When Muslims Are Perceived as a Religious Threat: Examining the Connection Between Desecration, Religious Coping, and Anti-Muslim Attitudes Hisham Abu Raiya NYU Counseling and Behavioral Health Services Kenneth I. Pargament and Annette Mahoney Bowling Green State University Kelly Trevino VA Boston Healthcare System This study examined links between the appraisal that Muslims desecrate Christian values and teachings, religious coping methods, and anti-Muslim attitudes. Of the 192 Christian undergraduate participants, between 13.7% and 28% perceived Muslims as a threat to Christian values and teachings. After controlling for demographic and personological variables (e.g., church attendance, pluralism, Christian orthodoxy, authoritarianism, fundamentalism, particularism), higher levels of viewing Muslims as desecrators of Christianity were linked to higher anti-Muslim attitudes. In contrast, positive religious coping methods that emphasized expressions of Christian love and learning from Muslim spiritual models were associated with lower anti-Muslim attitudes. However, negative religious coping methods that emphasized that Muslims were being punished by God and demonic were also tied to greater anti-Muslim attitudes. Further, religious coping methods partially mediated the associations between desecration and anti-Muslim atti- tudes. Higher levels of authoritarianism, religious particularism, fundamentalism, and greater exposure to messages of desecration predicted perceptions of Muslims as desecra- tors of Christianity. The findings demonstrate the usefulness of Pargament’s religious coping theory to understand prejudice, particularly how the perception that Muslims violate Christianity may often underlie anti-Muslim attitudes. Prejudice toward Muslims is prevalent in the United States today. A USA Today=Gallup Poll of 1,007 Americans conducted in 2006 revealed that 39% of respondents said they felt at least some prejudice against Muslims. ‘‘The same percentage favored requiring Muslims, including U.S. citizens, to carry a special ID as a means of preventing terrorist attacks in the United States. About one third said U.S. Muslims were sympathetic to al-Qaeda, and 22% said they wouldn’t want Muslims as neighbors’’ (Elias, 2006, p. 5). In light of prior research on links between certain types of Christian religiousness and prejudice toward minority groups (e.g., Jackson & Hunsberger, 1999; Scheepers, Gijsberts, & Hello, 2002), the role of religion in encouraging or discouraging prejudice against Muslims is important to uncover. Particularly relevant here is a recent study in which prejudice toward Jews was associated with the perception that this group threatened Christian values and teachings (Pargament, Correspondence should be sent to Hisham Abu Raiya, PhD, NYU Student Health Care Center, Counseling & Behavioral Health Services, 726 Broadway, Suite 471, New York, NY 10003. E-mail: har1@nyu.edu BASIC AND APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, 30:311–325, 2008 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0197-3533 print=1532-4834 online DOI: 10.1080/01973530802502234