Has the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo fuelled resistance towards Muslim immigrants in Europe? Results from a natural experiment in six European countries

Abstract

In recent years, Europe witnessed several terrorist attacks by Islamist terrorists. To date, crucial questions are whether and how such events influence the European public’s resistance towards Muslims, and if such influence depends on the level of intergroup competition, both at the contextual and individual level. Using the European Social Survey (ESS7), we were able to compare respondents interviewed shortly before and after the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in January 2015. While we found no support for a moderating role of intergroup competition, our study shows that the levels of resistance towards Muslim immigrants were higher shortly after the attacks in Ireland and Czech Republic, however, lower in France. For Austria, Finland and Germany we found no influence. Our findings indicate that one cannot be too careful with generalizing conclusions from single countries.