Secular criticism of Islam is empirically distinct from anti-Muslim prejudice

Evidence

The Islamoprejudice subscale correlated with other measures of prejudice (r = . to .72), right-wing authoritarianism (r = .62), and social dominance orientation (r = .49). The Secular Critique of Islam subscale was not correlated with other measures of prejudice (r = −. to .08), right-wing authoritarianism (r = −.05), and social dominance orientation (r = .06). This difference highlights that the two subscales do not measure the same construct. — Ummul-Kiram Kathawalla, Fei Bi Chan, Quratulain Gulamhussein, Amy Riegelman, and Moin Syed, Conceptualization and Measurement of…, 517

Categorization

• QUESTION: If prior research links secular views of Islam to prejudice, why does this subscale show near-zero correlation with every prejudice measure? The authors themselves flag this for further investigation.
• SEED: Angle: can you criticize a religion on secular grounds without that criticism being prejudice? The SIPSCI data suggest yes — but the authors’ own surprise suggests the distinction is fragile.