Islamophobia in Scottish towns and small cities

ABSTRACT

Islamophobia, as a form of cultural racism, can take different forms in different contexts. Previous research suggested that there is a perception among some Muslims that anti-Muslim racism is higher in areas where there is a high density of Muslim residents such as Glasgow. In contrast, some others suggest that ethnic minority people are at greater risk of racism in less racially diverse areas because of less community support and less police protection. This paper draws on a research which involved 10 semi-structured interviews with Muslims in different Scottish towns and small cities. The data is collected from marginal contexts that are typically overlooked or neglected in mainstream studies. To discuss the importance of the low or high density of Muslim communities, and any other possible factor, in the experience of Islamophobia the result of this research is compared to the experiences of 33 Muslim participants in Scottish major cities.

KEYWORDS:

• Islamophobia
• Muslims
• Scotland
• verbal abuse
• small areas

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The eight Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004.

2. Only six years later, a research study was conducted in Inverness, a city located quite far from Edinburgh and Glasgow. This study had a specific focus on the construction of Muslims’ religious identity, rather than Islamophobia (Salnikova and D’Arcus 2019).

3. Dunfermline in the time of data collection was a town but it was granted city status as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022 (Fife Council 2022).

4. In this research, Practicing Muslims are those who make a full commitment to the religion and observe Islamic law. Non-practicing Muslims are those who identify themselves as Muslim in terms of culture, ethnicity or birth but do not practice any religious observances such as the 5 pillars of Islam. The less-practicing Muslims are those who do not practice all Islamic rules – for example, they do not read daily prayer, but do still practice some other rules such as avoiding alcohol consumption and consuming only Halal meat.

5. It is worth noting that Muslims, particularly those who actively practice their faith, generally refrain from consuming alcohol due to religious or cultural beliefs. However, there may be some Muslims who are less devout or non-practicing, like Ehsan, who choose to drink alcohol and frequent pubs.