Is Religion Really the Enemy of Human Rights? A Reply to Cingranelli and Kalmick

Scholars debate whether religious beliefs and practices promote or hinder human rights. In an article recently published in HRQ, Cingranelli and Kalmick present evidence suggesting that religion is an "enemy" of human rights. They conduct regression analyses showing that frequent religious service attendance and Muslim-majority status are associated with worse human rights practices. This reply challenges their core theoretical arguments and empirical findings. Our attempts to replicate their analyses produced little evidence that religion is detrimental to human rights. Additionally, our findings revealed that the negative Muslim-majority effect is largely localized to Middle Eastern countries.