On being moderate and peaceful: Why Islamic political moderateness promotes outgroup tolerance and reconciliation. (November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zaduqisti, Esti; Mashuri, Ali; Zuhri, Amat; Haryati, Tri Astutik; Ula, Miftahul
• Is Part Of: Archive for the psychology of religion. Volume 42:Number 3(2020)
• Page Start: 359
• Page End: 378
• Publication Date: 2020-11
• Subjects: Higher order nested identity -- Islamic political moderateness -- outgroup tolerance -- reconciliation; Psychology, Religious -- Periodicals; 201.615
• DOI: 10.1177/0084672420931204
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0084-6724

Abstract

Islamic moderateness is said to be one of the key factors that contribute to the promotion of peace in Muslim societies. We present an empirical study conducted in Indonesia ( N = 299) that assessed Islamic political moderateness and examined its role in explaining Muslims' tolerance towards non-Muslims, as well as the first group's support for making reconciliation with the latter group. We found as hypothesised that Islamic political moderateness was a positive predictor of outgroup tolerance, because of the role it had in positively predicting the sense of national identity as a higher order identity vis-à-vis Islamic identity (i.e. higher order nested identity). Outgroup tolerance positively predicted and, in turn, fully mediated the positive association between Islamic political moderateness and Muslims' reconciliatory tendencies, including feelings of collective guilt and shame, intergroup trust and perspective-taking, intergroup cooperation, willingness to apologise, as well as support for intergroup empowerment and reparative actions. These findings suggest the benefit of Islamic political moderateness to drive Muslims to appreciate the existence of non-Muslims. We discuss these empirical findings in terms of theoretical implications, research limitations and practical implications.