Religion and Terrorism: Evidence from Ramadan Fasting
General Economics
2020-03-09 v3 Economics
Abstract
We study the effect of religion and intense religious experiences on terrorism by focusing on one of the five pillars of Islam: Ramadan fasting. For identification, we exploit two facts: First, daily fasting from dawn to sunset during Ramadan is considered mandatory for most Muslims. Second, the Islamic calendar is not synchronized with the solar cycle. We find a robust negative effect of more intense Ramadan fasting on terrorist events within districts and country-years in predominantly Muslim countries. This effect seems to operate partly through decreases in public support for terrorism and the operational capabilities of terrorist groups.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1810.09869,
title = {Religion and Terrorism: Evidence from Ramadan Fasting},
author = {Roland Hodler and Paul Raschky and Anthony Strittmatter},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.09869},
year = {2020}
}