Abstract

This paper studies the electoral effects of exposure to religious minorities in the context of Muslim communities in Germany. Using unique data on mosques' construction and election results across municipalities over the period 1980-2013, we find that the presence of a mosque increases political extremism. To establish causality, we exploit natural variation in the distance of the election date to the month of Ramadan, when Muslim communities become more visible to the general public. Our findings reveal an increased polarization of the electorate: vote shares for both right- and left-wing extremist parties become larger when the election date is closer to Ramadan. The analysis on Berlin electoral districts shows that the increased support for the far-right mainly occurs in districts surrounding a mosque. Survey evidence further reports that people interviewed in the proximity of Ramadan have more negative attitudes towards Muslims and perceive a larger share of foreign-born living in their country than those surveyed later on. Finally, to supplement results on political preferences, we show that the change in minority salience also increases the likelihood of crimes against Muslims.