Violent Extremism

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Clive D. Field

One of the four strands in the previous Labour government’s CONTEST counter-terrorism strategy was focused on preventing extremism. It was especially concerned to stop the radicalization of young Muslims, following the London bombings in 2005.

In an effort to improve the evidence base, the Department for Communities and Local Government decided to include an experimental module on attitudes to violent extremism in the first three quarters (April-December 2009) of the 2009-10 Citizenship Survey of England and Wales.

Fieldwork was undertaken by Ipsos MORI and TNS-BMRB among a representative sample of adults aged 16 and over, including booster samples of ethnic minorities and Muslims. 12,089 people were interviewed in all, among them a core sample of 6,963 and 2,708 Muslims.

The headline results from the module have been published recently in a statistical release from the Department (ISBN 978-1-4098-2529-6), which can be read online at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/statistics/pdf/1702054.pdf

Professing Christians (87%) were more likely than Sikhs (82%), Muslims (80%), people with no religion (79%) and Hindus (76%) to say that it was always wrong to use violent extremism in Britain to protest against things deemed to be very unfair or unjust.

The proportion thinking it was sometimes, often or always right to deploy violence stood at 8% overall, peaking at 15% for Hindus, 12% for Muslims and 10% for the irreligious. Jewish and Buddhist sub-samples were too small to report.

However, in a multivariate analysis, taking account of age, income, social class and other circumstances, only people with no religion were found to be significantly different from Christians.

So, while Muslims and Hindus (as a group) were less likely than Christians to reject violent extremism, the differences are largely explicable in terms of their younger age and/or divergent socio-economic profiles. Age is particularly relevant.

This explanation does not hold good for the no religion group. Even controlling for age and socio-economic factors, its members remained less likely than Christians to reject violent extremism.

The report is at pains to point out that ‘this does not mean that the absence of religious beliefs contributes to greater support for violent extremism. There may be other factors, which were not included in the multivariate analysis, which explain the difference …’

In addition to this general question, respondents were asked about the use of violent extremism, in the name of religion, to protest or achieve a goal. In the core sample (excluding 2% who failed to answer), 95% said that this was always wrong, 4% often wrong, 1% sometimes right and sometimes wrong, with very small numbers indeed opting for often or always right. These results are not broken down by religious affiliation.

Posted in Official data, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Freedom of Religion

Posted on October 3, 2010 by Clive D. Field

It is ten years since the Human Rights Act entered the statute books. To commemorate the anniversary, the campaigning organization Liberty has commissioned ComRes to undertake a poll of public attitudes to human rights. Fieldwork was conducted by telephone between 24 and 26 September 2010 among a sample of 1,000 adults aged 18 and over. The results of this survey appear at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/libertyhractpolloct10.aspx

Respondents were asked about the importance of particular rights in modern Britain. 85% said that it was vital or important to protect freedom of thought, conscience and religion, against 6% who deemed it unnecessary (including, surprisingly, 12% of 18-24 year olds). The highest level of support (90%) was found among those aged 45-54 and the AB socio-economic group.

However, freedom of thought, conscience and religion was not as highly valued as the right to a fair trial (95%), respect for privacy, family life and the home (94%), the protection of property (94%), and the right not to be tortured or degraded (91%). In terms of being vital or important, it was somewhat more prized than freedom of speech, protest and association (84%) and the right not to be detained without reason (81%).

The problem with this survey is that interviewees were not asked to prioritize, or choose between, individual freedoms. From this perspective, it is instructive to look at a Pew Global study in April-May 2007 which asked its sample of Britons which freedom mattered most to them in their personal lives. Even combining first and second choices, only 18% elected for freedom to practice their religion, a long way behind freedom to say whatever they wanted in public (40%), freedom from hunger and poverty (68%), and freedom from crime and violence (71%).

People also have qualified views about the importance of protecting religious freedoms in practice. In the 2008-09 Citizenship Survey of England and Wales 26% actually criticized the Government for doing too much to protect the rights of different religions, with 39% saying it was doing the correct amount and 27% too little. Those aged 16-24 (34%) and UK-born Asians and blacks, Muslims and black Caribbean Christians (more than two-fifths in each case) were most likely to contend that Government was not doing enough.

Churchgoing Christians are also becoming concerned that their rights are being undermined by Government policies and judgments in test legal cases. In a ComRes poll of them in December 2009-January 2010 70% agreed that the Human Rights Act’s protection for freedom of thought, conscience and religion needed more active support from politicians. 44% claimed to know somebody who had been discriminated against on the basis of religion.

Two other ComRes surveys from February 2010, in this instance among the general public, confirmed that the picture on the ground was not as rosy as could be wished. One found that 32% thought that religious freedoms in Britain had been restricted over the past ten years, the other that 44% detected Britain was becoming less tolerant of religion.

Of course, in reality, attitudes in these matters are shaped by personal prejudices and day-to-day experiences. Thus, in the 2008 British Social Attitudes Survey 69% agreed that we should respect all religions but 13% disagreed. More worryingly, only one-half wanted all religious groups in Britain to be accorded equal rights and 23% were opposed. Islamophobia doubtless accounts for many of these reservations.

Posted in Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How Many Muslims?

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life published on 16 September a table giving estimates of the Muslim population of each country in Western Europe in 2010. This formed part of a press release about a new Pew report on Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe. However, the estimates are actually from another and still forthcoming Pew report on the growth rates among Muslim populations worldwide, and including projections for 2020 and 2030.

Pew’s UK figure for 2010 is 2,869,000, which is equivalent to 4.6% of the population. In absolute terms, the UK has the third largest Muslim community on the continent, after Germany (4,119,000) and France (3,574,000).

In percentage terms, the UK is in ninth position, after Belgium (6.0%), France, Austria and Switzerland (5.7%), The Netherlands (5.5%), Germany (5.0%), Sweden (4.9%) and Greece (4.7%). UK Muslims account for 16.8% of all Muslims in Western Europe.

The 2010 UK statistic represents an increase of 74.2% on the 1,647,000 (2.7% of the population) which Pew quoted as recently as last October, in its report Mapping the Global Muslim Population (pp. 22, 32, 54).

That figure was primarily based on the 2001 census, which was the first reliable measure of UK Muslim numbers, earlier estimates having been ethnically derived. No explanation (nor source) for the revised estimate is given by Pew, but doubtless all will be explained in its forthcoming report.

The 2001 census was thought to have been somewhat of an underestimate of Muslim numbers at that time, despite serious efforts by the Muslim Council of Britain and other community leaders to get Muslims to register their faith on the census schedule.

The most widely-publicized figures for Muslims since the census have been estimates for Great Britain from the Government’s Labour Force Survey (LFS), which rose from 1,870,000 in 2004 to 2,422,000 in 2008.

These first emerged in The Times on 30 January 2009 and were officially published in Hansard on 7 July 2009, in reply to a parliamentary question. They generated numerous media headlines about the Muslim population of Britain rising ten times faster than the rest of society.

No new LFS-based estimates have been released since, although they could presumably be easily generated by Government or academics (LFS data are routinely deposited at ESDS).

Another Government source, the Citizenship Survey, which covers adults aged 16 and over in England and Wales, reveals that the proportion of Muslims in the population doubled between 2001 and 2008-09, from 2% to 4%. Four-fifths of Muslims at the latter date claimed to be practising their faith, compared with 37% of all adults professing a religion and 32% of Christians.

According to Sophie Gilliat-Ray (Muslims in Britain, 2010, p. 117) the significant increase in the Muslim population ‘may be attributed to recent immigration, the growing birth rate, some conversion to Islam, and perhaps also an increased willingness to self-identify as “Muslim” on account of the “war on terror”’. The demography of Islam is explored in some detail in chapters 4 and 5 of Eric Kaufmann’s Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? (2010).

The 2010 Pew table can be found at:

http://features.pewforum.org/muslim/number-of-muslims-in-western-europe.html

Posted in Measuring religion, Official data, Religion in public debate | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Daybreak Surveys Religion

Posted on September 17, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Daybreak is the new breakfast television programme for the ITV network, anchored by Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley and launched on 6 September.

It has made an early entry into surveying public opinion by commissioning YouGov to run a poll on various aspects of religion.

Fieldwork was conducted online on 12-13 September among a representative sample of 2,108 adults aged 18 and over. Full data tabulations are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/YG-Archives-Life-YouGov-DaybreakReligion-130910.pdf

Asked ‘Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?’, only 49% replied in the affirmative, which must be one of the lowest levels of religious affiliation ever recorded in British polling history. 45% said they did not belong to any religion.

The 49% certainly is in stark contrast to the figure of 82% obtained in the recently-published Citizenship Survey for 2008-09 in response to the question: ‘What is your religion even if you are not currently practising?’

Even allowing for variations in methodology and question-wording, a discrepancy of 33% between two surveys is huge, underlying the challenges in measuring this most basic dimension of religiosity. BRIN will return to this topic at a future date.

Women were more likely to profess a religion than men, older people rather than the young, the ABC1s more than the C2DEs, and Londoners more than the rest of the country.

The age effect was very marked. Whereas 60% of the over-60s were attached to a religion, the figure was only 36% for the 18-29s. Indeed, 20% more of the 18-29s did not belong to a religion than did, while for the over-60s 27% more belonged than not.

Among those who regarded themselves as belonging to a religion, a majority (55%) claimed to be Anglican, 18% Roman Catholic, 13% Free Church (including Presbyterian), 7% to belong to the major non-Christian faiths and 7% to other groups.

Most (78%) agreed that it was not necessary to attend religious services to be religious, although opinion was more balanced (38% agreeing, 34% disagreeing) when respondents were asked whether regular attenders were more religious than non-attenders.

Quizzed about marriage, just 3% opposed inter-faith marriage, most having no strong opinion on the subject. Of married persons, 55% had held the ceremony in a church, including 40% of those without a religion (albeit some unwillingly), and a further 13% would have liked to marry in church but had not.

Overall, in selecting a school for their children, few (9%) attached importance to the religion of the school, Catholics (36%) and Londoners (17%) being the main exceptions.   

68% agreed with the proposition that Christianity has been pushed to the sidelines in modern Britain. The figure was naturally highest for Christians (80%), but even 63% of those without a religion agreed.

Senior religious leaders (not specified in the question) were not respected by 56% of all adults, 20% more than held them in respect. For those with a religion, 53% held religious leaders in respect and 40% not, for those without a religion 20% and 73%.

27% considered that religious leaders spoke out too much about important issues affecting society, 19% the right amount and 35% too little. Those with a faith (43%) and the over-60s (40%) most wanted religious leaders to be more vociferous.

Asked about the papal visit, 17% supported it, 29% opposed it and 49% were neutral. Support was greatest among Catholics (54%) and opposition among those with no religion (37%).

79% (including 82% of Catholics, 83% of the over-40s and 85% of Scots) wanted the Pope to apologize for the sexual abuse of children perpetrated by Catholic priests.

Posted in Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Citizenship Survey, 2008-09 – Religion

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Clive D. Field

On 14 September the Department for Communities and Local Government published online 2008-09 Citizenship Survey: Race, Religion and Equalities Topic Report by Chris Ferguson and David Hussey. It comprises a PDF document of 113 pages plus 105 statistical tables in Excel format. The report can be downloaded from:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/citizenshipsurvey200809equality

The Citizenship Survey is now conducted in annual cycles by face-to-face interview among a representative sample of adults aged 16 and over in England and Wales, including an ethnic minority booster sample. 14,917 interviews were conducted by NatCen between April 2008 and March 2009.

Four sub-topics are considered in the new report:

  • Race: chapter 2 and tables 1-14
  • Religion: chapter 3 and tables 15-58
  • Racial and religious harassment: chapter 4 and tables 59-88
  • Equalities: chapter 5 and tables 89-105

However, all of the chapters and a majority of the tables contain some content on religion.

The report is naturally too substantial to lend itself to extensive review here. By way of a taster, the following key findings have been abstracted from the executive summary:

  1. 82% reported having a religion, while 18% had none
  2. 80% of Muslims actively practised their faith, against 70% of Hindus, 66% of Sikhs and Buddhists and 32% of Christians
  3. The proportion of people who thought that there was more religious prejudice in Britain today than there was five years ago decreased, from 62% in 2007-08 to 52% in 2008-09
  4. Muslims were the group most commonly identified as experiencing both increases and decreases in religious prejudice; 88% of people who said that religious prejudice had increased identified Muslims
  5. 39% of people said that the Government was doing about the correct amount to protect the rights of people belonging to different religions; 26% thought it was doing too much and 27% too little
  6. 82% of people who thought that religious rights were protected too much mentioned Muslims in this context, while 52% of people who thought that religious rights were protected too little also mentioned Muslims
  7. 94% of people who said that they actively practised their religion felt that they could practise their religion freely in Britain
  8. 18% of people who had a religion said that their religion affected where they lived, 10% where they worked, 14% who their friends were, and 30% the school they sent their children to
  9. 17% of people from ethnic minority groups said that racial or religious harassment was a very or fairly big problem in their local area, compared with 8% of white people; 17% and 3% respectively had actually experienced harassment
  10. As in 2005 and 2007-08, the two groups mentioned most frequently as experiencing more racial prejudice were Asian people and Muslims (mentioned by 39% and 37% respectively)

Also published recently (on 2 September) was the technical report on the 2008-09 Citizenship Survey. At 417 pages, it is not for the faint-hearted! See:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/citizenshipsurvey200809technical

Previously published were topic reports on volunteering and charitable giving; empowered communities; and community cohesion. Each has some religious content. For introductions to these, see the earlier BRIN posts at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=71

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=268

The survey obviously affords plenty of scope for secondary analysis. For those interested in pursuing this, the dataset is already available at ESDS as SN 6388. See:

http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=6388&key=citizenship+survey

Posted in Official data, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Citizenship Survey, 2009-10 – First Results

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Detailed reporting from the 2008-09 Citizenship Survey may not yet be complete (in particular, the topic report on race, religion and equalities is still outstanding), but initial results from all four quarters of the 2009-10 survey were released by the Department for Communities and Local Government on 22 July in respect of the questions relating to empowered and active communities, community cohesion, and prejudice and discrimination.  

The 58-page report (Cohesion Research, Statistical Release 12) will be found at the following URL (with the 16 tables also separately available as Excel files):

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/citizenshipsurveyq4200910

The 2009-10 Citizenship Survey was conducted by Ipsos MORI and TNS-BMRB in England and Wales between April 2009 and March 2010. Face-to-face interviews took place with a representative core sample of 9,305 adults aged 16 and over. In addition, there were ethnic minority and Muslim booster samples (n = 5,280 and 1,555 respectively). However, the tables in this release mostly relate to England alone, and this is true of all those referred to below. We shall focus solely on those which contain breaks by religious affiliation (Christian denominations again being undifferentiated).

TABLE 2: Whereas 37% overall feel they can influence decisions affecting their local area, the figure rises to 40% among Sikhs, 46% among Muslims and 47% among Hindus. Similarly, while 20% overall consider they can influence decisions affecting Britain, the number stands at 35% for Hindus and Muslims, with 28% for Sikhs. It is not therefore the case that adherents of the major non-Christian faiths feel less empowered than Christians.

TABLE 3: 59% of all adults have participated in some form of civic engagement or formal volunteering at least once in the last year, a 3% decrease on 2008-09. The proportions are well below the norm for Muslims (45%) and Hindus (48%), and this is broadly true for each of the four constituent activity areas considered separately. Muslims’ engagement is 3 points lower than in 2008-09 and 6 points lower than in 2007-08, suggesting that there may be cause for concern about their level of integration.

TABLE 7: 85% of the whole sample consider their local area to be a place where people from different backgrounds get on well together, the range being from 80% for Buddhists and those with no religion to 90% for Muslims. The Muslim figure has steadily improved from 81% in 2005, as have the statistics for Christians (80% to 86%) and Sikhs (77% to 88%).

TABLE 9: 87% of all adults claim to identify strongly with Britain. This is also the figure for Muslims (as it was in 2008-09). This is 6% more than for Muslims who identify strongly with their neighbourhood, which is 5 points above the national average. Identification with Britain is weakest among Buddhists (75%, but a very small sub-sample) and those with no religion (84%).

TABLE 11: 80% of all respondents mix regularly (at least monthly) with people from different ethnic or religious backgrounds. This is least for Christians (77%) and greatest for Hindus (96%) and Muslims and Sikhs (94% each). Ethnicity is a major driver of these differences, 78% of whites mixing compared with 96% of ethnic minority groups. The statistics show little change from previous years. Breakdowns by sphere of mixing by religious affiliation are detailed in Table 12.

TABLE 13: 7% of the whole sample feel that racial or religious harassment is a very or fairly big problem in their local area. However, the figure rises to 13% for Hindus, 14% for Sikhs and 17% for Muslims, although in each instance the percentage is a little lower than in 2008-09. For Muslims it is 3% less than in 2007-08. Islamophobia, therefore, would appear to remain a sad fact of British life. Unfortunately, too few Jews were interviewed for them to be separately categorized (they are subsumed within ‘other religion’), so we cannot say from this survey whether Judeophobia is also an issue.

Posted in Official data, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Muslim Voices

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The Department for Communities and Local Government has recently published two reports which illuminate, numerically, the attitudes of British Muslims.

The first is Helen Connolly, Attitudes, Values and Perceptions: Muslims and the General Population in 2007-08. This utilizes evidence from the 2007-08 Citizenship Survey to compare and contrast the opinions of Muslims (as a whole, and disaggregated by gender and two age groups – 16-24 and 25+) and those of the general population in England. The Muslim sample numbers 1,768.

Some data and/or comparisons are also drawn with the 2005 Citizenship Survey. There are three chapters, on engagement; cohesion, interaction and identity; and prejudice and discrimination.

The report paints, in several respects, an optimistic picture of Muslim opinion. In particular, Muslims are shown to have very positive views about the level of social cohesion in their local areas; to express a strong sense of belonging both to their neighbourhoods and to Britain; and to have high levels of trust in British institutions. However, there is a perception, among Muslims and the general population, that religious prejudice is widespread and on the increase.

The document (ISBN 978 1 4098 2190 8) is available for download at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/statistics/pdf/1484586.pdf

The second report is Literature Review of Attitudes towards Violent Extremism amongst Muslim Communities in the UK. This is written by Sanah Sheikh, Chih Hoong Sin and Ewan King (all from the Office for Public Management) and Asima Shaikh (an independent researcher), and under commission from the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Chapter 4 (pp. 27-52) forms the core of the report, setting out research findings about violent extremism drawn from 36 studies relating to Muslim communities in the UK and published between 2000 and 2009. They were selected from a search of databases and websites in May-June 2009. The studies comprise a mixture of the quantitative and qualitative and of the national and local.

The selection sometimes seems arbitrary; for example, the 1990 Trust of Muslims in 2006 is considered but not that by the Islamic Human Rights Commission in 2004 (published in six volumes). However, some of the principal opinion polls of Muslims (by Gallup, GfK NOP, ICM, Pew and Populus) are featured.

Each study is assessed for quality against a range of criteria, and nearly all are judged to be of low or medium quality in providing evidence on the attitudes of Muslim communities in the UK towards violent extremism.

The document (ISBN 978 1 4098 2282 0) is available for download at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/communities/pdf/1513842.pdf

Posted in Official data | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Religion and Community Cohesion

Posted on February 20, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The Department for Communities and Local Government published 2008-09 Citizenship Survey: Community Cohesion Topic Report by Cheryl Lloyd on 18 February 2010. It runs to 196 pages and is available for free download at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/statistics/pdf/1473353.pdf

This is the first of the projected four reports from the 2008-09 Citizenship Survey, which is the fifth in a series initiated by Government in 2001.

Face-to-face interviews were conducted by NatCen between April 2008 and March 2009 with a representative core sample of 9,335 adults aged 16 and over in England and Wales, and with an ethnic minority booster of 5,582 adults.

The eight substantive chapters in the report, and the associated tables, cover: perceptions of community cohesion, views on the immediate neighbourhood, views on the local area, fear of crime, meaningful interaction with people from different backgrounds, social networks, attitudes to immigration, and sense of belonging to Britain.

In each case the results are analysed by religious affiliation. Some of the differences between religious groups arising from the current report are:

  • People of no religion are less likely to feel a strong sense of belonging to their neighbourhood than those professing a religion, 71 per cent against 79 per cent, with Sikhs recording the highest figure (88 per cent) and Buddhists the lowest (64 per cent)
  • People of no religion are less worried about crime than those professing a religion, 34 per cent against 43 per cent, with Hindus most worried (60 per cent) and Buddhists the least (34 per cent)
  • People of no religion are more likely to have meaningful interactions with citizens from different ethnic or religious groups than those professing a religion, 85 per cent against 79 per cent, with Hindus having the most contact (96 per cent) and Christians the least (78 per cent)
  • People of no religion are less likely to call for a major cut in the number of immigrants coming to Britain than those professing a religion, 45 per cent against 53 per cent, with Christians most exercised on the matter (56 per cent) and Muslims the least (23 per cent)
  • People of no religion are less likely to feel a strong sense of belonging to Britain than those professing a religion, 81 per cent against 85 per cent, with Sikhs feeling the greatest sense of identity (91 per cent) and Buddhists the least (71 per cent)

The dataset from the 2008-09 Citizenship Survey will be available for secondary analysis in due course from the Economic and Social Data Service. Datasets from the four previous surveys, in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2007-08, are already held there (Study Numbers 4754, 5087, 5367 and 5739 respectively).

Posted in Official data, Survey news | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Citizenship Survey, 2007-08 – Religion

Posted on January 9, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The Department for Communities and Local Government published the topic report on race, religion and equalities from the 2007-08 Citizenship Survey on 18 December 2009. The report runs to 256 pages and is freely available online at http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/statistics/pdf/1417955.pdf

The Citizenship Survey has been conducted every other year since 2001, by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) on behalf of Government. The population surveyed comprises adults aged 16 and over in England and Wales. In 2007-08 14,095 people were interviewed, including an ethnic minority booster sample of 4,759.

The race, religion and equalities report includes six chapters, with numerous appended tables of data disaggregated by demographics, on religion. They cover: profile of religion; religious prejudice; perceptions of the extent to which Government protects the rights of religious groups; religious discrimination; the effect of religion on day-to-day life; and racial and religious harassment.

Four other topic reports on the 2007-08 Citizenship Survey have been issued previously, and may be found on the Department’s website. They deal with: identity and values; community cohesion; empowered communities; and volunteering and charitable giving. Each includes some statistical analyses by religious variables, additional to those appearing in the race, religion and equalities report.

The dataset for the 2007-08 Citizenship Survey is available for secondary analysis from the Economic and Social Data Service as Study Number 5739.

Posted in Survey news | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment