muslims from Western Michigan toward violence. My
intent was not to examine or assess the specific attitudes and beliefs of this population of
Muslims toward violence, but to examine the factors that impact the way an individual
perceives violence. The factors included in this research were not limited to religious
influences, but also included secular considerations. Additionally, the factors were not
limited to a specific application of violence such as terrorism, domestic violence, or
violence against women, or to a specific location such as violence domestically or abroad.
The central question for this research was: What factors influence how Sunni
Muslims from Western Michigan perceive acts of violence committed against another
person? The three secondary research questions that support a comprehensive response to
the central questions are: (a) What role does religion play in the perception of violence by
a religious adherent? (b) What sources of information most influence an individual’s
attitude on violence? (e.g. religious texts, formal religious teachings, family, school,
news, other sources) (c) How do threats of perceived or actual loss affect how a religious
person perceives violence?
The population of Muslims in Western Michigan is a relatively closed group, and
access to participants was an obstacle that I expected to encounter. Prior to beginning
data collection, I developed a plan to gain access to qualified participants using a key
communicator who had some credibility with Muslims in Western Michigan.
Unfortunately, this key communicator was, in the end, unwilling to facilitate this research
citing “red flags because [I was] associating Islam with violence.” Other key
communicators with access to the population were also unwilling or unable to facilitate
interviews for the research. This unexpected delay with key communicators caused data
collection to last significantly longer than expected. The anticipated timeline to collect
data for this research was originally 1 month, but data collection lasted almost 2 years.
At various points in the data collection process, I considered changing the
eligibility for participants. One idea was to allow Shi’a Muslims to participate in the
research. I rejected this option because of the difficulty with changing the proposal. As
the data collection process approached the 1-year mark, I requested that the Walden
University IRB extend permission to gather data, which it granted. Two key
communicators were ultimately able to assist me in getting access to a sufficient number
of participants to reach saturation. The research, conducted as a case study, complied with
the original constraints outline in the proposal, but took significantly longer than
expected.
Overview
I did not conduct a pilot study for this research, but in hindsight, it may have been
helpful in identifying specific obstacles to data collection. Given the proposed protocol
for this study, specifically the small number of participants that would be required, there
was no indication that a pilot study would be required to test the recruitment methods or
the adequacy of the research instrument. Additionally, because the research instrument
had been peer-reviewed, I did not expect that it would not yield the results to answer the
research questions. What I did not anticipate was the unwillingness of the population to
discuss this topic. Because of this unwillingness to participate, I had to identify additional
key communicators to get the required number of interviews.
I conducted the study in the western portion of Michigan. Interviews were
conducted in a variety of settings across the area, and in all cases, specific locations for
interviews were selected by the participants. All interviews were conducted privately,
one-on-one, in locations that offered the participants sufficient privacy to speak freely.
The first seven interviews were conducted face-to-face, and the last four were conducted
over the phone or with Skype. None were conducted over e-mail.
All of the participants were Sunni Muslims living in Western Michigan. Two of
the participants were native-born Muslim-Americans, but all of the participants spoke and
understood English sufficiently well to participate in the study. Some of the participants
have lived in the United States their entire lives, and others immigrated to the United
States and are presently working in the country. At least three of the participants are in
the United States temporarily to study. All of the participants had earned at least an
undergraduate degree, and more than one had earned a terminal degree in their field. At
the time of the study, all of the participants were employed full-time or were full-time
students.
Prior to conducting each interview, I discussed the research with participants and
had them complete the consent form and demographic questionnaire. Each participant
was provided with a copy of the questionnaire, and after providing sufficient time to
review the questions, I began the interview. I collected data using private on-on-one
interviews. All of the participants agreed to allow me to document the interviews, but one
requested that the interview not be recorded with a digital recorder, so only notes were
taken with that participant. I used notes and audio recordings to document all of the other
interviews.
I conducted this research using qualitative research methods and analyzed data
using data analysis software to assist in the identification of patterns and trends. I
transcribed and coded the recorded interviews in NVivo. The notes for the single
interview that was not recorded with the digital recorder were also documented in NVivo
and subsequently coded. The same nodes or categories that I used in the literature review
were initially used to identify patterns in the interviews. I then examined the coded
interviews to identify patterns and trends. After the initial examination, I determined that
the initial categories were insufficient and thus revised the categories to facilitate better
understanding of the data.
Recognizing that the trustworthiness of qualitative research depends on reducing
or eliminating bias, I had both the questionnaire and the conclusions drawn peerreviewed
by a colleague and fellow doctoral candidate. The questionnaire was also approved by the
Walden IRB prior to its use. Triangulation, which I used in the questionnaire and in the
interpretation of the results, was additionally used to increase the trustworthiness of the
research. Saturation was also a consideration in increasing the trustworthiness of the
research in that little new information was uncovered by the last interview conducted.
During the interviews, the concept of violence was not limited to a specific reason
or application of violence such as terrorism or violence committed in a particular location
or under specific circumstances. At the beginning of each interview I stated the definition
of violence I used for this study: “The intentional use of physical force or aggression
against another person with the intent to cause injury, death or psychological harm.” As I
described in Chapter 3, open-ended questions were used to elicit responses that were not
constrained by a specific location, purpose, or circumstance.
In this research, I found that the participants’ perceptions of violence were
influenced by their religious beliefs, their identity, and their confidence in the justice
system. All of the participants interviewed expressed that their attitudes about violence
were aligned with their religious beliefs. None expressed a disagreement with their
religious teachings or communicated a difference between their actions and their religious
doctrine. Additionally, slightly more than half of the participants who stated that violence
would be justified in self-defense or in defense of their family identified primarily with
their family. Six of the10 participants identified primarily with their family over other
associations. Lastly, faith in the justice system influenced how some of the participants
perceived the need for violence. Faith in the justice system was important because a
participant who expressed a strong belief in the justice system was less inclined to find
violence to be acceptable. Additionally, several of the participants mentioned that Islam
required adherents to follow the laws of the nation they lived in and would only condone
violence in self-defense.
During the interviews, several national and international media outlets were
identified as credible sources of information, but the influence of news on the
participants’ perceptions of violence could not be determined.
Setting
Western Michigan University (WMU) is a public university with an enrollment of
almost 24,000 students and over 4000 faculty and staff (Western Michigan University,
2016). Given WMU’s location in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which has a population of
approximately 76,000 (U.S. Census, 2015), a large portion of the local population has ties
to WMU as either employees, alumni, family members of employees, or students.
I conducted a case study focusing on the population of Sunni Muslims in Western
Michigan. The participants for this research were members of or associated with a single
mosque in the western portion of the state. This mosque is an influential part of the
community and provides a wide variety of services to the local Muslim and non-Muslim
population. In addition to prayer services and Sunday school, the mosque hosts a large
collection of important Islamic references and offers Islamic classes to the community.
This mosque has been serving the Muslim and non-Muslim community of Western
Michigan for many years.
Demographics
This case study included ten participants. Everyone met the requirements outlined
in the proposal, specifically, all were Sunni Muslims living in Western Michigan, who
spoke English well enough to understand and respond to the questions without a
translator. All had regular access to a wide variety of information sources, including
internet, social media, TV, and radio.
Additionally, although not a requirement of the research, many of the participants
had an association with WMU, either as alumni, employees, students or family of WMU
employees. All ten of the participants were college graduates, having earned at least an
undergraduate degree, while the three participants were had earned a terminal degree in
their field. Four of the participants were graduate students at the time of the study. The
level of education for this population was unique and undoubtedly had an influence on
the results of the research.
Two of the participants were native born, while eight were born outside of the
United States. The specific citizenship status of the foreign-born participants is unknown
and was not discussed, but all of the participants in the study were either full time
employees or full-time students. Eight of the participants were men and two were women.
Data Collection
For this case study, 11 participants were interviewed but only ten were included in
this study. One interview had to be excluded because the interviewee was later identified
as a Shi’a Muslim and not a Sunni Muslim.
Only one data collection instrument, the 10-question survey, was used to gather
data for this research. The interviews for this study spanned a period of almost two years
between September 2015 and August 2017. I conducted the first interview on September
29 with a subsequent interview being conducted three-months later in December 2015.
The third interview followed four months after this in April 2016 and three more were
completed in late June and early July. Following a review of Chapters 4 and 5 it was
determined that additional interviews would be required. The last four interviews were
conducted between June and August of 2017. The interviews were conducted in a variety
of locations in Western Michigan. The average interview lasted approximately 15
minutes, with the longest taking approximately 33 minutes to complete and the shortest
taking less than six minutes.
All of the participants, except one approved the use of a digital recorder for the
interviews. Additionally, in all of the interviews hand-written notes were taken to ensure
the critical points of the responses were captured, in case the digital copies of the
interviews were inadvertently damaged or destroyed. So, for this research nine interviews
were recorded with a hand-held digital recorder and one interview, which wasn’t
recorded with a digital recorder was documented only with hand-written notes. I
transcribed the recorded interviews and then the recorded files and transcriptions were
uploaded onto a laptop.
There were no significant variations from the plan presented in Chapter 3, but one
minor variation concerned the location of one of the face-to-face interviews. The original
plan was to allow each participant to select the interview location to ensure that they
would be comfortable holding the conversation, particularly considering the sensitivity of
the topic. The caveat was that the location had to be a public place and that interviews
should not be conducted in an individual’s home. In the case of this participant, he
requested, through my key communicator to conduct the interview in his home. At the
time he was not feeling well, but still expressed interest in participating in this research.
All of the other face-to-face interviews were conducted in public locations.
During the data collection phase of this research, it was significantly more
difficult than anticipated to get Muslim participants to discuss their viewpoints on the
acceptability of violence. Due to the inherent sensitivity of the topic, I had anticipated
some resistance or difficulty, so I recruited key communicators to help facilitate
identification of potential participants. During data collection, though, the level of
unwillingness or inability of the key communicators to assist with engaging participants
was not expected. Ultimately two additional key communicators were recruited and were
able to provide viable contacts for the research. One key communicators identified three
participants and the second key communicator identified seven, totaling ten participants.
Additionally, external factors during this period, specifically terrorist activities of
the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and political statements made against Muslims
also may have exacerbated challenges to recruiting potential participants.
Findings of the Interviews
In the first interview, the factors that most influenced this participant’s perception
of violence were identity, religious beliefs, and confidence in the justice system. This
participant identified a single condition for which violence would be acceptable,
selfdefense, which included the defense of his immediate family. Specifically, the
participant stated, “if someone intrudes into your house…to (commit) violence, then you
have every right to self-defense.” With this participant, there seemed to be a strong
correlation between his identity as a member of his family and his acceptance of the use
of violence.
When asked how he self-identified, the participant indicated that he identified with his
family over race, ethnicity, or nationality and the one condition that would justify
violence is the defense of his family.
He also indicated that he found information from his family to be the most
credible over any media source or community organization. His family was clearly
critical to his identity and his perception of when violence would be justified. As far as
the credibility of other sources of information, the participant did not identify any
additional single source that influenced his perceptions, but discussed the importance of
corroboration between source and balance of reporting.
When asked what his religion advised about violence and when it would be
acceptable, he stated that Islam, as he understood it would not condone violence under
any circumstances. This participant also indicated that Islam also directs its followers to
follow the laws of the nation in which the adherent lives. “Islam says that you have to
abide by the law…whatever U.S. laws are, I have obligated to observe those laws.” Along
those same lines, when discussing self-defense and when violence was justified, he
differentiated someone coming into his house to commit violence and self-defense
against violence committed outside of the house. If violence were committed outside the
house, “then you have to ask the law enforcement to come.” In discussing the conflicts
between Muslim sects, this participant noted that, “what they’re doing against Shi’a,
Sunnis, it is totally forfeited. They are out of their mind. They’re interpreting their
religion for their own benefit.” This participant seemed to take guidance from his
religious beliefs but his identity and his confidence in law enforcement seemed to have
greater influence on how he perceived the acceptability of the use of violence.
For the second participant, religious beliefs and identity were both influential in
determining if violence would be justified in a particular situation. When this participant
was asked how he would best describe himself, he responded that he identified with this
faith first then his family second. When asked what Islamic teachings advised about
violence, the participant stated, “from my understanding, it’s basically only necessary, it
is only perhaps justified in terms of oppression…and if it’s violent oppression then we
must oppose it violently.” So, this participant indicated that Islam would allow a violent
response, or a defensive reaction to violence, but according to Islamic teachings, violence
would not be acceptable without a precipitating action.
In discussing the credibility of information sources, even though the participant
identified that religion was influential in determining the acceptability of violence, the
participant did not identify the mosque, Qur’an or imam as being influential sources of
information. In fact, when asked about information sources, the participant did not refer
to any community sources but stated, “I do watch a lot of new programs and if I am on
the internet, then again, I usually am on the internet for factual information, for news
information, or biographical information.”
During this interview, the participant’s general position on violence was that it
could be justified, in specific situations. For example, threats to the participant’s
reputation, status or money would not justify a violent response, but an immediate threat
to the participant’s family would be justification for violence. Additionally, a response to
perceived aggression or oppression, could also justify violence. Although not specifically
stated, the implication of resistance to aggression or oppression would include violence
committed outside the home.
For the third participant, the acceptability of violence was less dependent on how
he self-identified, but on what he described as his “duty to protect” his family, which
aligned with his religious beliefs. He also made an argument for the acceptability of
violence to facilitate social change, as it has been used in American history.
During the third interview, the participant identified more than one situation in
which he felt violence would be acceptable, specifically in defense of his family and in
order to effect change. This participant spoke of defending his family and home, and that
violence would be acceptable if someone were “threatening your family…or harming
your family…. or they’re entering your space and your privacy.” In this case, he
suggested that violence would not only be justified, but an obligation or a responsibility
because as he stated, “once you have a family I believe you really have a duty to protect
them.” He also indicated that fighting for a societal change would be an acceptable
rationale for violence, which would potentially include violence outside the home. He
found that historically societies have resorted to violence to affect change, so based on
this, he too would find violence to be acceptable if it was necessary to facilitate change
and to correct an injustice.
When addressing a religious justification or support for the conduct of violence,
the participant stated that he did not “associate as being a Muslim.” In his words, “I come
from a very religious family, so it kinda turns you off towards religion a lot.” When asked
what Islam taught as far as violence and when it would be acceptable, he indicated that
his religion would allow violence only as a last resort and in most situations the teachings
of Islam required adherents to behave in a peaceful manner. This does align with the
participant’s other responses, although he implied that Islam was less of an influence in
his perceptions and attitudes.
For the fourth participant, the single factor that influenced his position on whether
violence was acceptable was not his religion nor his identity, but his unwavering belief in
the American justice system. When asked the general question about the circumstances
when violence would be considered acceptable his response was, “I find the use of
violence…cannot be explained under any circumstances…there is a justice system that a
person can resort to, to solve any issues.” When asked about circumstances where
violence would not be considered acceptable, the participant reiterated his position stating
that “living in the jungle or something” would be the only situation that would permit the
use of violence. The participant further stated that, “you know in the modern society…I
mean definitely there is a fair justice system. You don’t see any reason for the use of
violence.” For this participant, violence inside the home or outside the home would be
difficult to justify, due to the existing system of justice.
The rationale for this position did seem to be supported by his religion, also.
According to this participant, the Qur’an offered guidance to societies so that they could
develop their individual systems of justice. His understanding of his religion was that
Islam directed adherents to follow the laws and edicts of the justice system of the country
in which they resided. As he further explained, the Qur’an did not give explicit guidance
about the justification of violence, but that it gave general guidance for societies to
develop systems that would provide justice for their citizens.
This participant also self-identified with his family before other groups, but there
was not an obvious correlation between how the participant self-identified and his beliefs
or ideas on the acceptability of violence. Additionally, this participant identified national
and international media sources as being more credible than other sources, such as
family, friends or neighbors, again reinforcing the idea that his identity as a family
member was less critical to the formulation of his attitudes on violence.
During the fifth interview, the participant was ambiguous about identifying
specific justifications of violence, frequently using terms like “generally”, “typically”, “it
depends”, “not sure”, “I guess”, and “I think”. Eventually this participant specified that
violence would be justified in self-defense or to protect his family. This statement
coupled with the fact that this interviewee self-identified with family first, would imply
that his identity had some influence on whether he would support violence in a given
situation. Like many of the other participants, self-defense and the defense of family were
two of the few reasons that would justify violence.
This participant’s position on violence also seemed to have a basis in religion as
he stated that the Qur’an allowed for violence in situations of self-defense. He articulated
that according to the teachings of Islam “violence is typically not acceptable” but if
someone were threatening his life, then his religion would find it acceptable to respond
with violence. During this interview, there was no specific mention of location, so there
could be no determination of whether this participant felt violence would be justified
inside the home, outside the home, or given a specific application of violence, such as
terrorism.
When asked about the credibility of information this interviewee, like some of the
other participants indicated that there was no single source of information that would be
more credible than any other. The participant stated that determining credibility of a
source would be dependent on “the track record over time” and that he would not be
inclined to blindly accept information without conducting some additional research on the
topic or event.
Lastly when asked whether threats of loss or perceived loss would justify
violence, the participant indicated that threats to an individual’s reputation, money or
material resources were not a justification for violence. Even a threat to his religion, or
his ability to practice his religion would not be a reason to be violent, as there were other
options available, such as educating others or continuing to practice in secret.
For the sixth participant religious belief, identity, and confidence in the justice
system were all considered influential factors in understanding her perceptions toward
violence. When asked how she identified herself, this participant stated that she identified
most with her religion first, then her nation, then her city. When asked what she
understood Islam to advise adherents in terms of supporting or opposing violence, she
suggested that Islam would only condone violence when it was necessary to preserve
one’s life. She also indicated that protecting her children would be a reasonable
justification for violence. This participant would continue to explain that this threat to life
could not be a long-term perceived threat, but that only an immediate, direct threat to
one’s life would justify a violent response.
In terms of identifying credible sources, the interviewee indicated that credible
information could be corroborated by other sources and should not be news that is paid
for. For example, she mentioned that people who commented on YouTube videos were
credible because their opinion was not paid for. This participant also emphasized the
importance of simply not accepting what was presented but that each individual should
form his or her own ideas based on numerous sources.
Unlike the other participants, when discussing justifications for violence, this
participant made the point to differentiate violence from war. War as she explained it,
was formal and defined. War, as it was described has flags and formal leadership.
According to this participant, violence is acceptable and understandable during war. She
also added that war did not involve civilians. An example she gave to illustrate this idea
was the situation involving ISIS. The implication was that the violence conducted by ISIS
was not justified, even though some might consider it, or describe it, as a war.
For the seventh participant, identity, religion and a lack of faith in the justice
system seemed to shape his perceptions of violence. Like several of the other participants,
family was critical in defining this participant’s identity. This participant also identified
“the friends you make and the relationships you make” as being important to who he as a
person.
In terms of how he understood his religious teachings, this participant expressed
that Islam would only allow violence in self-defense, but when describing self-defense,
he discussed people who were “defending their homes and livelihoods” and differentiated
these acts from violence. He also described how some people may respond with violence
when they feel helpless, specifically “they feel there’s no other option” and there existed
“no law to enforce justice.” So, in this case, the lack of a strong and fair justice system
contributed to a situation in which there was justifiable violence (self-defense).
In discussing the sources that he found to be the most credible, this participant
described a process of comparison and analysis of several different media outlets to
determine which sources were the most credible. Acknowledging the existence of bias in
both online resources (social media and traditional media) and religious institutions, the
participant concluded that research and corroboration were key to identifying credible
sources of information.
To illustrate how a loss or threat of loss might justify violence, this participant
raised the issue of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The loss of land or the threat of the loss of
land had, according to this participant, prompted the Palestinians to “defend themselves
or get their land taken away.” He also suggested that the “family (would be) hurt by that”
(the loss of land). Defending one’s land was, in this situation, characterized as
selfdefense and not violence.
Like several of the other participants, identity and religion served as critical
factors in determining if violence would be acceptable in a given situation for participant
number eight. During the interview, this participant indicated that he self-identified
primarily with his family and discussed how violence would be justified in cases of
selfdefense. To support this position, this participant cited a verse from the Qur’an,
saying
“fight in the way of Allah those who fight you but don’t try to transgress…indeed that
God or Allah doesn’t like the transgressors”. His interpretation of this statement was
“religion…they all the time I think that they urge, approve self-defense.” From this
participant’s point of view, Islam supported the idea of violence in self-defense, which
also contributed to the premise that religion was in fact an important consideration in the
characterization of violence as acceptable or unacceptable.
This participant also made the distinction between violence and self-defense
several times during the interview, despite the broader definition of violence provided at
the beginning of the discussion. The participant made statements to clarify the distinction
between the two concepts, “let’s say first we differentiate between self-defense and
violence” and “We have to differentiate my point between self-defense and violence.”
while reiterating that Islam allowed for self-defense, but disapproved of violence
(transgression).
In terms of media sources, this participant, like many others, discussed the
credibility of the media outlet (e.g. BBC or CNN) rather than addressing the medium (e.g.
radio, TV or social media). The means of reception was less important in terms of
credibility than the organization(s) responsible for the information. This participant
identified the history and reputation of the media outlet as being critical factors in
determining the credibility of sources.
For participant number nine, his perceptions of violence were not clearly aligned
with his identity, but his attitude toward violence was connected to his religious beliefs.
In the discussion on self-identification, this participant indicated that he didn’t align with
a racial, ethnic, national, or familial group; this participant self-identified as a human.
When asked what an appropriate response would be if someone were to challenge this
identity and to treat him as less than a human, he responded that he would consider
violence if the perpetrator was another person, but he would “not fight the government.
Absolutely.”
When asked in general, about justifications for violence, this participant
mentioned that defending one’s family or defending those who had been wronged would
be a valid reason for a violent response. Situations in which people were being harmed
“without any right” or “without any reason” could also prompt a violent response.
Additionally, this participant mentioned that “silly reasons” were not enough to be
violent, but that defending his home or other property against someone with ill intentions
would be acceptable.
When discussing what his religion taught about violence, this participant
mentioned that in disputes, Islam required several steps before resorting to violence. As
he understood it, his religion required adherents to be “more patient (and to be) more
respectful, but at the end of the day…you shouldn’t be a weak person.” He also
mentioned that Islam advised that “the last solution is going to fight.”
When discussing his religious teachings, this participant also mentioned that his
faith required adherents to go to the police before resorting to violence. Because this
statement was made in the context of religious teachings, and no other statements were
made about the willingness or ability of the police to protect its citizens, it was difficult to
make a connection between this individual’s perceptions of violence and his faith in the
justice system.
For this last participant, her religious beliefs were the only considerations that
could be connected to her perceptions of violence. In this case, identity was difficult to
isolate because this participant self-identified as a Middle Eastern individual, and there
was significant overlap between her ethnicity and her religion. Faith in the justice system
was not stated as a consideration in determining if violence would be acceptable, but this
participant did include immediacy as a factor in judging if violence was warranted in a
situation, justifying violence as an “instantaneous” response.
This participant also indicated that violence would be justified in self-defense or
in defense of her family, a view commonly expressed during the interviews and aligned
with her religious teachings. In addition to these two conditions, the participant also
suggested that violence may be understandable in cases where a person is experiencing
“intense levels of pain” although she fell short of stating that violence, in these cases
would be acceptable. To illustrate her view, the participant offered an example: a
situation in which a child had been assaulted and the mother took revenge on the
perpetrator. In this case, she said, “I could understand that. I mean, she couldn’t take that
pain…So, I understand it. I don’t encourage it, if she talked to me before, I will not
encourage her, but it happened, and I think I understand it.”
In terms of explicit guidance from her religion, this participant responded, “I don’t
see it as a violent religion” but she did acknowledge that some people would take phrases
out of context and use them to commit violent acts. This participant’s suggested that the
religion advocated peace, but some people interpreted and/or implemented Islam to
support violence.
Research Results
The intent of this research was to identify the factors that most influenced how an
individual perceived violence. Although the research focused on religious influences,
credibility of sources and perceived threats, any factors that had an influence on the way
violence was perceived would and should be considered. In this case the reliance on law
enforcement and the protection of the American justice system were factors that were not
initially considered, but based on the purpose of the research, should not be considered
“discrepant” or “non-conforming”. It is simply “unexpected”.
In three of the interviews participants specifically stated that they would rely on
the American justice system to protect them and to protect their families and that violence
on their part would not be necessary or in one case, even imaginable. Their confidence in
the existing system to provide this critical support is an important factor in whether they
perceived violence to be acceptable or not. On the other hand, in one interview, a
participant described a situation in which violence would be acceptable and a factor in
that case was that there was “no law to help enforce justice.”
Align
with
Religion
Identity Loss/Perceived Loss Protecton
of Self-
Family
Belief in
Justice
System
Family Muslim City Other Material
Items
Status,
Money Religion
Interview #1
Interview #2
Interview #3
Interview #4
Interview #5
Interview #6
Interview #7
Interview #8
Interview #9
Interview #10
Figure 1. Reasons that influence perceptions about violence.
Data Analysis
For this research, the initial coding scheme included the same categories that were
used in the literature review. The topics that were most applicable to the data that was
collected were: Identity (family), Religion Supports Peace, Religion Supports Violence,
Religion Influences Identity and Justification of Violence. Although the literature did not
always fit into a single category, when coding the interviews there was significant overlap
in the categories. For example, a participant, when asked what Islam says about violence
responded that, “religion says be peaceful and you should find different ways to find your
way out of a problem, for fighting is the last resort.” This statement could be coded as
Religion Supports Peace, Religion Supports Violence and Justification of
Violence. The distinction between the statements that would fit into the Religion Supports
Peace category and the Religion Supports Violence category became increasingly less
clear when coding the interviews.
The Justification of Violence category was also not as useful during this phase of
the process. The purpose of the research was to identify the main factors that affected an
individual’s perception of violence, so a significant portion of each interview could be
classified as Justification of Violence. This category quickly became meaningless because
it could be applied to most of the interviews.
The categories that ultimately emerged during the data analysis process were:
Religious Identity, Family Identity, Belief in Justice, Protection of Self-Family and
Alignment with Religion. These categories were broad enough to allow for grouping yet
specific enough to facilitate differentiation of the data.
Because all of the participants identified with a specific grouping, (e.g. family,
religion, city, etc.) the coding category of Identity did not provide sufficient
differentiation, much like the original category of Justification of Violence. When the data
were analyzed, two categories emerged as the most prevalent among this population:
religion and family. Over half of the participants identified most as a member of their
family and two of the ten identified most as members of their religious community. The
categories of Religious Identity and Family Identity were created to categorize findings
for these two groups. Two of the remaining participants identified most with a city, but
throughout the interviews made no other reference to these cities, so it was difficult to
identify how this factor impacted the individuals’ perception of violence.
Although Belief in Justice was originally not anticipated as a factor that would
have influence on an individual’s attitude on the justification of violence, this category
ultimately emerged as an important category in this study. A third of the participants
openly expressed confidence in the American justice system, reducing the need for or the
justification of violence. What was not explored in these interviews was the idea that law
enforcement personnel conducting activities that would be considered “violent”.
Alignment with Religion was not one of the original coding categories but
emerged as a significant consideration during the data analysis. In all of the cases, the
participants attitudes toward violence were aligned with the teachings of Islam. In several
cases, participants stated that their personal tolerance for violence was stricter than what
Islam allowed. For example, one participant stated that violence would be acceptable “if
someone’s threatening your family” but Islam would condone violence to “fight for
change…(or)…to fight for what you think is right.”. Although the individual
interpretations of Islam were not all the same, in all cases, the individual beliefs were
aligned with, and supported by their interpretations of their faith.
One discrepant case involved a participant who seemed to contradict himself
when asked about what his religion taught concerning the justification of violence.
Initially when asked under what circumstances Islam would condone violence, the
participant emphatically responded that there were no situations where violence would be
condoned by his religious teachings. Later in the interview the participant stated,
“Because Islam says that you know if you have harmed a person without any reason.”
implying that there could be an acceptable reason to harm another person. This
participant also stated that “Islam says that you have to abide by the law…whatever U.S.
laws are I have obligated to observe those laws” which would allow violence in situations
of self-defense. Because the initial negative response was associated specifically with the
violence between Shi’a and Sunnis, it was not given as much consideration as the
responses that followed.
Evidence and Trustworthiness
The concept of credibility in qualitative research is similar to the idea of internal
validity in quantitative research. Credibility is defined as the trustworthiness or
believability of the results, which in qualitative research can only be judged from the
perspective of the participant (Trochim, 2006). For this study, development and peer
review of the collection instrument, triangulation of the data sources and saturation were
used to increase the credibility of the results.
During the conduct of the interviews, there were very few deviations from the
original questions, which were open-ended and allowed the participant to elaborate as he
or she felt was appropriate. Questions were read directly from the interview questionnaire
and only reworded if the original question was misunderstood or the participant requested
or needed clarification.
The credibility of research results can also be enhanced through the triangulation
of data sources (Cohen & Crabtree, 2006). For this research triangulation of sources was
incorporated during data collection and data analysis. Participants for this study varied in
age, gender, race, ethnicity and nation of origin. Additionally, interviews were conducted
in a variety of settings and data collection lasted almost two years.
Commonalities and consistencies were identified during data analysis. Saturation
was achieved when no significantly new data were revealed in subsequent interviews.
Transferability in qualitative research can be explained as the extent to which the
results of a study can be generalized or applied to a different setting (Trochim, 2006).
Ultimately, transferability of research results must be determined by the individuals
attempting to generalize the data. In order to do this the researcher conducting the study
has an obligation to clearly and accurately articulate the context of the study. This
transferability strategy of explaining the context of the study and potential limitations of
transferability has not changed.
The transferability of this case study would be limited due to the uniqueness of
the participants that were included in this research. Because these interviews were
conducted in Western Michigan and focused on individuals living in Kalamazoo and
Calhoun Counties, many of the participants were associated, in some way, with Western
Michigan University, located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Due to the unique socioeconomic
status of the participants, particularly the education level of the individuals, the results of
this research would not be representative of the broader population of Sunni Muslims in
the United States.
The results may be considered transferable to similar communities where there are
large populations of well-educated individuals that have had opportunities to travel
internationally. Transferability may be a possibility for Sunni Muslims near “college
towns” or communities neighboring universities or other institutions of higher learning.
Dependability in qualitative research is comparable to reliability in quantitative
research, and it describes whether or not research results would be repeatable (Trochim,
2006). Dependability or repeatability in research often depends on external factors that
would affect the perceptions, attitudes or reactions of the participants.
For this case study, data collection occurred between September 2015 and August
2017. During that time, the rise of ISIS in the Middle East and anti-Muslim rhetoric from
the Republican candidate for President, specifically Trump’s statement “calling for a total
and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” (Trump, 2015, para 1)
influenced many in Muslim communities across the United States. The ISIS beheadings
and “calls for homegrown terrorism in the West” (John, 2015) coupled with Trump’s
divisive rhetoric and subsequent win in Michigan left many Muslims in the state
unsettled, disheartened, and feeling threatened (Hijazi, 2016). Because of the influence
these external factors may have had on the Muslim community, dependability, or
repeatability would be difficult to achieve in this situation.
In qualitative research, confirmability describes the idea that an individual’s
research can be validated or corroborated (Trochim, 2006). This can be accomplished
through an unbiased examination or corroboration of the results. The coding process can
also be evaluated to ensure consistency in the research (Van Den Hoonaard, 2008). In this
situation, though, the researcher was responsible for coding all of the data collected in the
interviews so intracoder reliability was not a consideration for this study.
For this research, a colleague and fellow PhD candidate was enlisted as a
peerreviewer to evaluate the procedures used in the data analysis. The peer-reviewer was
tasked to assess the coding of the data in the key categories and to identify any instances
of bias or contradictions in the results. I provided the peer-reviewer with the results of the
research as well as key quotes from the coded data, which was sanitized to remove all
identifying information.
The peer review process resulted in minor adjustments to grammar and word
choice to improve clarity and it also identified minor inconsistencies in the chapter. The
major conclusions were not challenged during this process although there were
discussions about the interpretation that participants felt an “obligation” or “duty” to
protect their family.
Summary
In response to the main research question for this study: What factors influence
how Sunni Muslims from Western Michigan perceive acts of violence committed against
another person? the data identify identity, religious beliefs, and confidence in the justice
system as having the most influence on the participants’ perceptions of violence. How an
individual identifies, either as a member of a family or a member of a religious group,
will affect if he or she supports or condones the use of violence to protect it. For example,
for those who identify most with their family, protection of their spouse and children
would be sufficient justification for the commission of violence. For those who identify
most with their religion, protection of their faith and their ability to practice it are reasons
for a violent response if this is threatened.
Additionally, there was a correlation between religious doctrinal support of
violence in limited situations and participants’ attitudes toward violence. In all cases, an
individual’s religious beliefs aligned with their attitudes toward violence. The nature and
cause of this relationship between an individual’s perceptions of violence and their
interpretation of what Islam directs is unclear at this point.
Lastly, an individual’s belief that the justice system will protect them in situations
where violence may occur is also critical to how violence is perceived. If an individual
has confidence that law enforcement will provide the necessary protection to what they
feel is valuable, violence becomes unnecessary or unacceptable and in at least one case,
unimaginable. On the other hand, a lack of faith in the existing justice system could result
in a lower tolerance for accepting violence.
The first sub-question to the main research question in this research is: What role
does religion play in the perception of violence by a religious adherent? and the data
indicate that religion supports the way the participants perceive the acceptability of
violence. In all cases the participants either suggested or overtly stated that Islam, as they
understood it, would condone the use of violence in specific situations. For example, one
participant stated that according to the Qur’an, violence “is only perhaps justified in
(response to) …oppression…and if it’s violent oppression, then we must oppose it
physically.” Oher participants expressed how their religion supported the use of violence
in self-defense, which supported their acceptance of violence in cases of self-defense.
Three of the participants, when asked what Islam would advise when it comes to
violence responded that Islam directed its followers to comply with the laws of the nation
in which they lived. This is consistent with a reference to Verse 4:59 in the Qur’an which
states, “obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you
disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you should believe in
Allah and the Last Day” (Quranic Arabic Corpus, n.d., para 2). Compliance with the law
and deferring to the justice system was also reflected in their attitude toward violence.
In response to the second sub-question that supports the main research question,
What sources of information most influence an individual’s attitude on violence? (e.g.
religious texts, formal religious teachings, family, school, news, other sources) there was
a variety of responses. Participants in this study identified their families, social media,
schools, and the news, primarily international news, as credible sources of information.
During the interviews, seven of the ten participants discussed the importance of
researching news items and looking for corroboration among different news sources.
Several of the participants identified getting different international perspectives as a
critical consideration in believing information published through the mainstream media.
It was difficult to identify any single source of information that had a significant
influence on a participant’s perception of violence. Of interest was the fact that none of
the participants identified the Qur’an or their Imam as the most credible source of
information, acknowledging some level of bias even in religious teachings. One
participant noted that “not even religious institutions…or scholars” would be the single
source that could be believed without corroboration. Even those participants who
identified most as a Muslim did not identify a religious source as being one of the most
credible sources of information.
The responses to the third sub-question to the main research question, How do
threats of perceived or actual loss affect how a religious person perceives violence?
identified that for most, neither perceived or actual material loss nor status loss was
sufficient justification for violence. For some of the participants, there could exist no
situation in which their ability to practice their religion would be threatened, while others
indicated that they may respond violently to a threat to their material resources in
specific, limited situations. When asked about the possibility of having their religious
freedoms hindered, some suggested that they would continue to practice in private while
others advocated moving to a place where they could exercise their religious freedoms.
One of the participants whose primarily identification was as a Muslim over other
groups, did state that preservation of his ability to practice his religion, if it ever could
occur, would be a reason for violence. Specifically, he stated that, “religion for me is a
way of life” and that inhibiting his ability to practice his faith would be considered
oppression of his way of life, which would in turn justify a violent response. He also
equated this kind of situation to the Spanish Inquisition and clearly did not see this as a
realistic possibility.
Conclusion
In Chapter 4, I discuss the results of this case study conducted to identify factors
that affect this group of Muslims’ perceptions of violence. The intent of this research is
not to determine a conclusive or causal relationship between the factors discussed in this
study and the way an individual perceives violence. The study was designed to identify
factors that influence the reasons that individuals in this population perceive violence as
acceptable or unacceptable.
The results of this research suggest that three factors had the most influence on
determining whether violence was acceptable to this population of Muslims in Western
Michigan: identity, religious beliefs, and confidence in the justice system. Specifically,
regarding identity, when individuals self-identified with their family over other
groupings, violence would be acceptable to protect their family. This alignment also
occurred with the individual who self-identified most with his religion. Violence would
be justified to defend his beliefs and his right to practice his faith, if the situation were to
ever arise.
There was also a correlation between an individual’s understanding of their
religious doctrine and their perception of violence, although the exact relationship is not
clear. What is clear is that all of the participants indicated that Islam supported their
position on violence. In no cases did a participant indicate that their religious beliefs were
in conflict with their position on violence.
Lastly, a participant’s faith in the justice system had an important effect on
whether the individual considered violence to be acceptable or not. For participants who
had expressed confidence in the existing justice system, violence was not necessary, not
acceptable, and for one participant, not conceivable. As previously mentioned, the exact
relationship between religious beliefs and perceptions of violence are unclear but a
correlation does exist between these two factors.
In addition to these factors, threats to or perceived threats to object resources (e.g.
assets, material goods), condition resources (e.g. status), and energies (e.g. money) were
also examined in this research. Most of the participants expressed that threats to or loss of
resources in these categories would never be sufficient justification to commit violence,
but in a few cases, and in limited situations, violence may be a viable response. Some of
the participants did indicate that a threat to or an attack on their home, when their family
was inside would justify a violent response, but most differentiated this from the loss of
the physical structure, which was not sufficient to justify violence.
In this research I also discussed how external information sources would affect an
individual’s perception of violence. Specifically, I examined if and how the credibility of
informational sources impacted an individual’s perception of violence. The results of this
research indicate that the mainstream news, family, schools, and social media were all
considered credible sources of information. News sources that were judged to be the most
credible provided information that could be corroborated by international sources, such as
BBC or France 24. This group identified no religious sources, such as mosques, imams,
or religious teachings to be the most credible sources of information.
The potential link between an individual’s identity and whether that individual
accepts or rejects violence was expected. The link between an individual’s religious
beliefs and their perception of violence was also expected. The idea that faith or
confidence in the justice system would play a role in that perception was not expected.
There is logic in the argument that the effectiveness of the existing justice system would
impact the need for an individual or a group to engage in violence, though. In this study,
participants who had immigrated to the United States and discussed American law
enforcement, expressed confidence in the justice system, while the participants who were
native-born did not convey this sentiment. Specifically, the participants who were born in
the United States did not express any indication that going to the police or depending on
law enforcement was an option to be pursued in the place of violence.
In Chapter 5, I examine the results of this research in terms of their significance to
planners and policy makers in the public and private sector. These factors are discussed in
terms of identifying potential reasons for the connection to perceptions of violence.
Lastly, I explore the findings to identify potential meaning and to predict future
behaviors.
Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusion, and Recommendations
Introduction
The purpose of this research was to identify the factors that influence how Sunni
Muslims in Western Michigan perceive violence. Specifically, I intended to determine
which factors had the greatest influence religious adherents in determining whether
violence against another person was acceptable or unacceptable. Initially, the three factors
I examined in this study were: religion, identity, and the credibility of information
sources. For this research, identity was determined solely by the individual being
interviewed and there was no requirement for the participant to explain or justify how or
why the self-identification was made.
I conducted the study using a case study approach in which members of a single
mosque or masjid were interviewed to provide data on how these perceptions and
attitudes were formed and maintained. I used a questionnaire to conduct the interviews,
and in general there was little or no deviation from the questionnaire unless the
participant needed clarification or elaboration.
I conducted this research to answer one central research question and three
subquestions. The central research question was designed to identify the factors that had
the most influence on how Sunni Muslims from Western Michigan perceived violence,
either as acceptable or unacceptable in a given situation. Recognizing that violence could
be interpreted in numerous different ways, violence for this research was specifically
defined as the intentional use of physical force or aggression against another person with
the intent to cause injury, death or psychological harm (Violence, 2014). To limit the
discussion, the concept of violence was only discussed as it would apply to a person;
violence toward physical objects was not included in this research.
The three sub-questions in this study addressed specific factors to be considered,
specifically the role of religion, the influence of information sources, and the impact of
perceived or actual loss. I developed and organized the interview questionnaire to elicit
responses that addressed the central research question and each of the three subquestions.
The interviews were conducted in Western Michigan, and the participants were
selected from the population of adherents associated with a single mosque, also in
Western Michigan. Because of the sensitivity of the topic for this group, I afforded each
of the participants the opportunity to select the specific time and location of the interview
to ensure the participant was comfortable with the setting.
The results of this study indicate that the following three factors had the greatest
influence on how the participants perceived violence: identity, religious beliefs, and
confidence in the justice system. The way an individual self-identified determined not
only how they perceived themselves, but also how they perceived violence and how they
determined the situations in which violence would be acceptable. An individual’s
religious beliefs provided support for their individual positions on violence in that
participants identified no conflicts between what Islam taught and their individual
positions on violence. Belief in the justice system affected the way participants perceived
violence because individuals who expressed confidence in the American justice system
were less inclined to find violence acceptable.
The Interpretations of the Findings
The three factors that most influenced how violence was perceived were an
individual’s identity, an individual’s religious beliefs, and an individual’s confidence in
the justice system. Regarding an individual’s identity, analysis of the collected data
indicated a link between how an individual self-identified and the types of situations in
which violence would be acceptable. For example, individuals who identified most with
their family would find violence acceptable in defense of their family. Religious beliefs
were also identified as an important factor in that all of the participants indicated that
their personal position on violence was in alignment with the teachings of Islam.
Although there were differences in the interpretations of Islam, the alignment between the
individual’s teachings, and the individual’s position on violence was consistent. Lastly,
there appeared to be an inverse relationship between an individual’s confidence in the
justice system and their acceptance of violence. Participants who expressed high
confidence in law enforcement and the justice system had a lower tolerance for violence,
whereas participants who expressed low confidence in the existing justice system
described more circumstances where violence would be acceptable.
Recent literature has shown that an individual’s perception of violence can be
influenced by several factors including social groupings that reflect an in-group/outgroup
relationship (Canetti-Nisim, Halperin, Sharvit, & Hobföll, 2009; Mani, 2012; Reader,
2012; van Liere, 2011). The self-identification with either family or religious group could
create this in-group/out-group situation for these adherents. In a specifically religious
context, members of the in-group (adherents) may see members of the outgroup (non-
believers) as lesser beings, resulting in a lower standard of behavior and possibly violence
toward the out-group (Ginges et al., 2009; van Liere, 2009).
In this study, I examined individuals’ perceptions of violence through the lens of
Hobföll’s COR theory of stress. This theory holds that “people strive to retain, protect,
and build resources and that what is threatening to them is the potential or actual loss of
these valued resources” (Hobföll, 1989, p. 516). In this study, most of the participants
expressed that the preservation of object (material) resources, conditions (status or
reputation), or energies (money) would not be adequate justification for violence. Only in
a few, limited circumstances would violence be acceptable to protect these resources. The
theory also posits that if an individual does not have a reasonable means to build and
retain resources, that person may consider unreasonable responses or “loss control
strategies that have a high cost and poor chance of success” (Hobföll, 1989, p. 519). In
the article explaining his original theory, Hobföll (1989) did not explicitly cite violence as
a solution, but given the definitions, violence cannot be rejected as a possibility.
Sub-question 1 Results
Religion played two crucial roles in the way violence was perceived the
participants in my study. Religion helped to form an individual’s identity and it served to
validate an individual’s position on violence. When I asked participants to identify the
factor that best described how they saw themselves, a fifth of the participants identified
themselves as Muslims before any other grouping. The second role of Islam for this
population is that it provides validation or endorsement of the individual positions on
violence. Although there were several different interpretations about the guidance given
in the Qur’an on violence, the one constant was the alignment between an individual’s
interpretation of the holy book and their position on violence.
Previous research by Sen and Wagner (2009), van Liere (2009), and Gates and
Steane (2009) has shown that religion can have a profound influence on an individual’s
identity, and can also shape an individual’s perceptions of violence. Additionally, the
alignment between individuals’ perceptions of violence and their interpretation of their
faith is not unusual or unexpected. While authors like Lusthaus (2011) and Cinoğlu
(2010) described the relationship between religion and violence as one of simple
justification, Ҫinar (2009) explained that religion may be “a way of framing or
representing a struggle in terms that a political constituency will understand” (p. 111).
Although it is not clear whether the participants’ position on violence was affected by
their interpretation of their religion or vice versa, the correlation between the participants’
perceptions of violence and the interpretation of their faith is clear.
The role religion plays in its influence on an individual’s identity is also an
important consideration as it applies to the COR theory of stress. Although Hobföll
(1989) did not explicitly identify identity as a resource to be protected and maintained, he
does describe resources as “those objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies
that are valued by the individual or that serve as a means for attainment of these objects,
personal characteristics, conditions, or energies” (p. 516). Identity, and specifically
religious identity, could be considered a personal characteristic that would qualify as a
critical resource given this definition.
Sub-question 2 Results
During the interviews conducted for this research there were several sources of
information identified as having influence on an individual’s perception of violence, but
there was no single information source that seemed to have significantly more influence
than the others. Participants identified family members, news outlets, social media, and
schools as sources of credible information. Neither religious texts nor formal religious
teachings was explicitly identified as a credible source by the participants, but during the
interviews, the Qur’an was cited by participants as support for their position on violence.
While mosques and schools served as a critical source of information for
Palestinian nationalists, (Post et al., 2009) schools and mosques were in general, not as
significant to the participants in this study. The participants in this study had a wider
variety of information sources available to them, and as a result considered daily news to
be generally the most credible in terms of providing information. The credibility of
schools can be also confirmed as a valuable information source for at least a portion of
this population but only a small minority mentioned that schools were a reliable source of
information. Given the fact that none of the participants identified religious texts or
religious teachings as credible sources of information, the results of this study can neither
support nor refute the belief that religious teachings or religious texts are credible sources
of information.
The COR Theory was developed to help explain how and why individuals respond
to stress (Hobföll, 1989) so it would be less applicable to confirm or refute the data
collected for this sub-question. The credibility or believability of an information source
may have an impact on how an individual perceives his or her resources or it may
indirectly affect whether an individual feels threatened, but this theory would not be
generally applicable to the results of this sub-question.
Sub-question 3 Results
Perceived or actual loss affected an individual’s perception of violence primarily
when an individual’s family was threatened. In limited situations, a threat to an
individual’s resources may be sufficient justification for violence and in one case, when
the participant perceived that he was the victim of oppression, violence would be
acceptable. During this study participants were asked how the loss of specific resources
would affect their perception of violence. Most of the participants identified that a
material loss, like the loss of a house or a car, would not justify the use of violence, but
more than one of the participants stated that if their family were in the house, then
violence would be justified to protect their family. When asked about the loss of religious
freedoms, specifically the freedom to worship, the majority of the participants expressed
that such a situation could not exist or that they would practice in private or move to a
place where they could practice freely.
There are numerous studies detailed in recent literature about the perceived
oppression and humiliation of Muslims across the world and how this view contributes to
the justification of violence against those responsible for the oppression. Cavanaugh
(2012) specifically speaks of the loss of religious freedoms in his research, while Haynes
(2009), Moten (2010), and Sirseloudi (2012) discuss how perceptions of oppression and
persecution, which could involve social or material losses, contribute to the notion that
violence is an acceptable solution to resolve these issues.
This sub-question specifically addresses the applicability of the COR Theory to
this research. The results indicate that a loss or the threat of a loss of family, identity or
religious freedoms can contribute to the belief that violence would be acceptable to
preserve these resources.
Limitations of the Study
During the data collection process, it became apparent that the information
collected would not be easily transferable or repeatable due to the unique circumstances
surrounding this study. Transferability of the data would be limited because the
participants who volunteered to participate in this research were all well-educated,
employed full time and had a relatively high socioeconomic status in the community.
Additionally, eight of the ten participants held either graduate or terminal degrees, which
is not uncommon in this community, but is certainly not representative of Muslim
population in the nation or across the globe. Transferability would be limited to
populations that came from similar communities.
In terms of repeatability, the timing of the study and the uniqueness of the external
influences would make these findings difficult to repeat. During the conduct of this study
the internationally-known group ISIS rose to power, prompting anti-Muslim rhetoric
across the state and across the nation. Additionally, the inflammatory and divisive
comments from the then-Republican candidate for President caused many Muslims in
Michigan to be concerned and distrustful (Hijazi, 2016). Although these concerns are not
unheard of within this population, or any minority population, the extent of the unease
among the Muslims in Michigan would certainly limit the dependability of the research,
making it difficult to repeat the results.
Recommendations for Further Research
An examination of the demographics of the participants reveals a population that
is unique in their socioeconomic status, specifically that they are much more
welleducated than the average citizen in the United States. Across the nation,17.6% of the
population has earned a bachelor’s degree, 7.2% has earned a master’s and 1.2% of the
U.S. population has earned a doctorate degree (Ryan & Siebens, 2012). For this study
three of the participants had earned a terminal degree, four were in graduate school, two
participants had earned a Master’s degree and the remaining participant had earned a
Bachelor’s degree, which is clearly atypical when compared to the American population
as a whole. Further research should be conducted to include participants from all
socioeconomic groups and education levels to get a better understanding of how
education may affect an adherent’s perception of violence.
Additional recommendations for further research would include a quantitative
study to examine the three factors identified in this study and to better understand the
relationships between religious beliefs, identity, faith in the justice system, and
perceptions of violence. Quantitative research will allow the relationships to be examined
more closely and to determine if there could exist a causal relationship between how an
adherent perceives violence and any of these three factors.
Qualitative research should also be conducted to identify additional factors that
may influence the perception of violence for adherents of other religious groups. The link
between violence and the Abrahamic religions has been extensively studied through the
holy texts associated with Christianity, Islam, and Judaism (Boustan, et al., 2009;
Ibrahim, 2009; Van Pelt Campbell, 2011). The link between violence against women and
patriarchal religions like Hinduism has likewise been studied through the examination of
religious texts (Bradley, 2010). Qualitative research to identify the specific factors that
affect adherents’ perception of violence should be conducted with other religions to
determine if similarities and differences would exist with the results of this study. Ginges
et al. (2009) included several different religions and denominations in their research,
which allowed them to apply their findings to a broader audience rather than being
limited to a specific religion, denomination or sect.
Lastly, additional research should be conducted to determine how the intersection
of religion and race or ethnicity affects an individual’s perception of violence. Some of
the participants involved in this research were native-born Americans while others had
migrated to the United States from other nations. The native-born Muslims did not
express faith or confidence in the existing justice system, but due to the scope of the
research, this phenomenon could not be fully examined. During the time that this data
were collected, law enforcement organizations across the country were being criticized
for racial profiling and shootings of young minority men. The negative perceptions
toward law enforcement by some racial or ethnic groups may have also influenced the
results of this study. Further phenomenological or ethnographic research, like the
research conducted by Lee in 2010 on the African American Muslim community should
be conducted to determine how much influence a religious individual’s race or ethnicity
has on their perception of violence.
The results of this research could be utilized by governmental and
nongovernmental organizations that regularly engage with agencies and organizations
with large Muslim populations. The organizations that use this data should not be limited
to those that deal with terrorism or religiously-based violence, but it may also include
groups that have diverse populations or are incorporating greater diversity in their
organizations. The results of this study can also be of value to smaller entities that have
influence in the communities. This research examined the concept of violence, which
could include secular or religious violence, both of which can be problematic, whether it
be on a large scale or a small scale. Understanding the motivations of religious adherents
is important in that it can lead to open dialog and enduring, meaningful results rather than
simple and possibly temporary compliance.
Implications for Social Change
As American interests continue to expand globally, the need to better understand
the standards, protocols, and social norms of different societies also grows. At a macro
level, globalization increases the need for federal, state, and local governmental agencies,
who regularly engage populations from a variety of different cultures need to understand
the values, principles, and beliefs of the organizations that they engage with. The
implication for social change at the federal level would be reflected in improved relations
between nations, enhanced collaboration in diplomatic matters and/or a potential
reduction in conflicts. Based on the complexity of actions and interactions that occur at
the federal level, it would be difficult to verify or quantify any social change that may
occur as a result of this research.
On a micro level, as diversity increases within communities, neighborhoods and
workplaces, individuals need to understand the motivations, behaviors, and viewpoints of
the people with whom they live and work. At the community level, social change can
occur by understanding how religions help to form and maintain in-groups and outgroups.
When these groups form and one group is disenfranchised or perceives danger to itself,
violence may result (Schwartz et al., 2009; Trisk, 2011). School districts can help to
alleviate these perceptions by incorporating curriculum and activities that are inclusive
and accepting of cultural differences rather than being divisive and ethnocentric. Local
governments can also consider policy changes that support the acceptance of different
cultural groups rather than advocating positions that enforce social hierarchies based on
factors like race, ethnicity or religion.
Social change can also be facilitated by religious organizations within the
communities. Because religion can provide a motivation for peaceful behaviors or a
justification for violent behaviors especially when inequalities occur (Basedau et al.,
2011; Huber, 2011; Kippenberg, 2010), these organizations can be important proponents
for encouraging nonviolent responses to perceived or actual injustices. Religious
institutions can also serve as an “authority that gives the social and political order its
reason for being” (Juergensmeyer, 2010, p. 266) so religious leaders are often in a
position to determine when violence is morally justified and when it is not. Leaders of
religious organizations can also serve a critical role in reinforcing the peaceful nature of
religion rather than highlighting any violent characteristics.
Lastly, local law enforcement agencies can affect social change by facilitating an
increased confidence in their ability to protect the members of their communities. Local
law enforcement serves as the visible element of the justice system, so for many
individuals, interactions with local police are often representative of the entire justice
system. In this study, half of the participants expressed that their local law enforcement
would provide sufficient protection so that violence would not be necessary. None of the
participants who were born and raised in the United States expressed such confidence in
their law enforcement agencies or the American justice system in general. Increased
confidence in the justice system and in the local law enforcement agencies may affect
social change by reducing the perceived need for violence.
Theoretical Implications
The basis of Hobföll’s COR theory of stress is the idea that “people strive to
retain, protect, and build resources and that what is threatening to them is the potential or
actual loss of these valued resources” (Hobföll, 1989, p. 516). Acknowledging that
identity can be considered a “valued resource,” coupled with the idea that religion, for
many religious adherents is often a critical component of their identity, positive social
change can occur by developing and implementing processes that reduce the threat to an
individual’s identity.
The theory also suggests that in an effort to reduce the possibility of experiencing
future stress, individuals will build up surpluses of these valuable resources also known
as developing resilience. High cost strategies, such as violence can occur when
individuals experience a loss, or a perceived loss of resources and have few options, if
any to replenish them (Hobföll, 1989). Additionally, inappropriate or counterproductive
strategies may be utilized when “those who lack resources attempt to employ what
resources they have, often producing self-defeating consequences” (Hobföll, 1989, p.
519). To counteract the employment of these counterproductive or high cost strategies,
schools and other community organizations can help individuals to build up and maintain
these surpluses by supporting cultural differences and acknowledging the value of diverse
cultures. Law enforcement agencies can help to reduce the threat of loss by providing the
population with a sense of security and protection of these resources.
Recommendations for Practice
At the federal or state level, managers, planners and policy makers can incorporate
this research into policies that affect interactions with organizations where Muslims
comprise a large portion of the population. This research has the potential to affect a wide
range of fields at the state or national level, including security, intelligence, diplomacy
and operations. Multi-national corporations may also benefit from the information gained
in this study to better understand the similarities and differences in perceptions of
violence among Muslim and non-Muslim societies.
Local governments and community organizations can use the results of this
research to develop policies that provide support for and reduce the threat to their Muslim
residents. Schools and neighborhood or community groups can help Muslims to feel
comfortable and secure with their cultural/social identity through tolerant policies and the
acceptance of diversity in the school curriculums. Local law enforcement can also
facilitate positive social changes in the community by providing a sense of physical
security for their Muslim residents. Individuals in the community can contribute to
positive social change by speaking out against discriminatory policies or practices against
Muslims and reinforcing practices that accept cultural differences.
Reflections of the Researcher
This research process was personally enlightening and professionally informative,
although it took significantly longer than originally expected. Having had significant
experience with different cultures and having lived in Europe as well as several Muslim
nations, much of what was discussed during the interviews was not surprising. Having
met and worked with many intelligent, articulate, and dedicated Muslims it was not
unexpected to learn that this population’s perception of violence would be similar to the
perceptions expressed by friends and colleagues that are Christians, Jews, Hindus,
Buddhists and even atheists. The conditions under which this group of Muslims found
violence to be acceptable were not unusual, but seemed normal and almost predictable.
The only unexpected factor that was identified in this research was the confidence
that some of the participants felt about the capabilities of law enforcement and the
integrity of the justice system. As data analysis was conducted on the transcribed
interviews, it did not take long to identify that the native-born Americans, did not express
the same confidence in the justice system. This undoubtedly influenced how these
participants perceived violence but the reasons for this lack of confidence were not
examined during this study. Given the timeframe that the data were collected and the
national discussion that was occurring about shootings of unarmed minority males, one
can speculate about the reasoning for this lack of confidence, but without further research
the theory cannot be confirmed.
The data collection took much longer than expected, for reasons that have been
articulated in previous chapters, but there was no way to predict the obstacles
encountered during this process. The complications with finding participants and making
changes to the original plan were frustrating. Collecting data while staying within the
limits approved by the IRB was more difficult than originally anticipated and at one point
this researcher considered changing the criteria for participants. Identifying new key
communicators was initially problematic and often frustrating but ultimately sufficient
participants were identified to complete the research.
Ensuring that the researcher’s personal values and biases did not have a
substantial effect on the results of the research was always a concern with this qualitative
study. To reduce the probability that the researcher’s biases and preconceptions would
influence the results, several measures were put in place. During data collection, the
researcher used an audio recorder to document the interviews. This way, the actual words
and tone of the interviewers would be preserved for future inspection. Additionally, the
interviews were conducted by strictly following the questions as written and only
allowing for variation if a participant misunderstood or was confused about a question.
During the data analysis process, there was the greatest chance for bias to be included in
the results, so a colleague, who is also in the doctoral process was recruited to conduct a
peer-review on the chapters. Overall this researcher is confident that the measures that
were put in place to prevent or reduce bias were effective.
After Chapter 4 was written, I reflected on my personal feelings about the
effectiveness of local law enforcement and the impartiality of the American justice
system. Although the inequities that exist within the American justice system toward
some minority groups is well-documented, neither this knowledge nor the recent events
occurring across the nation have changed my perception of when violence is acceptable.
All systems have inequities, but overall our justice system is effective and reliable.
Additionally, we as a nation are working to make it better. Years of international travel
and significant experience with Middle Eastern cultures have had a more profound effect
on my idea of when violence is acceptable and when it is not. The recent domestic events
have had little to no effect on my position toward violence.
Conclusion
From the highest levels of international diplomacy to the individual engagement
in the workplace, globalization is changing how the world interacts. National interests are
now so closely tied to international concerns that failure to understand other cultures can
be catastrophic. While the concept of culture involves many different elements, a
society’s religion is arguably one of the more critical elements in understanding the
morality, ethics and principles of a society. Religion is often the basis for a society’s
values and specifically determining which behaviors are acceptable and which behaviors
are unacceptable.
In this case study I examined how religious adherents, specifically Sunni Muslims
in Western Michigan perceived violence and to identify which factors had the greatest
influence on that perception. The results indicated that the factors that had the most
influence for this population were: identity, religious beliefs and confidence in the justice
system. Although understanding how and why these factors influence an individual’s
perception of violence is important, further research is needed to better understand the
factors that affect the way a religious adherent perceives violence.
Violence can result when individuals perceive a threat to their resources. A
potential approach to reducing the acceptability of violence is to reduce the perceived
threat of loss. In this research, the concept of identity was examined, and the results
indicated that threats to an individual’s identity were associated with an individual’s
perception of violence. This study may provide some insight into the conditions under
which individuals find violence to be acceptable, offering a suggestion for governmental
and non-governmental organizations to consider as they develop plans and policies for
their organizations.
