Understanding Iraqi citizens’ views about terrorism is important for transforming attitudes in Iraq, the larger Middle East, and Western societies. Terrorism is a global concern with far-reaching consequences for both perpetrators and victims of violent acts and reprisals. To add to our understanding of attitudes toward terrorism, we analyzed data from a convenience sample of 347 respondents who were university students in Iraq in 2017. The results from our first model show that peace advocacy leads to lower levels of pro-terrorism attitudes. Also, gender, age, race, year at school, and living arrangement had negative, significant effects on pro-terrorism attitudes. The findings from our second model reveal that peace advocacy was significantly and positively related to anti-terrorism attitudes. In addition, compared to conservatives, liberals were less likely to be against terrorism in Iraq. Lastly, compared to fifth-year students, first- and second-year students were less likely to hold anti-terrorism attitudes. The implications of our findings for elected and government officials, scholars, community relations, public policy, and future research are discussed.
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