Comparative Study of Islamic and Western Perspectives on Prejudice

Prejudice, meaning negative attitudes toward other groups or their members, is one of the major topics of social psychology. Considering that, on the one hand, solidarity and cohesion in societies composed of different ethnicities, groups, and subcultures are influenced by the quality of efficient and effective communication between individuals. And considering, from the other hand, Islamic ethics includes all the criteria which, in the light of monotheistic thinking, provide the growth and excellence in various aspects of human social interactions, the main issue of the present research is what the Islamic perspective on prejudices is? Using a comparative method, the present study, after defining the conceptual scope of prejudice from the perspective of Western and Islamic social psychologists, categorizes factors affecting the development of prejudice. At the end of the study, it was concluded that although Islamic and Western teachings have a close perspective on identifying the factors influencing the development of prejudice, however, the boundaries of this concept can be recognized through the scrutiny of Islamic sources, which include negative and positive prescriptions.