Do Muslims engage in more domestic conflict than other religious groups?
This article examines the validity of the stereotypical idea which is not endorsed here, that Muslim groups are more violent than groups of other religions, using data on domestic conflict from 1950 to 1996 from the State Failure dataset. The theories of Islam and violence in the literature can be divided into three categories: those that say Muslims in general are more violent, those that say certain Muslims are more violent and those that say Muslims are no more violent than other religious groups. The results show that while on some measures Muslim groups are more violent than other groups, on others they are not. That is, while on one measure Muslim groups show the highest levels of violence, on other measures, Christian and Buddhist groups score the highest. Thus, while there is some evidence that Muslim groups are more violent, it is not conclusive and is certainly not enough to support the stereotype of the Islamic militant.