عنوان

Religiosity, freedom of expression and Lebanon and Morocco

Number

TL47825

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Religiosity, freedom of expression and Lebanon and Morocco

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

III Byers, Ward

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

Buttorff, Gail

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of Kansas

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2014

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

73

Text of Note

Committee members: Boussofara, Naima; Wuthrich, Michael

Text of Note

Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-321-03663-3

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

M.A.

Discipline of degree

Global and International Studies, Center for

Body granting the degree

University of Kansas

Text preceding or following the note

2014

Text of Note

This study addresses the relationship between religiosity and freedom of speech. While a growing body of research advances the now established notion that Islam as a religion in practice at the individual level is compatible with democracy, this work attempts a more nuanced analysis at the individual level concerning Muslim attitudes and views concerning the right of freedom of speech. Findings obtained through bivariate comparisons of the Arab Barometer Wave I survey results of Morocco and Lebanon, show that religiosity does not predict antagonistic views towards freedom of speech. Findings support arguments that posit no relation between Islam as a religion or Muslim's interpretation of Islam necessarily leading to anti-democratic or anti-freedom of speech sentiments. This work also used bivariate comparisons to analyze the relationship between authoritarianism and freedom of speech. As expected, authoritarian comparisons produced significant predictable statistical results. Authoritarians in both countries, unsurprisingly, were very supportive of their governments, and as a result, they were more comfortable with freedom of speech and open to diverse ideas in their countries than their non-authoritarian counterparts. In contrast, non-authoritarians were supportive of democracy and freedom of speech in theory, but were highly skeptical and even antagonistic to both, when applied to their countries' political environment. These seemingly contradictory results are mitigated when contextual factors are brought into focus. Type of government and center of power were argued as the important potential contextual factors influencing these authoritarian results. The major conclusions are: Individual religiosity is not a predictor of negative attitudes towards freedom of expression and authoritarianism seems to predict a more negative relationship with freedom of speech. Additionally, when attempting to generalize statistical findings, one must take into account all contextual and environmental factors that affect the site of analysis.

Middle Eastern Studies; North African Studies; Sociology

Subject Term

Social sciences;Freedom of expression;Freedom of speech;Lebanon;Middle east and north africa;Morocco;Religiosity

Byers, Ward, III

Buttorff, Gail

Subdivision

Global and International Studies, Center for

University of Kansas

Call Number

1559314100; 1560502

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y