Religious Discrimination in the European Union

The European Commission has recently released a detailed report on Discrimination in the EU in 2009, continuing a series of investigations of this topic commenced in 2006. The latest document is Special Eurobarometer 317 and is based on Wave 71.2 of the regular Eurobarometer. It is freely available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_317_en.pdf

The survey was conducted by TNS Opinion and Social in June-July 2009 on behalf of the Commission’s Directorate General Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. Representative samples of the adult population aged 15 and over were interviewed in all 27 EU member states and in the three candidate countries. 26,756 interviews were carried out in all, including 1,317 in the UK.

Attitudes to and experience of discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation and disability were assessed, as well as religious discrimination. The headline findings for religion and belief are:

• 45 per cent of UK citizens consider that discrimination on the basis of religion or belief is very or fairly widespread (more than the EU average of 39 per cent) and 47 per cent that it is rare
• 35 per cent of UK citizens consider that discrimination on the basis of religion or belief is more widespread than it was five years ago (EU average 32 per cent)
• Notwithstanding, just 2 per cent of UK citizens report that they have personally been discriminated against or harassed on the basis of religion or belief in the past twelve months (EU average 1 per cent)
• But 6 per cent of UK citizens report that, during the same period, they have witnessed somebody else being discriminated against or harassed on the basis of religion or belief (EU average 5 per cent)
• 16 per cent of UK citizens feel that applicants for employment could be put at a disadvantage by the expression of a religious belief, such as wearing a visible religious symbol (EU average 22 per cent)
• 42 per cent of UK citizens think that the current economic crisis could contribute to increased religious discrimination in the labour market (EU average 42 per cent)
• 72 per cent of UK citizens are in favour of new measures to promote equal opportunities in employment on the basis of religion or belief (EU average 67 per cent)
• 45 per cent of UK citizens would feel very or a little uncomfortable about a person from a minority religion running for the highest elected political office (EU average 51 per cent)
• 27 per cent of UK citizens do not consider that religious diversity is sufficiently reflected in the media (EU average 35 per cent)
• 79 per cent of UK citizens have friends of a different religion to their own (EU average 64 per cent)