Islam in middle childhood
Jonathan Scourfield, Sophie Gilliat-Ray, Asma Khan,
Sameh Otri, Chris Taylor, Graham Moore
The research project
• Religious nurture in Muslim families
• Secondary analysis of the Citizenship Survey
• Qualitative research - Muslim families with children aged
12 and under
Plan of talk
• Brief explanation of method
• Findings of secondary analysis of Citizenship Survey
2003
• Theories arising from qualitative research to explain why
the transmission of Islam is more successful
• Digital stories
Our sample of families in Cardiff
Ethnic origin
20 Pakistani
10 Bangladeshi
5 Indian
5 Somali
9 Middle Eastern
7 Mixed ethnicity
4 Others
Social Class
(National Statistics
Socio-Economic
Classification)
15 managerial and professional occupations
24 intermediate occupations
18 Routine and manual occupations
3 unclassified (students and asylum seekers)
• 60 Muslim families where there are children of primary
school age and below
• Interviews with at least two generations (99 parents and
120 children)
• Children kept oral diaries and take photographs in 24
families
• Some observation of formal learning
from
Scourfield et al.
2012
Why is the transmission of Islam relatively
successful in a secular context?
1. Formal learning and the role of religious
institutions
2. The habitus of family and community
3. Minority effects
4. The cognitive science of religion
1. Formal learning and the role of
religious institutions
• Primarily Arabic language tuition, with some Islamic input
(5 families)
• Learning to read the Qur’an in Arabic. 51 families (27
home-based classes; 24 mosque-based). In 11 families,
classes were taught by a parent. 2 children did all Qur’an
learning in a Muslim primary school.
• Islamic studies classes, (8 families).
2. The habitus of family and community
Interview with Mr Assad
I don’t think it was a thing of introducing Islam to him
because actually it was just part of our culture, you know,
the praying, you know, the getting up for Fajr, you know,
the fasting, you know. Even the way we conducted
ourselves in trying to bring him up. So I don’t think it was a
thing of introducing Islam to him. I think it was something
he just came into.
Interview with Aamira Miller (age 11)
Asma: So you learnt how to pray because you watched your
mum and you joined in?
Aamira: It’s just weird, it’s just, all of a sudden I just knew.
Probably because you know your surahs because you do
your Qur’an cos I know a few off by heart, they’re like some
of the back ones and they’re not that long and once you
know surahs and the main bits like when you go down, when
you’re like when you put your hands your knees, stand up,
when you’re kind of bending yeah? You just learn because
you do it for every single day basically of a year yeah? Well
most of the year. And like you’re just never going to forget it.
3. Minority effects
Interview with Sahra (10) and Fathia Adam (8)
Asma: Ok so you don’t think that it’s good to force people
to be Muslim, you think that we should choose?
Sahra: I think its good for, I think if somebody wants to
force them I don’t think they should force them I think
they should teach them into Islam and then, and then
they get a choice, so.
Fathia: But we’re already Muslims.
Interview with Daniyaal (10) and Ehlenoor (8) Faysal
Daniyaal: Expelled for wearing the scarf? Whoever does that
must be insane!
Asma: Why do you think it would be insane to expel somebody
who wore a scarf?
Daniyaal: I mean it’s just a religious sort of thing, it’s not like it’s
going to kill the world is it? It’s not going to destroy the
school’s reputation, it’s just a girl wearing a scarf, she’s
doing what her religion wants her to do.
Asma: And that’s ok?
Daniyaal: If they just expelled them just for wearing that I’d be
going crazy, I’d be like what the fffff, what the beep, my god
you are such a beep, stuff like that.
4. The cognitive science of religion
• Whitehouse’s (2004) modes of religiosity
– Imagistic mode
– Doctrinal mode
Voice diary by Asad Rahman (11)
I did my homework then I got ready then I left the house and to go
to a Eid party with my sisters and my mum before I left the house
before we leave the house we say ‘Bismillaahi, tawakkaltu alallahi,
wa la haula wala quwwata illa billah’ which means in the name of
Allah I depend on Allah there is no ability above us except by the
relief of Allah and then I got in the transport and when you enter any
transport or car you say ‘allahu akbar, allahu akbar, allahu akbar,
Subhaanal ladhi sakh-khara lana haadha wa ma kunna lahu
muqrineen. Wa inna ila Rabbina lamun qaliboon’ which means
glory to him who subjected these to our use for we could never have
accomplish this for ourselves and to our lord surely we will be
returning.
References
Bourdieu, P. (1986) Distinction, London, Routledge.
Scourfield, J., Taylor, C., Moore, G. and Gilliat-Ray, S.
(2012) The intergenerational transmission of Islam:
Evidence from the Citizenship Survey. Sociology 46 (1):
91-108.
Whitehouse, H. (2004) Modes of Religiosity: A Cognitive
Theory of Religious Transmission. Walnut Creek, CA, Alta
Mira Press.
Winchester, D. (2008) Embodying the faith: Religious
practice and the making of a Muslim moral habitus. Social
Forces, 86 (4) 1753-1780.
Digital stories….
scourfield@cardiff.ac.uk