British Muslims want Islamic courts and prayer at work -30/11/04

Muslims in Britain want greater r

British Muslims want Islamic courts and prayer at work -30/11/04

Muslims in Britain want greater recognition of their faith with the introduction of Islamic law for civil cases and time off for prayers during the working day, but are equally committed to greater participation in British life. A special Guardian/ICM poll based on a survey of 500 British Muslims found that a clear majority want Islamic law introduced into this country in civil cases relating to their own community. Some 61% wanted Islamic courts – operating on sharia principles – “so long as the penalties did not contravene British law”. Many civil cases in this country deal with family disputes such as divorce, custody and inheritance. The results of the survey are likely to raise the fears of some conservative Christians who want to preserve the centrality and privileged position of “Christian” religion in Britain. More radical Christian groups who believe in a neutral state, devolution of power and freedom of religion, may be more keen to engage in public debate about the possible implications of the survey’s findings. The survey’s publication comes a few days after the Government announced in the Queen’s speech that a bill will be introduced in the coming Parliamentary session to combat discrimination in the provision of goods and services on the grounds of religion, as well as race, sex and disability. The poll also found a high level of religious observance with just over half saying they pray five times a day, every day – although women are shown to be more devout than men. The poll reveals that 88% want to see schools and workplaces in Britain accommodating Muslim prayer times as part of their normal working day. Alongside these signs of a desire for more recognition of their religion, however, the poll suggests that the Muslim community is perhaps more integrated than many might imagine, with 62% saying they number “a lot or quite a few” non-Muslim people among their closest friends and 35% saying they would consider marrying someone who was not a Muslim. There is also a strong appetite within the Muslim community to become a closer part of British life, with 40% saying they need to do more to integrate into mainstream British culture. The ICM poll was commissioned as part of a groundbreaking Guardian exercise to gauge the mood of Britain’s younger Muslim generation. In addition to the poll, 103 young Muslims were brought together to discuss the most important issues facing their future, from identity and integration to the war on terror. ICM interviewed a random sample of 500 Muslim people by telephone between November 15-21 2004. The data has not been weighted because there is no authoritative source of demographic information on the Muslim population.

British Muslims want Islamic courts and prayer at work -30/11/04

Muslims in Britain want greater recognition of their faith with the introduction of Islamic law for civil cases and time off for prayers during the working day, but are equally committed to greater participation in British life. A special Guardian/ICM poll based on a survey of 500 British Muslims found that a clear majority want Islamic law introduced into this country in civil cases relating to their own community. Some 61% wanted Islamic courts – operating on sharia principles – “so long as the penalties did not contravene British law”. Many civil cases in this country deal with family disputes such as divorce, custody and inheritance. The results of the survey are likely to raise the fears of some conservative Christians who want to preserve the centrality and privileged position of “Christian” religion in Britain. More radical Christian groups who believe in a neutral state, devolution of power and freedom of religion, may be more keen to engage in public debate about the possible implications of the survey’s findings. The survey’s publication comes a few days after the Government announced in the Queen’s speech that a bill will be introduced in the coming Parliamentary session to combat discrimination in the provision of goods and services on the grounds of religion, as well as race, sex and disability. The poll also found a high level of religious observance with just over half saying they pray five times a day, every day – although women are shown to be more devout than men. The poll reveals that 88% want to see schools and workplaces in Britain accommodating Muslim prayer times as part of their normal working day. Alongside these signs of a desire for more recognition of their religion, however, the poll suggests that the Muslim community is perhaps more integrated than many might imagine, with 62% saying they number “a lot or quite a few” non-Muslim people among their closest friends and 35% saying they would consider marrying someone who was not a Muslim. There is also a strong appetite within the Muslim community to become a closer part of British life, with 40% saying they need to do more to integrate into mainstream British culture. The ICM poll was commissioned as part of a groundbreaking Guardian exercise to gauge the mood of Britain’s younger Muslim generation. In addition to the poll, 103 young Muslims were brought together to discuss the most important issues facing their future, from identity and integration to the war on terror. ICM interviewed a random sample of 500 Muslim people by telephone between November 15-21 2004. The data has not been weighted because there is no authoritative source of demographic information on the Muslim population.