Abstract: October 7, 2023 is regarded as the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Shoah and marks a historical turning point. Since then, the repercussions of this terrorist attack and the subsequent Hamas-Israel war have been intensely debated. Antisemitic and violence-glorifying incidents in certain Muslim-migrant milieus have triggered emotionally charged debates on so-called “Muslim antisemitism.” However, little is known so far about the broader impact of October 7 and the war on the Muslim population in Germany. This study is based on a secondary analysis of the dataset Muslim Faith in Germany, collected between July 2023 and April 2024, and allows for a quasi-experimental before-and-after comparison in line with the Unexpected Event During Survey Design (N = 712 before, N = 1119 after October 7). The findings indicate that antisemitism among Muslims in Germany has changed significantly but only marginally since October 7, 2023, with consistently high approval rates between 30% and 35% for pronounced traditional antisemitism and between 23% and 19% for pronounced Israel-related antisemitism. Striking is the notable increase in radicalization potential: antisemitism—particularly in its Israel-related form—is significantly more strongly associated after October 7 with willingness to participate in unauthorized demonstrations, readiness for self-sacrifice, sympathies for Islamist actors, and acceptance of violence and terrorism as a means to enforce Muslim interests. Regression analyses show that especially lacking political integration, high fundamentalism, and threat perception are significantly associated with antisemitism after October 7. Implications for research and practice are discussed, regarding the strengthening of political trust, the dismantling of fundamentalism, and the reduction of collective threat perceptions.
Abstract: To cope with the covid-19 pandemic, people not only relied on state measures and scientific knowledge, but also drew on the resources of religion. They may also have embraced conspiracy theories that sometimes led them to engage in protest behavior. Against this background, we address the following research question: “How are people's religiosity and spirituality related to their belief in covid-19 conspiracy theories in Germany?” We answer this question by conducting a theory-led empirical analysis. We apply quantitative methods based on primary data from a (non-representative) online survey that we carried out with 2,373 respondents in Germany between July 2020 and January 2021. The results show that belief in covid-19 conspiracy theories is positively correlated with the image of a punitive God, with exclusivist beliefs, and with private prayer—and negatively correlated with attendance at religious services. Moreover, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, and Jews have a lower affinity for conspiracy theories than not religiously affiliated people, while the opposite is true for Evangelicals.
