We investigate how the salience of an ethnic minority affects the majority group’s voting behavior. We use the increased salience of Muslim communities during Ramadan as a natural experiment. Exploiting exogenous variation in the distance of election dates to Ramadan over the 1980–2013 period in Germany, our findings reveal an increased polarization. Vote shares for both right- and left-wing extremist parties increase in municipalities with mosques when an election takes place shortly after Ramadan. We use survey data to provide evidence on mechanisms: Ramadan increases respondents’ perceived share of the foreign-born population and emphasizes cultural dissimilarities, ultimately worsening attitudes toward Muslims. (JEL D72, D91, J15, Z12, Z13)

中文翻译：

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少数族裔显着性和政治极端主义

我们调查少数族裔的显着性如何影响多数群体的投票行为。我们将斋月期间穆斯林社区的日益突出作为一项自然实验。利用德国 1980 年至 2013 年期间选举日期与斋月之间距离的外生变化，我们的研究结果显示两极分化加剧。斋月后不久举行选举时，在设有清真寺的城市中，右翼和左翼极端主义政党的投票份额增加。我们使用调查数据来提供有关机制的证据：斋月增加了受访者在外国出生人口中的感知份额，并强调了文化差异，最终恶化了对穆斯林的态度。(JEL D72、D91、J15、Z12、Z13)