Navigating secularism and diversity: understanding the disapproval of government employees wearing majority and minority religious symbols in Belgium

Abstract While the right to practice one’s religion is considered a fundamental value in Western European democracies, there is considerable debate about government employees wearing religious symbols. In this study, we test whether disapproval of civil servants wearing religious symbols originates from a general opposition against the expression of religion in public settings or from prejudice, specifically Islamophobia and Antisemitism. We test this by analyzing a split ballot experiment, which assesses the acceptance of government employees wearing three different religious symbols: the Christian cross, the Muslim headscarf, and the Jewish yarmulke. On the one hand, we find that an endorsement of the right to publicly express one’s religion predicts support for government employees wearing any religious symbol. Yet, prejudice, particularly Islamophobia, predicted opposition against both the Muslim headscarf and the Jewish yarmulke, overturning the abovementioned effect, indicating that these attitudes are closely aligned with attitudes regarding the place of Islam in societies.