Polity or Policy? Explaining Ordinary Muslimss Support for Suicide Bombing

Abstract

Public opinion research shows there is considerable, albeit varied, support for Islamist terrorism among the world’s Muslim populations. To identify respondent-level determinants of support for suicide bombings (and other forms of political violence) perpetrated by Islamist militants, scholars have used country-specific and multi-national surveys samples as well as novel survey techniques. One explanatory variable which is frequently used in such empirical models is support for Shari’ah (Islamic law). Fair, Littman and Nugent (2018), based upon their analysis of survey data from Pakistan, argued for conceptualizing and instrumentalizing Shari’ah in multivalent ways, including: support for textual literalism such as Hudood punishments; support for good governance; and restrictions on women. They find only the first explains support for terrorism. Here, we explore whether their proposed formalization offers explanatory power for support for Islamist violence beyond the niche case of Pakistan. To do so, we employ data collected by the Pew Foundation in 2011 which allows us to replicate and augment the methods employed by Fair, Littman and Nugent for twenty countries. We find strong evidence that this framework is robust well beyond Pakistan.