Public debates portray Arab Muslims as universally opposed to homosexuality due to Islam. Those Orientalist claims are mirrored by large-scale studies that argue Muslims oppose homosexuality more than non-Muslims. We argue that assuming religion and opposition to homosexuality are unidimensional concepts obscures how they relate to each other and why; we study both “religiosity” and “opposition to homosexuality” multidimensionally.

WVS data on 9000 Arab Muslims show, first, that although most respondents reject both homosexuality and homosexuals, one in five reject homosexuality but do not object to having homosexual neighbors. A substantial minority of Arab Muslims thus “hate the sin but love the sinner”. Multilevel analyses show that stronger religious attachment increases opposition to homosexuality and homosexual people. However, all other dimensions of religiosity we study (textualism, mosque attendance, and altruism) also reduce some oppositions. Consequently, the argument that Arab Muslims’ religiosity only leads to opposition to homosexuality is too simplistic.

公开辩论将阿拉伯穆斯林描绘成普遍反对伊斯兰教导致的同性恋。这些东方主义者的主张得到了大规模研究的反映，这些研究认为穆斯林比非穆斯林更反对同性恋。我们认为，假设宗教和反对同性恋是一维的概念，这会掩盖它们之间的关系以及原因；我们从多维度研究“宗教信仰”和“反对同性恋”。

WVS 对 9000 名阿拉伯穆斯林的数据显示，首先，尽管大多数受访者拒绝同性恋和同性恋者，但五分之一的人拒绝同性恋，但不反对有同性恋邻居。因此，相当多的阿拉伯穆斯林“恨恶罪，爱罪人”。多层次分析表明，更强烈的宗教依恋会增加对同性恋和同性恋者的反对。然而，我们研究的宗教信仰的所有其他方面（文本主义、清真寺出勤率和利他主义）也减少了一些反对意见。因此，阿拉伯穆斯林的宗教信仰只会导致反对同性恋的论点过于简单化。