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Religion and Ethnic Minority Attitudes in Britain toward the War in Afghanistan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2013

Ben Clements
Ben Clements*
Affiliation:
University of Leicester
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Ben Clements, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom. E-mail: bc101@leicester.ac.uk
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Abstract

Public opinion research has demonstrated that minority religious and ethnic groups hold distinctive preferences on foreign policy issues, including military interventions in the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. There has been little scholarly research in Britain into the attitudes of minority groups on foreign policy issues. This article uses a nationally-representative survey of the ethnic minority population in Britain to examine the sources of public opinion towards the war in Afghanistan. Using multivariate analysis, it finds strong effects for religious affiliation, religiosity and political alienation. There is also evidence of a “gender gap” and age-related differences. The paper contributes to the literature on the impact of religion on public opinion and foreign policy and to analysis of the political attitudes of minority groups in Britain.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 25 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2013 

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