Scottish Social Attitudes Discrimination Module

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The level of religious prejudice in Scotland in 2010 was much the same as in 2006, notwithstanding significant legislative and other activities to counter it by both the UK and Scottish Governments during the intervening years.

Moreover, Scottish attitudes to Muslims continued to be more negative than to other religious groups, despite a 7% rise in those having Muslim acquaintances over the four-year period.

These are among the headline findings from the report on the discrimination module in the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, which was published by Scottish Government Social Research on 11 August 2011.

Written by Rachel Ormston, John Curtice, Susan McConville and Susan Reid of the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen), Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, 2010: Attitudes to Discrimination and Positive Action can be downloaded from:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/355716/0120166.pdf

The module was funded by the Scottish Government and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (Scotland). Fieldwork was undertaken by ScotCen by means of face-to-face interview and self-completion questionnaire between June and October 2010. Interviews were achieved with a representative sample of 1,495 Scottish adults aged 18 and over, a response rate of 54%.

Answers to questions of particular interest to BRIN (mainly affecting Muslims, since Protestant/Catholic sectarianism was not covered in the module) appear below, but readers should note that no attempt has been made to summarize the important multivariate regression analyses which appear in Annex B of the report.

49% of Scots agreed that Scotland would begin to lose its identity if more Muslims came to settle there (compared with 46% who said the same about Eastern Europeans and 45% about blacks and Asians). The proportion was similar to the 50% recorded in 2006 but well up on 38% in 2003. It was highest among the over-65s (67%), those with no educational qualifications (62%), and residents of the most deprived areas (62%).

46% of Scots did not know anybody who was a Muslim (slightly reduced from 52% in 2006), with 9% unsure and 45% reporting some acquaintance, overwhelmingly in a non-familial context. Those acquainted with a Muslim were less likely to say there is sometimes good reason to be prejudiced than those with no Muslim contacts (23% versus 35%).

23% of respondents indicated that they would be unhappy about a family member marrying or forming a long-term relationship with a Muslim (rising to 45% among the over-65s and 39% with no educational qualifications), compared with 18% for a Hindu, 9% for a Jew, and just 2% (of non-Christians) for a Christian. The equivalent figures for a Muslim in 2003 and 2006 were 20% and 24% respectively. The extent of unhappiness varied inversely with income, falling from 31% for those who brought in less than £14,300 per annum to 14% for those earning over £44,200. Religion also made a difference, the proportion being 28% for those with a religious affiliation and 17% for those without.

15% of Scots claimed that a Muslim would make an unsuitable primary school teacher, the same figure as in 2006. The proportion climbed with age, from 6% among the 18-24s to 28% with the over-65s. It stood at 27% among Scots with no educational qualifications but at only 8% for the most highly qualified; at 23% for those on the lowest incomes and 9% on the highest; and at 23% for those who did not know any Muslims and 8% for those with Muslim acquaintances. 55% said a Muslim would be suitable, with 24% neutral.

69% of all respondents (and 83% of over-55s) felt that a bank should be able to insist that a female Muslim employee remove a veil, but only 23% said the same about a female Muslim employee wearing a headscarf. 24% considered a bank should be able to require a Sikh male employee to remove his turban and 15% a Christian woman employee to remove a crucifix.

32% of Scots felt that it would be a bad or very bad use of Government money for funds to be channeled to organizations which helped Muslims find work, increasing to 43% of over-65s, 45% of those with no formal educational qualifications, and 48% of those thinking that there is sometimes good reason to be prejudiced.

Muslims apart, there were some correlations between religiosity and discriminatory attitudes as a whole. For example, those considering themselves belonging to any religion were more likely to say that there is sometimes good reason to be prejudiced than the non-religious (31% and 25% respectively). Similarly, those who attended religious services at least once a week were twice as likely as Scots in general to believe that same-sex relationships were always or mostly wrong (57% versus 27%).

Scottish attitudes to Muslims and Islam were also explored in last year’s Ipsos MORI Scotland and British Council Scotland research on Muslim Integration in Scotland, which we have covered at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=515

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9/11 – Ten Years On

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Today is the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the terror attacks on the United States, usually credited to al-Qaeda, in which almost 3,000 people perished. The legacy of that day continues to be felt in numerous ways, including – in Britain – in persisting negative attitudes to Islam and Muslims.

This is borne out in a special ‘9/11 – ten years on’ survey undertaken by YouGov on 6 and 7 September 2011 among an online sample of 1,947 adult Britons aged 18 and over. The full data tabulations are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-yougov-911tenyearson-090911.pdf

Asked about their perceptions of the relationship of British Muslims with terrorism, 15% of respondents claimed that a large proportion of British Muslims felt no sense of loyalty to this country and were prepared to condone or even carry out terrorist acts. This was only three points down on the figure for 22-24 August 2006, one year after 7/7, the terrorist attacks on London’s transport network.

The number was higher among Conservative voters (18%) than Liberal Democrats (7%), men (16%) than women (13%), the over-40s (16%) than the under-25s (11%), manual workers (18%) than non-manuals (12%), with a regional peak of 18% in the Midlands and Wales.

A further 63% acknowledged that, while the great majority of British Muslims were peaceful and law-abiding, there was a dangerous minority who exhibited disloyalty and sympathy for terrorism. Just 17% stated that practically all British Muslims were peaceful and law-abiding who deplored acts of terrorism. 5% expressed no opinion.

Given these perceptions, it is unsurprising that 63% of adults (a mere 2% less than in 2006) wished to see Britain’s security services focus their intelligence-gathering and terrorism-prevention efforts on Muslims living in or seeking to enter this country, on the grounds that, although most Muslims were not terrorists most terrorists threatening Britain were Muslim. This view was held by three-quarters of the over-60s and Conservative voters.

Moreover, a slight majority (51%, compared with 53% in 2006) considered that Islam itself – as distinct from Islamic fundamentalist groups – posed a major or some threat to Western liberal democracy, rising to 65% of Conservatives and 60% of the over-60s. Only 13% thought that Islam posed no threat at all.

It is a measure of Britons’ continuing fears of ‘Islamic terrorism’ that, despite the current Coalition Government’s military assistance to the Libyan rebels who have all but toppled the oppressive regime of Colonel Gadaffi, 49% still justify the policy of the previous Labour administration of exchanging security information on Islamic extremism and al-Qaeda with Gadaffi. Fewer than one-quarter are critical of the policy.

This last finding emerges from a separate YouGov survey for today’s Sunday Times, in which 2,724 British adults were interviewed online on 8 and 9 September 2011. Detailed results have been posted at:   

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-st-results-09-110911.pdf

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Britons, Islamophobia and the Qur’an

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Clive D. Field

One-quarter of adult Britons blame Muslims for the existence of Islamophobia in the UK, according to a ComRes poll of 1,004 adults aged 18 and over undertaken by telephone between 8 and 10 July 2011, and published on 21 July.

The survey was commissioned by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, in the run-up to its annual convention on 22-24 July, ‘in order to inform its plans to counter the tide of prejudice against Islam and highlight strategies to promote better community relations’.

The media were the group most likely to be blamed for Islamophobia, by 29% of the entire sample, rising to 40% among those aged 18-24 (against 18% of over-65s). Far-right political movements were cited by 13%, and politicians and government by 10%.

Muslims abroad (14%) were seen as more responsible for domestic Islamophobia than Muslims in the UK (11%). 1% mentioned the police, 4% other causes, 1% denied that Islamophobia existed in the UK, and 17% expressed no opinion. 

Asked whether the Qur’an justified the use of violence against non-Muslims, only 14% agreed that it did, with 65% disagreeing and 21% uncertain. Dissentients were particularly found among the 18-24s (75%) and Scots (72%).

Although replies were disaggregated by religious affiliation, Christians and those professing no religion alone were sufficiently numerous for analysis. The latter were more well-disposed to Muslims than the former, but the difference on both questions was not substantial.

The computer tabulations for the poll, and the associated press release from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/poll/499/ahmadiyya-muslim-association-uk-islamophobia-survey.htm

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Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Churchgoing teenagers are the biggest backers of Muslim identity in Britain, according to preliminary research results from the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, and released on 26 July 2011 in connection with the two-day conference on ‘Religion in Education: Findings from the Religion and Society Programme’.

The survey, which is still ongoing, is directed by Professor Leslie Francis of the University of Warwick and forms part of a wider project on ‘Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity’, funded by the Programme, and of which Professor Robert Jackson is the principal investigator. For the project website, see:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wie/research/wreru/research/current/ahrc/

The views of 10,000 13- to 15-year-old pupils, 2,000 each from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and London, will eventually be canvassed, at state maintained, independent and faith-based schools. Responses from the first 3,000 were presented at the conference and reported in a University of Warwick press release at:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/new_survey_shows/

The extent of agreement with three key statements affecting Muslims was as follows:

Muslims should be allowed to wear the headscarf in schools:

  • no religion 60%
  • nominal (non-churchgoing) Christians 59%
  • practising Christians 79%

Muslims should be allowed to wear the burka in schools:

  • no religion 51%
  • nominal Christians 52%
  • practising Christians 63%

I am in favour of Muslim schools:

  • no religion 18%
  • nominal Christians 23%
  • practising Christians 29%

Francis commented: ‘This survey has really given voice to the views of young people from across Britain into their experience of living in a culture that increasingly reflects religious diversity. Young people from different religious backgrounds clearly show respect for each other. But the challenge facing schools today is to enable those young people who do not come from a religious background themselves to gain insight into how their peers from religious homes feel about things.’

An article in the print edition of the Daily Telegraph for 27 July covers the same survey, but from the perspective of the 1,500 female respondents only. The journalist notes that, whereas nearly all the female pupils who were practising Christians agreed that ‘we must respect all religions’, the proportion was three-quarters for those without faith.

Similarly, almost three-quarters of the female practising Christians said that they found learning about different religions interesting, compared with about half of the nominal Christians and the irreligious. 

The Religion and Society Programme is a joint initiative of the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council. It runs until the end of 2012, but many projects have now made significant enough progress to be reporting findings and other news. These are regularly featured on the Programme’s website at:

http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/

BRIN was itself funded under the Programme during 2008-10, thus enabling this website to get off the ground.

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Participation in Higher Education and Religion

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Clive D. Field

‘Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs more likely to go to university than their Christian classmates’, proclaimed the headline to Richard Vaughan’s article in The TES for 22 July 2011. The story was subsequently picked up by the Daily Telegraph on 23 July and by some online media.

Vaughan’s report referred to the findings of ‘a landmark Government research programme’, and a bit of delving by BRIN has identified the source as the Department for Education’s Statistical Bulletin B01/2011, published on 7 July and available at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SBU/b001014/b01-2011.pdf

This particular issue of the Statistical Bulletin was devoted to the activities and experiences of 19-year-olds in England (measured by their academic age – their actual ages would have been 19 and 20), based upon the results from successive waves of the Youth Cohort Study and the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE, also known as Next Steps).

The data on participation in higher education by religion came from the LSYPE alone and appear in Table 2.1.1. They measure enrolment in higher education at academic age 19 (wave 7, 2010) against religion at academic age 15 (wave 3, 2006). Obviously, as the Statistical Bulletin acknowledges, some teenagers may have changed their religion during the intervening four years.

The greatest participation in higher education was recorded among Hindus (77%). Then came Sikhs (63%), Muslims (53%), Christians (45%), and those without religion (32%). Cell sizes were too small to publish figures for Buddhists, Jews and other groups. 

Vaughan commented that: ‘The statistics reflect wider research which shows British white working-class students do worse at school and are less likely to go on to higher education than Asian pupils.’

Quoted in The TES, Professor Steve Strand of Warwick University also doubted whether the LSYPE statistics exemplified a genuinely religious effect, describing religion as just a ‘proxy’ for ethnicity.

‘The fact that white working-class pupils are the least likely to go to university and those from Asian groups are more likely has nothing to do with whether they are Christian or Hindu,’ Strand said.

‘It’s to do with a number of factors, but (generally speaking) white working-class children and their parents often do not see the relevance of the curriculum or of attending university. Asian families, even if they are from difficult socio-economic backgrounds, see education as a way out.’

The TES additionally cited Muslim and Hindu spokespersons, lauding the higher educational aspirations of their communities, as well as a representative of the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales, who pointed to non-religious influences as explanation for the apparent under-performance of Christians.

The Statistical Bulletin also included (in Tables 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 respectively) analyses of Level 2 (five GCSEs at grades A*-C or equivalent) and Level 3 (two or more A Levels or equivalent) educational achievement by age 19, disaggregated by religion.

Those with no religion again sat at the bottom of the faith hierarchy, with 23% having no Level 2 qualification and 50% none at Level 3. Hindus topped both lists (92% attaining Level 2 and 79% Level 3), closely followed by Sikhs (91% and 73%). Christians came third and Muslims fourth, thus reversing their positions in the higher education table.  

Another interesting cross-tabulation by religion is to be found in Tables 5.1.1 and 5.1.2, relating to sexual experience by age 19. These reveal that those without religion were most likely to have had sex (94%) and Muslims the least (45%), by their own admission. 89% of Christians were sexually experienced and 62% of Hindus and Sikhs. The irreligious were also the likeliest to have had sex without any precautions or contraception (58%).

These five tables in the Statistical Bulletin naturally have the potential for adversarial exploitation, in terms of current debates about the inter-relationships between religion, ethnicity, education, social capital and morality. It would be particularly fascinating to have a comment on them from a secularist perspective. 

Given the public interest potential of LSYPE, it is worth reminding BRIN users that LSYPE datasets are routinely deposited at the Economic and Social Data Service as SN 5545, and thus available for secondary analysis, although wave 7 has not yet been released at the time of writing.

Wave 7 will be the final wave for which the Department for Education is responsible; the Economic and Social Research Council is currently assessing whether it can take over the study.

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Conscientious Objection in Medical Students

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Nearly half of medical students believe it is the right of doctors conscientiously to object to any procedure, and this is especially the case among Muslim medical students, according to research by Sophie Strickland published on 18 July in the ‘online first’ version of the Journal of Medical Ethics.

Strickland contacted 1,437 medical students at St George’s University of London, King’s College London, Cardiff University and the University of Leeds, sending them on 5 May 2008 an email link to an anonymous online questionnaire hosted by the Survey Monkey website. 733 responses (51% of the target population) had been received by the time the survey closed on 24 June 2008.

29% of the medical students stated that they had no religion and 12% were atheists. 17% were Protestant Christians, 11% Roman Catholics, 9% Muslims, and 21% of other religious persuasions. Almost two-thirds of respondents were women, which may account for the relatively religious nature of the sample.

Asked in general whether doctors should be allowed to object to any procedure on moral, cultural or religious grounds, 45% agreed, 41% disagreed, and 14% were unsure. The proportion in agreement fell to 36% among the irreligious and atheists but soared to 76% for Muslims. It was somewhat higher among Protestants (51%) than Catholics (46%).

Faced with a follow-on question enquiring whether they would object to performing eleven specific medical procedures, 15% objected to all of them, ranging from 6% for atheists to 30% for Muslims. Of those raising objections, 20% cited religious reasons, 44% non-religious reasons, and 36% a combination of both. Muslim students were most likely to report religious only objections (28%).

Muslims were particularly exercised about most abortion-related procedures, especially abortion for congenital abnormalities after 24 weeks and abortion for failed contraception before 24 weeks. However, there was also a significant amount of Muslim concern about intimate examination of a person of the opposite sex and reservations about the treatment of patients intoxicated with alcohol or recreational drugs.

Although General Medical Council guidelines provide for some accommodation of conscientious objection among doctors, it is clear from this study that the views of many Muslim medical students, and of some others, could well be in potential conflict with those guidelines once they qualify and begin to practise medicine in the community. Since fieldwork was completed three years ago, some of these tensions are presumably already being evidenced on the ground.   

For the abstract of Strickland’s article on ‘Conscientious Objection in Medical Students: A Questionnaire Survey’, and options to purchase the full text, go to:

http://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2011/06/29/jme.2011.042770.abstract

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Religion of Prisoners – England and Wales, 2010

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Clive D. Field

32% of prisoners in England and Wales on 30 June 2010 professed no religion, the identical figure to March 2000, although the prison population had increased by 30% during the course of the decade.

The proportion of irreligious did not vary greatly by gender, but it did by ethnicity, ranging from 4% for Asians to 38% for whites. Age also made a difference, the number falling to 18% for prisoners aged 60 and over and peaking at 44% for the 15-17s.

On the assumption that length of sentence equates to the seriousness of the crime, it is interesting to note that those serving shorter sentences were more likely to claim no religion (38%) than those serving longer (four years or more or indeterminate) sentences (26%). Recalls, however, included an above-average number of irreligious (36%).   

These are some of the calculations which can be made from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)’s Offender Management Caseload Statistics for 2010, which are available as a series of Excel spreadsheets (with tables A1.21-A1.25 covering the raw data for religion, but no percentages) at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/statistics-and-data/prisons-and-probation/oms-quartlery.htm

24% of prisoners in 2010 claimed to be Anglicans, 17% Roman Catholics, 7% other Christians, 12% Muslims, and 5% of other faiths. In 3% of cases religion was not recorded, an unusually high proportion compared with previous years (possibly related to a change of IT systems used by the MoJ for data-gathering).

The percentage of Muslim prisoners has almost doubled since 2000, partly reflecting the natural growth of Muslims in society at large, and partly the concentration of criminals among young and economically disadvantaged people, who are disproportionately Muslim. 59% of Muslim prisoners were aged 15-29 compared with 47% of all prisoners.

A special study of Muslim Prisoners’ Experiences has already been covered by BRIN at http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=336.    

Roman Catholics were likewise over-represented among the prison population, relative to the community as a whole, albeit their proportion of prisoners has not changed since 2000. This is a long-standing phenomenon and has recently been subject to detailed investigation in Scotland. See http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=1008.

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Muslim-Western Tensions – British Experiences

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Clive D. Field

‘Muslim and Western publics continue to see relations between them as generally bad, with both sides holding negative stereotypes of the other.’ However, there has been ‘somewhat of a thaw in the U.S. and Europe compared with five years ago’.

This is according to the latest findings from the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, released on 21 July. It was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between 21 March and 15 May 2011 among 23 publics, including Great Britain (where 1,000 adults aged 18 and over were interviewed by telephone).

The Muslim-related questions have been analysed by Pew for six Western publics (Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, and the USA), seven Muslim publics (Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, and Turkey) and for Israel.  

The present post mainly focuses on the British data, but the international results may be readily viewed in the report Muslim-Western Tensions Persist, which is available for download at:

http://pewglobal.org/files/2011/07/Pew-Global-Attitudes-Muslim-Western-Relations-FINAL-FOR-PRINT-July-21-2011.pdf

64% of Britons held a favourable opinion of Muslims. This represented a fall of seven points since 2005 (just before 7/7) but a 4% recovery from 2010. It was also, jointly with France, the best figure among the six Western nations, higher than Russia (62%), USA (57%), Germany (45%), and Spain (37%).

Nevertheless, 22% of Britons regarded Muslims unfavourably, which was far more than took the same view of Christians (6%) or Jews (7%). 83% were well-disposed to Christians and 76% to Jews, much the same as in 2004.

Moreover, only 39% of Britons assigned no negative traits to Muslims. Specifically, 43% described them as fanatical, 38% as arrogant, 32% as violent, 29% as selfish, 18% as immoral, and 16% as greedy. Similarly, 61% did not associate Muslims with respect for women, 45% with tolerance, 34% with generosity, and 22% with honesty.

52% in Britain saw most Muslims as wanting to remain distinct from mainstream society, rising to 59% for those without degree-level education. Apart from the USA (51%), other Western countries recorded even higher figures, as much as 72% in Germany. Just 28% of Britons thought Muslims wanted to adopt British customs, albeit an improvement on 19% in 2005 and 22% in 2006.

52% of British adults assessed relations between Muslims around the world and Westerners as being generally bad (nine points less than in 2006) and 40% as generally good. 48% of Americans also said bad, 58% of Spaniards, 61% of Germans, and 62% of French.

Of Britons who said relations were bad, 34% believed Muslims were mostly to blame for this state of affairs (compared with 25% in 2006), 26% Western people, and 24% both groups.

So-called ‘Islamic extremism’ seems to have soured relations. 70% in Britain were concerned about this and a mere 28% unconcerned. Notwithstanding, 70% represented a fall of 7% since the 2006 (post-7/7) survey and a return to 2005 (pre-7/7) levels. Russians (76%) and Germans (73%) were more concerned than Britons, Americans (69%), French (68%), and Spaniards (61%) somewhat less.

In similar vein, 52% in Britain claimed that some religions were more prone to violence than others, and three-quarters of these cited Islam as the single most violent religion (against 63% immediately before 7/7).

59% of Britons thought Muslim nations should be more economically prosperous than they were. This lack of prosperity was largely attributed to internal deficiencies in those nations: government corruption (51%), lack of democracy (46%), lack of education (36%), and Islamic fundamentalism (31%). No more than 15% were willing to allocate blame to US and Western policies.

Finally, a footnote on religion more generally. Professing Christians in the Western countries were asked whether they first considered themselves as citizens of their nation or as Christians. In Britain 63% of Christians placed their nationality first, exactly three times the proportion which put their Christian identity first. This reflected a shift since 2006, when the figures had been 59% and 24%. Americans were most likely to put Christianity (46%) above nationality, French the least (8%).

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British Muslim Students’ Experience of Higher Education

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Clive D. Field

British Muslim students get comparatively low A Level grades, overwhelmingly enter post-1992 universities (former polytechnics), live at the parental home during term-time, and are decreasingly satisfied with the quality of the higher education which they receive.

These conclusions emerge from a study of 5,523 students (3,555 males, 1,968 females) of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin and living in the United Kingdom who attended business schools at universities in England and completed the National Student Survey between 2008 and 2010. Business and related studies are one of the most popular subjects for British Muslim university students.

The research is reported in Aftab Dean and Steve Probert, ‘British Muslim Students’ Experience of Higher Education: An Analysis of National Student Survey Results for UK Business Schools’, Perspectives: Teaching Islamic Studies in Higher Education, Issue 2, June 2011, pp. 18-25. This can be accessed at:

http://www.islamicstudiesnetwork.ac.uk/assets/documents/islamicstudies/Perspectives2.pdf

Fewer than one in ten of these Muslim business school students achieved high A Level grades, under one-third medium grades and well over one-half low grades. This distribution compared unfavourably with other ethnic minorities (especially Indians and Chinese), although blacks also performed fairly badly.

77% of Muslim students attended post-1992 universities, 4% Russell Group institutions and 19% other pre-1992 universities. There were no major differences between men and women Muslim students. The concentration in post-1992 universities is naturally causally linked with low A Level grades.

Unlike other ethnic minority students, the vast majority of Muslim students (almost two-thirds of the men and three-quarters of the women) lived at home with their parents while studying for their degree. Such Muslim students rated their overall university experience lower than those living in other types of accommodation, particularly private halls. The pedagogical implications of this finding, with particular reference to Muslim women students, are explored in the article’s conclusion.

In general, Muslims also scored their higher education experience as lower than those from other ethnic groups. Overall satisfaction of Muslims decreased over the three surveys, and female Muslims were less content than their male counterparts. Relative to all students and to white students, Muslims were more dissatisfied with their teaching, academic support, and aspects of assessment and feedback. In their summation, the authors highlight the importance of ‘culturally responsive teaching’.

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Alcohol, Young People and Religion

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Young people who profess no religion are significantly more likely to have had an alcoholic drink than those with a faith. Indeed, religion is one of the most important factors affecting the likelihood of youth’s consumption of alcohol. This is according to bivariate and multivariate analytical research published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on 17 June.

Details of the study are to be found in Pamela Bremner, Jamie Burnett, Fay Nunney, Mohammed Ravat (all of Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute) and Willm Mistral (University of Bath), Young People, Alcohol and Influences: A Study of Young People and their Relationship with Alcohol and in the associated technical document. These may be downloaded from:

http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/young-people-alcohol-and-influences

Fieldwork was undertaken by means of self-completion questionnaire administered by Ipsos MORI, in invigilated classroom conditions, to a representative sample of 5,785 teenagers aged 13-14 (year 9) and 15-16 (year 11) attending all types of secondary schools in England (apart from special schools). The fieldwork dates were 9 February to 22 May 2009.

In year 9 30% of pupils had never had an alcoholic drink and 70% had, but the latter proportion stood at 81% for those with no religion and dropped to 62% among those with a faith. Drinkers in year 11 numbered 89%, 94% of those without religion and 84% with one.

Among believers, Christians were far more disposed to have drunk alcohol than Muslims, 71% and 13% respectively in year 9, 91% and 26% in year 11. Thus, 87% of year 9 and 74% of year 11 Muslims had not drunk. In fact, across both age groups, the odds of Muslims having had alcoholic drink were 25 times lower than for non-Muslims.

Of those who had never consumed alcohol 25% in year 9 and 34% in year 11 gave religious reasons for not drinking, and these were disproportionately Muslims. In general, however, young people mostly rationalized their abstinence in secular terms, such as lack of interest and potential damage to health, more than on religious grounds.

One-half of both years 9 and 11 identified with a religion, four-fifths of them with Christianity. The number professing no religion edged up from 44% to 48% between years 9 and 11, while those saying their religious beliefs were important to them fell from 26% to 20%. Many believers were apparently fairly nominal. Listeners to religious music were only 7%, and they were three times less likely to have drunk alcohol than non-listeners.

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