Campaigning Christians

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Churchgoing Christians in the UK have a strong campaigning streak, according to a ComRes Cpanel poll commissioned by Premier Christian Media and published on 1 August. Online interviews were conducted with 529 Christians aged 18 and over on 6-18 July 2011.

Asked how important they considered various socio-religious issues to have a campaign on, the number of Christians replying ‘very important’ or ‘important’ ranged from 85% on abortion to 95% on parenting and the family.

93% each opted for campaigns on care of the elderly and freedom of religious expression, 92% for marriage, 91% for the persecuted Church, and 87% for lobbying on euthanasia or assisted suicide.

A press release accompanying the survey, and the basis for a report in the Church of England Newspaper for 5 August, claimed that ‘it revealed a staggering gulf between what young and older generations of believers regard as issues of importance.’

In particular, ‘pro-life and end of life issues were of greater concern to young people aged between 18-34 years compared with those over the age of 65’, whereas ‘youth related issues were of greater concern to over 65s compared to young people (under 35s)’.

However, these differences emerged when considering only those who said ‘very important’ in relation to each issue. If the figures for ‘very important’ and ‘important’ are summed, then the age margins narrow considerably.

In terms of gender, the single most notable variation was over attitudes to abortion, 79% of male and 91% of female Christians regarding it as very important or important to campaign on this topic. There were smaller gaps (84% versus 92% and 89% versus 95% respectively) on euthanasia and marriage.

Breaks were also provided by region, denomination and churchmanship, but individual cell sizes are too small to permit meaningful analysis. There was likewise disaggregation for those in a church leadership role, attendees at Alpha courses, and members of a Christian organization.

The data tables are available to download, but – for some unexplained reason – they do not include the answers about campaigns on youth work and young people in prison. The tables will be found at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Premier_tables_Q5_Aug11.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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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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Religious Education and the English Baccalaureate

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The campaign (RE.ACT) to persuade the Coalition Government to change its mind about excluding GCSE Religious Education (RE) from the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) in secondary schools hotted up on 24 June with the simultaneous publication of two new surveys accompanied by rather alarmist press releases.

The first was a report by the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE), based on an online (Survey Monkey) poll of RE teachers in 1,918 schools over a 10-day period commencing 22 May 2011. These schools represented 53% of the maintained secondary school sector in England.

The report was launched with a joint release by NATRE and the Religious Education Council of England and Wales with the key message that ‘Religious education in schools is being killed off’. Government’s ‘rapidly implemented plans to shake up the educational system are set to shake out RE. This may not be deliberate but is the inevitable unintended consequence of other actions.’

Informing these headlines was the fact that, according to the NATRE survey, 20% of schools were already failing to meet the legal requirement to provide RE for all pupils at Key Stage 4, with 24% expecting to fall short in 2011/12. Even at Key Stage 3 9% of schools did not meet the obligation. Neither were faith schools immune from non-compliance.

Moreover, 32% of schools had experienced a drop in GCSE entries for 2011/12 in the full RE course and 22% in the short course, the EBacc being the single commonest reason cited for the decline.  More than one-quarter of academy, community and grammar schools also anticipated specialist RE staff reductions for 2011/12.

The NATRE report is available at:

http://www.retoday.org.uk/media/display/NATRE_EBacc_Survey2_report_final.pdf

The second study was a ComRes poll, commissioned by Premier Christian Media Group (which has organized a petition of over 140,000 signatures to press for the inclusion of RE in the EBacc), and undertaken among an online sample of 2,005 Britons aged 18 and over on 10-12 June 2011.

The press release accompanying the results was entitled ‘Teach young people about other religions or risk religious extremism, warns new public poll’. This was a reference to the findings that:

  • 81% of respondents believed that, without education, people become intolerant of different cultures and religions;
  • 77% were convinced that knowledge of different religions helped promote community cohesion;
  • 71% predicted that British society would become more divided, unless children and young people are taught about different cultures and religions; and
  • 57% envisaged such teaching would reduce extremism and fundamentalism in Britain

Additionally, 88% of the sample agreed that learning about different cultures and faiths in Britain and the rest of the world is important, and 84% that it contributed to an understanding of modern society. 68% judged that children and young people did not know enough about religions and cultures other than their own. 

The full computer tabulations for the ComRes poll, with a range of breaks (gender, age, social grade, region, employment sector, knowledge of world religions, level of RE at school), can be downloaded from:

http://www.comres.co.uk/premierextremismpoll24jun11.aspx

It could be argued that these high values in favour of RE are somewhat misleading in that, in the ComRes poll, RE was not in contention with other curriculum subjects. It is therefore instructive to examine the ComRes outcomes alongside a survey by YouGov among 1,374 Britons aged 18 and over, interviewed online on 15-16 June 2011.

Although this did not expressly mention the EBacc, it did ask which of twenty GCSE subjects should count towards the construction of school performance league tables. RE came only sixteenth in the rank order, scoring 21%, with just Latin, media studies, drama and dance below it.

The subjects topping the YouGov list were mathematics, English, science, modern languages, and history/geography – precisely the disciplines included in the EBacc. So perhaps public support for school RE is not quite so strong as the RE lobbyists would wish to be the case? The YouGov statistics can be found at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-yougov-gcses-240611.pdf

This YouGov poll was a replication of an earlier one, conducted on 11-12 January 2011, which ranked RE as the fifteenth most important GCSE subject in the construction of school league tables, with 22% support. See our coverage at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=833

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Religious Discrimination in Britain

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Clive D. Field

A synthesis of the quantitative and qualitative evidence base for actual or perceived religious discrimination in Britain during the past decade was published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on 20 June as Research Report, 73.

Emanating from a desk-based study undertaken by Paul Weller and his colleagues at the University of Derby, Religious Discrimination in Britain: A Review of Research Evidence, 2000-10 is available to download from:

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/research/research_report_73_religious_discrimination.pdf

The statistics, which occupy a relatively and disappointingly small proportion of the document, mostly derive from sources which have already been covered by BRIN, so repetition of Weller’s summary and tabulation of them is perhaps unnecessary here.

Indeed, in the quantitative aspect, another recent EHRC publication, David Perfect’s Religion or Belief, is actually superior to Weller’s work, which is essentially an annotated literature review. See, especially, Tables 13-19 in Perfect’s paper, which we have already featured at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=894

Weller’s public opinion sources include: Eurobarometers for 2006-09 (pp. 27-30) and Citizenship Surveys for 2003-10 (pp. 30-1, 43). Other data comprise Employment Tribunal cases for 2003-10 (p. 31) and anti-Semitic incidents for 2000-10 (pp. 34-5). Non-recurrent statistics are generally unused by Weller.

One of Weller’s overarching conclusions (pp. vii, 36) is that: ‘At present there is insufficient quantitative and time series data to indicate conclusively whether “religious discrimination” in Britain is increasing or decreasing, taken as a whole.’

There is a useful analysis by Weller of gaps in existing research and statistical evidence (pp. ix-x, 52-8). This highlights especially the issue of visibility and invisibility in religious discrimination. A central recommendation is the implementation of a panel survey focusing on religious discrimination and equity.   

The report has already been surrounded in controversy, commencing with an interview given by Trevor Phillips, chair of the EHRC Commissioners, in the Sunday Telegraph of 19 June. This has been denounced as a ‘thoughtless intervention’ by the National Secular Society (NSS), which was likewise critical of Weller and his methods. The NSS assessed that the report ‘struggles hard to find evidence for any large-scale discrimination on religious grounds’.

Weller is also principal investigator for a three-year (2010-12) research project on ‘Religion and Belief, Discrimination and Equality in England and Wales: Theory, Policy and Practice, 2000-2010’. Described in detail on pp. 60-2 of his report, this is being funded by the Religion and Society Programme of the Arts and Humanities and Economic and Social Research Councils.

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Naughty Vicar Syndrome

Posted on May 29, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Local clergy come a close second to politicians in meriting media exposure for cheating on their spouse, according to a new survey commissioned by The Sunday Times in the wake of the controversy surrounding superinjunctions and the freedom of the press.

Fieldwork was conducted online by YouGov on 26 and 27 May 2011 among a representative sample of 2,723 Britons aged 18 and over. The detailed results from the poll are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-st-results-27-290511.pdf

Asked whether it would be legitimate for the press to report on cases where ten categories of individual had been unfaithful to their spouse, affirmative replies were as follows:

  • a senior politician – 71%
  • a backbench politician – 65%
  • a local clergyman – 64%
  • a local councillor – 62%
  • a top professional footballer – 59%
  • a senior executive of a major corporation – 58%
  • a well-known actor – 56%
  • a television presenter – 55%
  • a former reality TV star – 51%
  • a normal member of the public – 30%

Nearly three times as many respondents wanted to see local clergy exposed in the media as opted to keep the matter private (23%), with 13% unsure what to think. The clamour for publicity about clergy was notably high among Conservative voters (71%) and the over-60s (70%).

Religious professionals may no longer command the sort of respect in the community which they once did, but it seems that we generally still expect them to be exemplary in their moral behaviour and feel entitled to know about their falls from grace.

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Hate Crime in Scotland, 2010-11

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Crimes motivated by religious prejudice rose by 10% in Scotland last year, representing the highest number of charges in that category since 2006-07, according to the report on Hate Crime in Scotland, 2010-11, published yesterday by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS). The paper can be found at:

http://www.copfs.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Hate%20Crime%20-%20publication%20-%20final%20version.pdf

There were 693 charges with a religious aggravation in Scotland in 2010-11, as defined by Section 74 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003. This compared with 4,165 charges related to race crime (4% down on 2009-10), 50 to disability, 448 to sexual orientation, and 14 to transgender identity.

85% of the religious cases in 2010-11 resulted in court proceedings, 9% were not separately prosecuted (meaning that other charges for the accused within the same case were), 2% were dealt with by direct measures (such as fines and warning letters), no action was taken in 3% of cases, and 1% still await a decision.

Of the 20 religious cases where no action was taken, seven were judged not to be a crime, in six there was insufficient evidence, in five further action was considered to be disproportionate, and in one there were mitigating circumstances. Other (unspecified) reasons applied to the final case.

It should be noted that the statistics relate to the number of charges rather than the number of individuals charged or the number of incidents that gave rise to such charges. Where a charge had more than one hate crime aggravation, it is included in the overall figures for each type of hate crime into which it falls.

These data are highly topical, given the apparent recent resurgence of sectarianism in Scotland, including a spate of incidents against individuals connected with Glasgow Celtic Football Club. The Roman Catholic Church in Scotland has claimed that Scottish Catholics are six times more likely than Protestants to be a victim of bigotry.

Following a meeting of the Scottish Cabinet on 15 March, COPFS is committed to taking forward new research into the ‘religious context of religiously aggravated offences in Scotland’. Proposals for this project are currently being developed. The last study, in 2006, found two-thirds of reported offences were anti-Catholic in nature and a third were football related.

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