Religiosity and the potential for political protest

The present paper focuses on the role of individual religiosity in the potential for political protest. The long-standing knowledge reserve of the social sciences in many sociological perspectives suggests that as far as religion plays a role in justifying or supporting existing traditions and order, it reduces the potential for political protest. However, some social scientists in recent years have argued that religion and religiosity can influence political mobilization and protest behavior in a variety of ways and through a variety of channels. These various channels or mechanisms through which religion and religiosity can influence protest behavior are described in the present article and then, by separating religiosity into  two main dimensions of "religious beliefs" and "religious rituals", theoretical arguments are provided for rationalizing the two opposing hypotheses. First, religious beliefs reduce the potential for political protest; And second, participation in religious rituals increases the potential for political protest. Finally, these assumptions were evaluated with data from survey studies in Tehran to reveal the their emperical fitness. Overall, the results of the research showed that the potential for political protest respondents was independent of their religiosity, and neither of the two dimensions of religious beliefs and religious rituals had any real connection with the potential of political protest.