| | The Department for Communities and Local Government today publishes a report, ‘Attitudes, values and perceptions - Muslims and the general population in 2007-08’, based on data taken from the Citizenship survey 2007-08.
The report analyses Muslim and general population attitudes towards engagement, cohesion, interaction and identity and prejudice and discrimination.
|
Some of the reports findings:
‘In 2007-08 rates of civic engagement and volunteering were lower among Muslims compared with the general population, reflecting the younger age profile of the Muslim population. However, Muslims were more likely than the general population to feel that they could influence decisions affecting Britain and their local area.
‘The Muslim population and the general population often agreed on which were the most important rights, responsibilities and values for living in Britain. For example, in 2005 both Muslims and the general population agreed that everyone should have the right to free education for children and the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Similarly, Muslims and the general population agreed that obeying and respecting the law, helping and protecting your family, working to provide for yourself and voting were the responsibility of everyone.'
‘As expected, on some issues Muslims held different views to those of the general population as a whole. For example, in 2005 Muslims had lower expectations than the general population in terms of both the rights that they should have and the rights they actually had.
‘Muslims’ perceptions of the most important values for living in Britain sometimes reflected their experiences as members of a religious, and often an ethnic, minority. Hence, in 2007-08 Muslims were more likely than the general population to place respect for all faiths, respect for people from different ethnic groups and freedom to follow a religion of choice among their most important values for living in Britain.
‘In 2007-08 Muslims expressed particularly positive attitudes towards their communities: they were more likely than the general population to agree that people from different backgrounds got on well together, to agree that their local area is a place where residents respect ethnic differences between people and to feel strongly that they belonged to their neighbourhoods. However, racial and religious harassment remained an issue for some Muslim communities; Muslims were twice as likely as the general population to report that racial and religious harassment was a problem in their local area. Muslim women in particular reported that this was a problem.
‘Muslims and the general population were equally likely to agree that they personally felt a part of Britain while Muslims were more likely than the general population to feel that they belonged to Britain and more likely to choose ‘British’ as their national identity.
‘In 2007-08 both Muslims and the general population felt that their family was the most important aspect of their identity. After family, Muslims were more likely than the general population to say that their religion was an important part of their identity, reflecting the much higher rates of religious observance among the Muslim population. Linked to this, Muslims were also more likely than the general population to say that their religion affected aspects of their life – for example where they worked or lived and who their friends were. In many cases this is likely to reflect religious requirements to avoid prohibited jobs or environments; for example those involving alcohol.
‘In 2007-08 Muslims expressed relatively high levels of trust in institutions. Muslims were more likely than the general population to say that they trusted Parliament and more likely to say that they trusted their local council. In addition, both Muslims and the general population expressed high levels of trust in the police.
‘However, perceptions of the extent of religious prejudice were less positive. In 2007-08, majorities of both the Muslim and general population perceived that there was a lot or a fair amount of religious prejudice in Britain and felt that religious prejudice had increased in the previous five years. In addition, all faith groups perceived that religious prejudice against Muslims in particular had increased.
‘Among Muslims that had been refused a job in the previous five years, one in four felt that they had been refused a job because of their race and around one in seven felt that they had been refused a job because of their religion.
‘…a larger proportion of Muslims perceived that they would be treated differently to people of other races by the police; in 2007-08 one in five Muslims felt that they would be treated worse than people of other races by the police.
‘Around half of all non-Muslims believed that prejudice against Muslims had increased in the previous five years and one in ten perceived that Muslims would be treated worse than them by one or more organisations. At the same time, around one in five non-Muslims believed that the Government was doing too much to protect the rights of Muslims.’
|
