Faith, growth, and ethics: cross-cultural analysis of religiosity and environment protection vis-a-vis economic priorities among Muslims

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between religiosity and pro-environmental behavior among Muslims across different national contexts, with a particular focus on the trade-off between environmental protection and economic growth. Using data from the 7th Wave of the World Values Survey (2017–2022), the analysis includes 20,716 Muslim respondents from 46 countries and applies multilevel logistic regression to account for both individual- and country-level variation. The findings show that religiosity is a strong positive predictor of pro-environment behavior in Muslim-majority countries, where environmental ethics are often reinforced through public religious norms. In non-Muslim-majority countries, religiosity shows no meaningful or negative association with environmental concern, likely reflecting its more private or constrained expression. Subgroup models confirm this contextual moderation. Education and income both exhibit positive associations with pro-environment behavior, while age follows a curvilinear trend. Urban residency is associated with lower environmental concern in Muslim-majority settings but not in others. The results highlight the relevance of cultural-religious context in shaping value-based environmental action and point to the role of education and religious discourse in advancing sustainability.