伊斯蘭教真的被「妖魔化」了嗎？－－一個整合既有經驗發現的論點

Is Islam demonized? An Integrated Argument from Empirical Findings

911事件後，「伊斯蘭教是否被妖魔化」又成為美國政治學界的熱門議題。過去學界的辯論總停留在理論層次而流於空泛，經驗上有助於釐清辯論的文獻，不但數量少，多侷限於特定時空環境。本文試圖整合既有的經驗發現，並提出一個整合性的論點，初步結論是：「伊斯蘭信仰虔誠度」與「支持民主」和「愛好和平」皆呈負相關。前者與「低教育程度」和「對政府的負面態度」有關，後者與系統層次因素有關，兩皆際單純宗教因素，但與宗教相關。

The debate of whether Islam is demonized has been a popular issue again since the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. In the past, political scientists always proceeded the debate with a weak theory, with none really trying to develop a coherent one. Empirical findings are few, and are all subject to a particular context. As a result, there has been little progress towards greater theoretical understanding. This article seeks to integrate current empirical findings and propose a coherent theoretical framework on the issue. The main argument is that Islamic religiosity is inversely correlated to the pro-democratic attitudes and to the support for non-violent means of resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict as well. While the factors accounting for the inverse correlation are different, religion by itself is not the prime cause, though is indeed relevant.