Religious Attitudes and Behaviors in the Veterans Community (Comparison of Religion Indicators of a Specific Group with the Total Community)

Introduction: One of the most important questions about the evolution of religiosity among Iranians is whether the process of evolution of religiosity and its dimensions are similar among different social groups. In the meantime, The question of the difference between the religious status of the veterans and their families, is one of these questions. It is expected  that martyrs, families of martyrs, veterans and Prisoners of war released who have logically grown and lived within religious discourse, religious education and adherence to religious beliefs and behaviors, have the upper level of religious values ​​and attitudes than the total population of Iranian society. thus, considering the trend of cultural developments in the society, including the level of values ​​and attitudes of Iranians, this study basic question is that “Are there significant differences  between  veterans community and total population in religious attitudes and behaviors?”
Research Methods: The first wave of the National Survey of Values ​​and Attitudes of the veterans Community was conducted in 2017. The statistical population of the national survey was all the veterans and their families in urban and rural areas of the country. A total of 11,960 samples from 31 provinces of the country have been selected and studied by stratified sampling method. Since one of the main axes in this survey was religious attitudes and behaviors, in this study, in the framework of a secondary analysis, the indicators of religiosity, especially the religious attitudes and behaviors of the veterans community, were compared with the status of those indicators in society. For this purpose, the results of the secondary analysis of this national survey have been compared with the results of the two surveys "Iranian Religiosity" (Kazemi & Faraji, 2016) and "Iranian Values ​​and Attitudes" (Javadi Yeganeh, 2016).
Findings: Secondary analysis of the National Survey data on the values ​​and attitudes of the veterans community shows that the veterans and their families are higher than the general public in the indicators of trust in God, feeling close to God and believing in imitation in the rulings of their religion. They are also more attached to public rituals such as Friday and congregational prayers, participating in extracurricular activities in mosques, participating in mourning ceremonies, participating in religious services, and prayer ceremonies than the general public. But their participation in Muharram and Safar mourning ceremonies is not significantly different from the general public. They are more committed to prayer than the general public and slightly less than the general public to fasting in Ramadhan. At the same time, in the pilgrimage to holy places, there is significantly more engaged in the community of veterans than the general public. In general, most of the indicators of religious attitude and behavior in the veterans community, like the general population, are more among women than men, showing a direct relationship with age and an inverse relationship with the level of education.
Conclusion: The results of this secondary analysis study show that although religious attitudes and behaviors in the community veterans are slightly higher than the general public. But it is not much different from the indicators among the general public. In some cases, this difference becomes very small or insignificant. Based on the provided results, practical suggestions have been presented to modify and optimize cultural policies and programs in order to deepen the religious beliefs and behaviors in the community of veterans.