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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Equality Duties and Schools

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Even before the Public Sector Equality Duty came into effect on 5 April 2011, thereby extending the legislative diversity responsibilities of public bodies to religion or belief, more than nine-tenths of maintained schools had already built religion or belief into their written equality policies or schemes.

This finding derives from a telephone survey of 503 maintained primary schools, secondary schools (including a booster of academies), special schools and Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) in England and Wales, which was conducted by Ipsos MORI for the Equality and Human Rights Commission between 7 June and 20 July 2010.

The proportion of schools covering religion or belief in their schemes averaged 93% but reached 98% in secondary schools, academies and special schools. The lowest figures were for primary schools (92%) and – somewhat paradoxically – faith schools (90%).

Nevertheless, only 34% of schools which covered religion or belief in their equality policies had actually set specific targets relating to the religion or belief equality strand at the time of fieldwork. This equated to 31% of all schools (dropping to 21% in the case of secondary schools).

The survey is reported in Graham Bukowski, Hazel Roberts, Jen Fraser and Fiona Johnson, The Equality Duties and Schools, Equality and Human Rights Commission Research Report, No. 70, published on 11 July 2011 and downloadable from:

http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/research/rr70_equality_duties_and_schools.pdf

The report also disaggregates the replies of faith schools to most questions touching on other aspects of equality besides religion or belief, although it should be noted that only 69 faith schools were included in the sample.

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National Survey of Charities and Social Enterprises

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Religion is already a major component of the Big Society, even on a narrow definition, and without taking full account of the wider contribution of faith communities to the development of the country’s social capital.

For example, 19% of charities and social enterprises in England claim to undertake specifically religious or faith-based activities, and 13% describe this as their main focus.

14% regard the advancement of religion or spiritual welfare through the support of religious or spiritual practice as one of their roles and 11% as a principal goal.

18% consider faith communities as clients, users or beneficiaries of their work, and 8% as their main audience.

These are some of the findings from the 2010 National Survey of Charities and Social Enterprises (NSCSE), which was conducted by Ipsos MORI for the Office for Civil Society (part of the Cabinet Office) and published on 6 July 2011. 

The data derive from self-completion postal questionnaires sent out in September 2010 to a sample of charities, social enterprises and voluntary organizations across all 151 single and two-tier local authorities in England. 44,109 of them, or 41%, had replied (by post or online survey link) by the close of fieldwork in January 2011.  

National topline data, reports for all 151 local authorities, and an online reporting tool for customized queries are already available on the NSCSE website. The complete dataset and technical report will also be available there within a few weeks. See:

http://www.nscsesurvey.com/results2010/

The NSCSE is comparable to the 2008 National Survey of Third Sector Organisations (NSTSO), which was carried out between September and December 2008 in all 149 upper-tier local authorities in England in existence at that time. This achieved responses from 48,939 organizations, 47% of those sampled.

A database of organizations drawing on the list of registered charities and registers of Community Interest Companies, Companies Limited by Guarantee and Industrial and Provident Societies in England was supplied by Guidestar UK as the basis for both surveys.

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New Reports from the Pastoral Research Centre

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The Pastoral Research Centre (PRC), the Roman Catholic socio-religious research institute established following the demise of the Newman Demographic Survey (NDS) in 1964, has launched two new series of reports on Catholic schools in England and Wales. They are all edited by Anthony E.C.W. Spencer and issued under the PRC imprint of Russell-Spencer Ltd.

One series publishes for the first time the detailed findings of the inaugural census of Catholic schools carried out by Ronald Barley and Audrey Donnithorne for the NDS in 1955. The three reports currently available comprise a general introduction to the series and the returns for the Dioceses of Brentwood and Menevia. In the pipeline are reports for the Dioceses of Clifton, Nottingham, and Plymouth.

The other series is a reconstruction of the 2009 census of Catholic schools, originally undertaken by the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales (CESEW). However, because the CESEW has published only a summary account of this census – see BRIN’s coverage at http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=824 – and has declined Spencer’s requests for access to detailed data, he has needed to reconstruct the census from eleven different sources, including Freedom of Information Act requests to local education authorities.

Four reports have been issued for 2009 thus far: a general introduction and the results for the Dioceses of Brentwood, Menevia, and Wrexham. Next in line for publication are reports for the Archdiocese of Cardiff and the Dioceses of Clifton, Hexham and Newcastle, and Lancaster. The introductory report contains twelve invaluable tables of national Catholic baptismal and school statistics since 1955, with associated commentary.

In an accompanying press release, Spencer has likewise used these 1955 and 2009 censuses to begin to review the achievements of the educational policy of the Catholic Church over the last six decades, measured against its own seven longstanding strategic principles.

He finds that the Church appears to have abandoned or to have ‘turned upside down’ five of its principles, that:

  • every Catholic child should attend a Catholic school
  • Catholic children are prohibited from attending schools also open to non-Catholics
  • Catholic schools should be single sex
  • Catholic schools should be controlled by the institutional Church
  • Catholic children should be taught only by Catholic teachers

A sixth principle, that there must be a place in a Catholic school for every Catholic child, is said to have been achieved, albeit the achievement turns out to be hollow, since many non-Catholic pupils now take up places not sought out by Catholic parents. The seventh principle remains unchanged: that the Catholic Church should ‘have’ its own schools for the Catholic community.

Spencer comments: ‘Many Catholics – and many of their fellow citizens – would applaud the above developments if they were aware of them; many would regret them, and many would be indifferent. But as the institutional leaders of the Church do not accept that they are accountable to the Catholic community, and have set up neither a National Pastoral Council, nor the National Conference on Catholic Education – “a national platform for major public debate on Catholic education” – planned in 1988, or any other conflict resolution system, the Catholic community will continue to be kept uninformed, unconsulted, its views ignored.’

To obtain copies of these seven reports on the 1955 and 2009 Catholic school censuses, the press release and a list of all PRC publications in print, contact Mr Spencer at the Pastoral Research Centre, Stone House, Hele, Tanuton, Somerset, TA4 1AJ, telephone: 01823 461669, email: sociorelresearch@btinternet.com

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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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Mission Work and Mission Workers

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Clive D. Field

A quantitative profile of mission work and mission workers in 2010 has recently been published by ADBC Publishers, the imprint of Brierley Consultancy, which undertook the underlying research on behalf of ReachAcross (formerly the Red Sea Mission Team), the mission agency devoted to ‘helping Muslims follow Jesus’.

The data derive from a questionnaire sent to 3,000 UK churches, of which more than one-fifth responded. This was not intended to be a statistically representative sample but was skewed towards larger churches (which were more likely to be able to maintain mission workers) and the ‘Affinity’ churches which already supported ReachAcross.

Responding places of worship defined contemporary mission work in terms of three roughly equal categories: spiritual (church planting 17%, discipleship 19%), community development or relief work (33%), and specialist ministries (youth work 17%, medical work 14%).

Not all churches supported mission workers, but, of those which did, the average number of workers was three, ranging from two for churches with Sunday congregations of less than 200 to seven for those with over 350.

The average number of mission agencies supported by the churches was six. 24% supported fewer than three, 32% between three and five, 30% from six to ten, and 14% eleven or more.

88% of the mission workers were partially funded by their supporting church and 6% were fully funded. 6% overall were not financed by their church, rising to one-quarter among long-term workers in their 70s. 83% of churches had a mission budget which averaged 13% of the church’s total income.

17% of the mission workers supported by responding churches were located in the UK, 16% in other parts of Europe, 29% in Africa, 17% in Asia, 9% in Latin America, and 14% in other places.

22% of the mission workers served in an independent capacity on their chosen mission field. The remainder were connected with a mission agency, half of them with a major agency and half with a small and less well-known one.  

20% of the mission workers served in a short-term (less than two years) capacity. They were mostly in their upper teens or twenties, often working overseas during a gap year. The average age of a long-term worker was 46, with the oldest workers tending to be supported by the smallest churches.

Final pastoral authority over mission workers was felt to be exercised by the supporting church in 21% of cases, jointly by the church and the mission agency in 42%, and the mission agency alone in 32%.

Copies of the 16-page pamphlet Mission Workers in the 21st Century by Peter Brierley can be obtained from ReachAcross, PO Box 304, Sevenoaks, TN13 9EL, price £2.60 (inclusive of postage and packing). Cheques should be made payable to ReachAcross.

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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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