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RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION & SECTARIANISM IN SCOTLAND: A BRIEF REVIEW OF EVIDENCE (2002-2004)
5. Linked Issues
Ethnicity
5.1 Recent analysis of statistics from the Census includes basic tables on religion by ethnicity. What information is available is given below. All findings are taken directly from the Analysis of Ethnicity in the 2001 Census- Summary Report from the Office of Chief Statistician (2004)
Table 5.1: Scottish population by current religion - All People
| Thousands | Percentages |
Church of Scotland | 2,146 | 42.4 |
Roman Catholic | 804 | 15.9 |
Other Christian | 345 | 6.8 |
Buddhist | 6.8 | 0.13 |
Hindu | 5.6 | 0.11 |
Jewish | 6.4 | 0.13 |
Muslim | 43 | 0.84 |
Sikh | 6.6 | 0.13 |
Another Religion | 27 | 0.53 |
All Religions | 3,389 | 67 |
No religion | 1,394 | 27.5 |
Not stated | 278 | 5.5 |
All no religion/not stated | 1,672 | 33 |
Base | 5,062 | 100 |
- Just over two-thirds (67%) of the Scottish population reported having a religion.
- The most common faith was Christianity: 65.1% of the population are members of the Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic Church or Other Christian churches.
- The next most common faith was Islam (0.84%) followed by Other religions (0.53%), Buddhism (0.13%), Jewish (0.13%), Sikhism (0.13%) and Hinduism (0.11%).
- The Census religion question was voluntary, but nevertheless only 5.5% chose not to answer it.
Table 5.2: Current religion by ethnic group - All People (Shown as percentages)
Ethnic Group | Church of Scotland | Roman Catholic | Other Christian | Buddhist | Hindu | Jewish | Muslim | Sikh | Another religion | No religion | Not stated | Base |
White Scottish | 46.7 | 15.9 | 4.3 | 0.1 | - | 0.1 | - | - | 0.4 | 27.1 | 5.4 | 4,459,071 |
Other White British | 13.9 | 8.5 | 33.8 | 0.2 | - | 0.3 | 0.1 | - | 1.5 | 35.6 | 6.0 | 373,685 |
White Irish | 6.7 | 68.6 | 6.5 | 0.1 | - | 0.1 | 0.1 | - | 0.9 | 12.3 | 4.7 | 49,428 |
Other White | 8.0 | 27.8 | 20.3 | 0.4 | - | 1.0 | 2.4 | - | 2.0 | 30.8 | 7.5 | 78,150 |
Indian | 2.4 | 3.8 | 3.4 | 0.3 | 30.5 | 0.1 | 5.9 | 37.6 | 0.9 | 9.1 | 6.0 | 15,037 |
Pakistani | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.4 | - | 0.1 | - | 89.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 2.8 | 6.1 | 31,793 |
Bangladeshi | 2.0 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 84.3 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 3.9 | 5.3 | 1,981 |
Other South Asian | 4.9 | 6.5 | 4.2 | 4.1 | 9.2 | 0.2 | 43.2 | 3.8 | 2.3 | 11.5 | 10.3 | 6,196 |
Chinese | 3.4 | 4.3 | 8.8 | 11.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 63.1 | 7.2 | 16,310 |
Caribbean | 13.6 | 17.6 | 22.7 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 32.0 | 10.9 | 1,778 |
African | 9.3 | 18.2 | 32.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 18.5 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 12.4 | 7.7 | 5,118 |
Black Scottish or Other Black | 20.4 | 18.3 | 14.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 8.7 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 23.1 | 12.5 | 1,129 |
Any Mixed Background | 13.6 | 16.8 | 10.1 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 10.7 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 35.7 | 8.9 | 12,764 |
Other ethnic group | 4.4 | 15.7 | 8.4 | 9.8 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 32.4 | 0.7 | 1.4 | 17.5 | 7.8 | 9,571 |
All People | 42.4 | 15.9 | 6.8 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 27.5 | 5.5 | 5,062,011 |
Table 5.2 shows current religion by ethnic group .
- Christianity is the most common religion for all four White groups and also for Caribbean, African and Other Black Scottish people.
- Sikhism is the most common faith among Indian people (37.6%) followed by Hinduism (30.5%)
- 89.2% of Pakistanis, 84.3% of Bangladeshis and 43.2% of Other South Asian people are Muslim. 32.4% of people who listed their ethnicity as 'Other' are also Muslim as are 18.5% of African people.
- 63.1% of Chinese people responded that they have 'no current religion'. The group reporting the lowest level of 'no religion' is Pakistani people (2.8%).
- 12.5% of Other Black people chose not to state their religion as did 10.9% of Caribbean people and 10.3% of Other South Asian people.
Identity
5.2 Looking at identity, Rosie and Bond have written a number of papers relating to Scottish identity. Most notably, in their paper 'National Identities in Post Devolution Scotland' (2002) they suggest that the majority of people living in Scotland identify themselves as Scottish as oppose to British or English- with very few people considering themselves as Irish- even when given the choice to pick multiple identities.
5.3 Rosie was involved in working with Bruce et al on the recent 'Sectarianism in Scotland' text. More recently, he has also published a text entitled 'Sectarian Myth in Scotland' (2004) which aims to place the debate on sectarianism within a wider context and look at the issues around politics, religion and identity. The text also attempts to look at the different understandings of sectarianism. Within the introduction to this book it says:
'Sociologically, 'sectarianism' denotes a social setting in which systematic discrimination affect the life chances of religious group, and within which religious affiliation stands for much more than theological belief… What passes for sectarianism in modern Scotland is better described as bigotry or prejudice… -it is not systematic and does not materially affect the life chances of entire religious groups… [however] there is a wide spread perception that religious bigotry, or even simple religious difference, remains a serious social problem- hence the debate.'
(Rosie, M. 2004)
5.4 Alan Smith from University of Ulster, also questions how much sectarianism today is connected to religion. Does sectarian conflict or discrimination base itself on identity and fear of the 'other', and then transpose religious differences on to this? In a presentation at the Scottish Executive's Anti-Sectarianism Conference in Dundee (April 2004) he cites:
'While identity factors such as ethnicity and religion are commonly cited as a major cause of conflict, many analysts conclude that ethnicity and religion are more often mobilised and politicised by conflict rather than the other way around'.
(Duffield, M. 2001)
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