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Chapter Six Report on Faith Communities Survey
6.1 As an addition to the focus groups and interviews, the research design also included a follow up survey to gauge the views of a broader portion of Glasgow's religious communities. The research team distributed 529 survey forms, in several languages, to participants in the focus groups. The participants were asked to pass the questionnaires to members of their faith communities for completion and return to the research team.
6.2 Given that respondents would be approached through a member of their own faith community we had hoped for a relatively good response rate (around 40-50%). Unfortunately, the response rate can only be regarded as very disappointing, with 157 of the 529 survey forms returned by 19th May 2005 (a response rate of just less than 30%). It is difficult to discern why the response was so poor. There were some problems with the Hindi survey translation, but the research team enjoyed the willing assistance of active members of the Hindu community in encouraging a good response. Similarly, representatives within the Jewish community were extremely helpful in promoting the research to their members. Unfortunately, even here response rates were poor, with just 17 responses returned from the 50 forms distributed through Jewish representatives, and 15 responses from the 75 forms distributed to Glasgow's Hindus. Two aspects of the response rate were particularly disappointing. Given that the Muslim community represents the largest 'non-Western' religious faith in Glasgow the return of only 4 responses from the 60 survey forms distributed was discouraging. Secondly, it was disappointing that the provision of minority ethnic language translations of the survey had little or no effect on the rate of response - of 108 forms distributed in Arabic, Farsi, Hindi and Punjabi, 18 were returned to the survey team (a notably poorer rate than for the English-language version).
6.3 In total the survey comprises 157 responses, 18 of which were submitted through one of the non-English translations. The responses were evenly split across gender (78 men; 77 women; 2 not stated); and represented a broad range of ages (42 were under 35; 56 were aged 35-54; 49 were aged 55 or over; 8 unstated). Table 1 describes the faith group of the respondents (denominational details, where known, can be found at the end of this report):
Table 1: Religious composition of sample
Religion | N= |
|---|
Christian | 82 |
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Jewish | 17 |
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Baha'i | 15 |
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Hindu | 15 |
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Sikh | 11 |
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Buddhist | 9 |
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Muslim | 4 |
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Non-Trinitarian Christian | 3 |
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Not stated | 1 |
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TOTAL | 157 |
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A majority of respondents described themselves as 'White' (n=110), with the second most common ethnic grouping being 'Asian-Indian' (26), a group which included all of the Hindu and Sikh respondents. There were smaller numbers of 'Asian-Pakistanis' (5), 2 of whom were Christian and 3 Muslim; 'Black-Africans' (5), all of whom were Christian; 'Asian-Others' (4), 3 of whom were Baha'i and the other Muslim; 'Mixed-Other' (3), all of whom were Baha'i; and a single 'Black Caribbean' respondent, again Baha'i.
6.4 The survey asked respondents to indicate which 'policy issues' and which 'local issues' were of particular concern to them as a result of their religion, and table 2 shows the proportion of respondents indicating issues as of particular concern. Given the relatively small number in the survey the tables show counts only, and not percentages:
Table 2: Particular concerns
Policy concerns | N= | Local concerns | N= |
|---|
Health | 53 | Leisure facilities (in general) | 30 |
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Crime | 33 | Leisure facilities (for children) | 37 |
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Housing | 35 | Leisure facilities (for teenagers) | 41 |
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Social Justice | 80 | Public transport | 14 |
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Schools | 70 | Street lighting | 6 |
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Leisure | 21 | Vandalism | 32 |
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Equality | 66 | Crime/disorder | 44 |
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Further Education | 26 | Racist abuse | 84 |
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Culture | 66 | Religious/sectarian abuse | 107 |
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Employment | 36 | Other local issues | 2 |
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Policing | 26 | |
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Community Care | 71 |
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Other policy issues | 4 |
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6.5 In terms of broad policy concerns several stand out as most salient (Social Justice; Community Care; Schools; Equality; and Culture), but of these it might be noted that only one (Social Justice) is a particular concern of a majority of respondents.
6.6 In terms of local concerns, two stand our as of particular salience: just over half of the respondents are particularly concerned about racist abuse, and around two-thirds are concerned about religious/sectarian abuse. Racist abuse is of particular concern to respondents from minority ethnic backgrounds: whilst 50 of the 110 'White' respondents highlighted this as a particular issue of concern, 34 of the 54 respondents across the other ethnic groups did so. Concern over religious/sectarian abuse was common across all ethnic groups, although relatively few Hindus (4 of 11) or Buddhists (3 of 9) indicated that this was a particular concern for them.
6.7 Respondents were then asked whether Glasgow City Council ( GCC) should play a role in faith community events, and whether it should encourage inter faith co-operation. Most respondents (146) felt that GCC should play a role in faith community events; and most felt that it should encourage inter faith co-operation (138). Most respondents (133) in fact answered positively to both these questions. Six respondents, however, felt that GCC should involve itself in neither of these things, including four Protestants from the smaller denominations. Given the historic resistance of many Protestants to state involvement (or 'interference') in religious issues, this may well reflect a broader sensitivity amongst the smaller Protestant denominations (and perhaps elsewhere) to inter faith initiatives by local and central government.
6.8 Those respondents who agreed that GCC should be involved with faith community events and inter faith co-operation were then asked to indicate in which capacity GCC should do so, and these are summarised in table 3.
Table 3: GCC's preferred role in …
Faith Community Events | N= | Encouraging inter faith co-operation | N= |
|---|
Initiating | 38 | Initiating | 59 |
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Providing facilities | 129 | Providing facilities | 112 |
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Funding | 80 | Funding | 89 |
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Organising | 38 | Organising | 49 |
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Promoting | 79 | Promoting | 94 |
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Other | 6 | Other | 1 |
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6.9 Across both questions there seems to be broad support for the provision of facilities by GCC, and some support for a GCC role in funding and promoting. However, there was markedly less support for a GCC role in initiating and organising, suggesting that many respondents would prefer GCC to be responsive rather than proactive, particularly in its involvement in faith community events.
6.10 Respondents were also asked how they felt about the extent of their faith's involvement in inter faith events. About half the respondents felt their faith's involvement was 'about right' (77), whilst around one third felt it was 'too little' (54). Smaller numbers felt that their faith's involvement was 'far too little' (13) or that there was 'none' (8).
6.11 Although the numbers in some traditions are very small, the survey does throw out some interesting variations. Of the 11 Sikh respondents, only 1 felt that their faith community's inter faith involvement was 'about right', with 4 thinking it 'too little' and the remaining 6 'far too little'. Hindu respondents were evenly split between the 6 who felt that their faith's inter faith involvement was 'about' right and those who thought it 'too little' (5) or 'far too little' (1). Almost all the Baha'i respondents (13 out of 14) felt their community's inter faith involvement was 'about right', as did 7 of 9 Buddhist respondents, and 12 of 17 Jewish respondents. The Christian respondents were fairly evenly split, 34 feeling their faith's inter faith involvement being 'about right' and 34 'too little', with 4 feeling it 'far too little' and 7 thinking there was none. There is no clear evidence of differences between Christian traditions in this respect.
6.12 In terms of Glasgow City Council's involvement in faith community events most respondents felt it should be more involved, with around two thirds feeling it was either 'too little' (80) or 'far too little' (21). The next most common response was 'about right' (42); whilst only 2 respondents felt there was either 'too much' or 'far too much'; 8 respondents thought that there was no involvement. All the Sikh respondents felt GCC should be more involved in faith events, as did most Hindu and Baha'i respondents. There were no striking differences amongst the Christian respondents.
6.13 Respondents were also asked to describe "the attitude of the general public in Glasgow City to people of your religion". Overall, the most common responses were 'quite welcoming' (60) or 'indifferent' (59), with a small number of respondents describing the public attitude as 'very welcoming' (11). Other respondents, however, reported the general attitude as either 'not welcoming' (15) or 'hostile' (7). The clearest pattern was amongst the Sikh respondents, 6 feeling that general attitudes were 'not welcoming', and 2 'hostile'. A small minority of Christian respondents (6 from 80) also felt the general attitude to their faith was 'hostile', although a rather larger proportion (37) thought it 'indifferent'.
6.14 The survey also asked respondents whether there were any 'barriers' to GCC working closely with their faith community, and to indicate whether such barriers (if they existed) were on the part of GCC and/or the faith community. Most respondents (91) did not believe there were such barriers, and of the (58) respondents who did perceive such barriers most (34) felt they were on the part of both GCC and their faith community. However, 22 respondents felt that such barriers were only on the part of GCC and just 2 only on the part of their faith community. The respondents who felt that the barriers were on the part of GCC were spread across religious tradition, although it might be noted that of the Sikh respondents, 6 felt barriers were only on the part of GCC and the remaining 5 that there were barriers on the part of bothGCC and the Sikh community.
6.15 Finally, respondents were asked to rate how important it was that various levels of government worked closely with their faith community, and the results are shown in table 4:
Table 4: Importance of government working closely with faith communities
| Glasgow City Council | Scottish Executive | UK Government |
|---|
very important | 77 | 82 | 80 |
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fairly important | 61 | 60 | 56 |
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not very important | 15 | 11 | 14 |
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not important at all | 2 | 2 | 3 |
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TOTAL | 155 | 155 | 153 |
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6.16 Most respondents, across religious tradition, think it important that all three levels of government should work closely with faith communities. Again it might be noted that the small number of respondents who do not think it important tend to come from the smaller Protestant denomination, again perhaps reflecting the historic sensitivities of such bodies to Church-State relationships.
Table 5: Denominational composition of sample
Christian | 82 | Baha'i | 15 |
Catholic | 11 | |
Church of Scotland | 14 | Buddhist | 9 |
Free Church of Scotland | 4 | Tibetan | 2 |
United Free Church | 1 | Western Order | 4 |
Presbyterian | 2 | No tradition stated | 3 |
United Reform Church | 1 | |
Methodist | 1 | Hindu | 15 |
Baptist | 5 | |
Quaker | 5 | Jewish | 17 |
Salvation Army | 6 | Orthodox | 5 |
Vineyard | 2 | Reform | 4 |
Independent Evangelical | 1 | No tradition stated | 8 |
Greek Orthodox | 3 | |
Pentecostal | 4 | Muslim | 4 |
No denomination stated | 22 | Sunni | 1 |
| No tradition stated | 3 |
Non-Trinitarian Christian | 3 | |
Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints | 3 | Sikh | 11 |
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