Religiosity and Perception About Compatibility of Democracy With Islam: Evidence From the Arab World

Using the data from Arab countries, this article shows that the odds of considering democracy to be consistent with Islam are higher for more religious respondents than that for less religious respondents. This article also shows that this result may be driven by two characteristics of religiosity: frequently reading the Holy Quran (the source of religion) and regularly praying. Our results show that the odds of considering democracy to be consistent with Islam are higher for respondents that read the Holy Quran frequently and for respondents that pray frequently. Our results also show that respondents with high trust in religious leadership or high preference for religious political parties do not show a negative attitude toward democracy.

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