Muslim college grads split over Jews. What makes the difference?
(ANALYSIS) Sept. 15, 2020, will go down in history as a momentous day for the relationship of Israel with other countries in the Middle East when Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed the Abraham Accord, a peace agreement that establishes formal relationships between the two countries. The first ever direct flight between Tel Aviv and the UAE earlier in August was a symbolic representation of progress. The UAE is only the third Arab country, and the first country in the Persian Gulf to do so. This signals great progress towards peace in a region of the world that has lived through years of political, economic, and military conflict.
Jewish-Muslim relations are often conflated with political division in the Middle East, translating the political turmoil between Israel and its neighbors into religious tension between Jews and Muslims around the world. But with, perhaps, too much focus on conflict it can be easy to overlook the myriad of examples across history where Muslims and Jews coexisted peacefully. Many more recent instances of solidarity where Muslims and Jews stood side-by-side against white supremacist attacks on synagogues and mosques demonstrate positive interfaith dynamics between the two groups. This leads us to wonder: what sort of attitudes do Muslims in the U.S. have towards Jews?
Our national study probed how the college experience— and particularly religious and non-religious diversity on campus— is influencing student attitudes toward various religious groups, including Muslim student attitudes toward Jews.
What we discovered is both encouraging and unsettling, and presents an opportunity for faculty to make a difference.
About our study
Our research teams at The Ohio State University, North Carolina State University, and Interfaith Youth Core surveyed students across four years in college at over 120 schools as part of IDEALS. We asked students how much they agreed with the following four statements, with various religious and nonreligious groups in view:
In general, people in this group make positive contributions to society
In general, individuals in this group are ethical people
I have things in common with people in this group
In general, I have a positive attitude toward people in this group
We then assigned an appreciative attitude score to groups of students based on their level of agreement with these statements, culminating in a low or high level of appreciation for the group in view.
IDEALS surveyed the same cohort of students at three different time points: at the beginning of college, at the end of their first year, and at the end of their fourth year. 166 students identifying as Muslim completed the survey at the first and third time points, revealing how their attitudes changed toward Jews at the beginning and end of college.
What we found
IDEALS found that Muslim students, on average, developed significantly more appreciation for Jews by the end of their time in college compared to when they first started. When broken down by their appreciative attitude scores, we found that:
11.2% of Muslim students scored low in 2015 but high in 2019 (low-high)
40.5% scored high in 2015 and 2019 (high-high)
31.0% scored low in 2015 and 2019 (low-low)
17.2% scored high in 2015 but low in 2019 (high-low)
It is encouraging that while 40.5% of Muslim students began college with high appreciation for Jews, this number increased to a slight majority— 51.7%— by the end of college. This suggests that for roughly half of Muslim students, their time in college either maintained or increased their appreciation for Jews. This is encouraging.
The flip side, however, is that about half of Muslim students (48.2%) left college with low appreciation for Jews. Among these students, 17% actually began college with high appreciation and their scores dropped, while 31% maintained low appreciation. This is disconcerting.
Fortunately, IDEALS looked at the college environments that contributed to growth and decline of Muslim student appreciation for Jews. This will help college educators promote and facilitate effective practices to potentially eliminate some of the conditions that are contributing to low student appreciation.
Contributors to growth and decline
Among the Muslim students in our sample, their appreciative attitudes toward Jews were not affected in a significant way by their gender, political leaning (i.e. liberal versus conservative), institutional type (i.e. public versus private) or geographic location. However, one salient experience that occurred in the classroom context seemed to have a significant effect on their appreciation: discussing religious diversity in at least one general education course.
The bar graph below shows the percentage of students in each of the four groups who discussed religious diversity in at least one general education course (i.e., not required by their major). 57% of those who were in the high-high group and 54% of those in the low-high group indicated discussing religious diversity in at least one general education course, whereas only 31% of those in the low-low group and 25% of those in the high-low group indicated discussing religious diversity in at least one general education course. This suggests that discussing religious diversity in a general education course could help improve Muslim student attitudes towards Jews.
Reflection on the findings
If college educators want to foster improved attitudes between students of all worldviews on campus, they should provide opportunities for students to discuss their worldviews in class. This will require an assessment of how safe the classroom environment is for minority religious students like Muslims and Jews to talk about their worldviews.
One misconception about worldview conversations is that they are only appropriate in the context of a world religion or religious diversity course. The findings we presented suggest that even incorporating those conversations in general education curricula and courses — which are undergoing massive revisions as a result of public distrust in higher education — could have a positive influence on Muslim student appreciation toward Jews.
Courses that address diversity and social justice, which have become common in many general education requirements on college campuses, could benefit from including conversations about worldview diversity. Similarly, worldview diversity could be incorporated into courses in many areas of study including sociology, political science, anthropology, and psychology. Life’s deepest questions have touch points in most humanities disciplines, and many students are drawing from their religious and nonreligious beliefs as they attempt to answer these questions.
Muslim students are encountering new possibilities in college classrooms, including a future when their relationships with Jews are defined by appreciation and understanding.
Musbah Shaheen, MEd, is a PhD student in higher education and student affairs at Ohio State, and is a Research Assistant in the College Impact Laboratory
Kevin Singer is a doctoral student in higher education at North Carolina State University and a Research Associate for IDEALS.
Laura S. Dahl, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at North Dakota State University. Her research focuses on the quantitative measurement of college student learning and development and how college-going influences student bystander behaviors.
Matthew Mayhew, PhD, is the William Ray and Marie Adamson Flesher Professor of Higher Education at The Ohio State University. He has published more than 75 peer-reviewed articles in journals. He is also one of the co-authors for How College Affects Students: Volume 3.
Alyssa N. Rockenbach, PhD, is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development at North Carolina State University. Dr. Rockenbach has authored or co-authored more than 100 publications. She is also co-author of How College Affects Students: Volume 3.