ISCI's Cape Town Muslim Attitudes survey: Results and reflections

by Auwais Rafudeen

In April 2008, the Institute of Current Islam (ISCI), the research wing of IPSA, conducted a survey looking at how Cape Town Muslims in particular felt about certain key issues connected to their status as South Africans and as a minority. All in all 320 people responded to the survey, primarily through the VOC website but also via students at IPSA and field research done in Delft and Lansdowne. The questions covered the following areas: their view on the health of the South African Muslim community; on what people thought was the biggest challenge as well as the main priority facing Muslims here; on whether respecting other cultures and religions meant engagement with them or respect from a distance; and whether they agreed or disagreed with the following statements- differences of opinion weaken the community, Islamic schools are better than secular ones, Islamic financial institutions benefit the Muslim community, Islamic law is more important than reading the Quran, culture is an important part of religion, madrasas are still vital for children, Muslims should be more focused on local rather than international issues, the South African government protects Muslim interests, and the West is the major cause of our problems.

The main aim of the survey was to collect accurate information on how the Muslim community felt about these issues rather than relying on intuition or guesswork. The survey had two other aims. It hopes that the data collected could be useful to the ulama and other community decision makers in serving their constituencies. Another aim was to link responses to the survey to broader discussions regarding the way Muslim minorities should navigate the difficult waters of the 21^st century.

The main findings of the survey were as follows:

· Most of the respondents (59%) had a fairly to strongly positive view of the SA Muslim community, while 37% felt fairly to strongly negative.

· Most (41%) viewed society's increasing immorality as the biggest challenge facing the South African Muslim community as distinct from racism (16%), the increasing income gap between rich and poor Muslims (17%), or the global onslaught against Islam (17%).

· A high proportion (63%) felt that one had to interact with other beliefs and cultures as opposed to respecting them from a distance (32%).

· Respondents featured the creation of Islamic educational institutions and job opportunities (32% and 31% respectively) as chief priorities, whereas building mosques and Islamic associations was considered a lower priority at 21%.

· There is an even split among respondents as to whether differences of opinion weaken the community (48% felt that they do while 49% disagreed with this).

· A high proportion of respondents (70%) felt that culture is an important part of religion.

· In general, the continuing importance of Madrasah education was overwhelmingly endorsed (93%).

· In contrast, there is a fairly even split among respondents as to whether Islamic schools are better than secular ones (50% thought so while 47% felt differently).

· A significant proportion of respondents (65%) thought that being able to read the Quran is more important than learning Islamic law.

· The majority of respondents (65%) thought that Islamic financial institutions benefited the community (31% disagreed with this).

· 40% of the respondents agreed that the government protects the Muslim community’s interests but the majority (65%) thought otherwise.

· A significant proportion of respondents (66%) thought that Muslims in South Africa should focus more on local rather than international issues.

· There is a fairly even split among respondents as to whether they felt the West was the main cause of our problems (50% thought that they were while 47% disagreed).

The survey also showed that responses were somewhat divided along generation and gender lines, but particularly strongly along economic lines. In this regard the responses from Delft differed significantly from other sectors of Muslims in a number of categories. For example, they considered the increasing gap between rich and poor Muslims- and not increasing immorality- as the biggest challenge facing the community. The survey also encouraged respondents to briefly elaborate on why they responded in a particular way.

What can be done with this data? Patently, the data conveys a useful sense of where the community is at with regard to the issues mentioned. In particular, key role players in determining the community's direction- Muslim leaders in the religious, media, business and educational fields-can use such data as an orientation point for their strategic planning. In a healthy community, decisions are not pushed through “top down” but take into account the views and feelings of people on the ground. If there is synergy between such decisions and the broader community's feelings, then this is surely shura [mutual consultation] in its widest sense.

This of course does not mean that decisions simply have to dovetail with the majority opinion. Such populism has rightly been called “mobocracy” as opposed to democracy. For example, some Muslim leaders may feel that there are very compelling reasons as to why Muslims should keep a primary focus on international rather than local issues, even though the majority of the community feel otherwise. Such leaders need not be put off by the results, but rather use the data to re-assess their strategy in communicating their view to the community. They simply might not be getting their message through in an effective manner. Similarly, the results show a fairly strong animus against the government. While Muslim leaders from most sectors have generally demonstrated a supportive attitude towards the government- and they would feel for good reason- it is important to trace the reasons for this animus and disaffection among a large proportion of the community. This would help prevent alienation between leaders and the community in the political sphere.

It is worth noting that the areas where responses are sharply divided- on the issue of Islamic schools, the value of differences of opinion, and the threat of the West- are areas at the coal-face of globalization. In the face of rapid cross-culturalization, how teneable is the notion of an “Islamic school? Does such a school, as some respondents pointed out, create silos cut off from reality? Or do they, as their defenders point out, allow us to gain the best of the religious and secular? Or is the problem, more banally, not the concept of an Islamic school but simply the way it is administered? With the proliferation of Islamic schools throughout the West, these debates have reached fever-pitch and South African Muslims are certainly not alone in being at loggerheads in this regard. The issue concerning differences of opinion is another hornet's nest. In a global village where we are bound to encounter the “other” constantly, what type of differences are acceptable and what are not? To what extent can such differences be sustained? As to the West, how does one balance the need for understanding and co-operation with this civilization with indignant, righteous anger over its many unjust actions. How does one balance admiration for many of its achievements with abhorrence over its loss of firm moral and spiritual anchors?

These are difficult questions and the sharply divided responses are indicative of their complexity. Muslim scholars and theoreticians are presently working on such issues and offer some well-considered and innovative ways of dealing with them. Survey data such as this helps them to refine their strategies and solutions in the light of what Muslims on the ground feel. For example, any proposals these scholars may make for madrasa reform in order to meet the challenges of the times need to take into account that there is still a strong appreciation, at least in Cape Town, of the basic, standard functions fulfilled by this institution. But it is equally important for a community's decision makers to be conversant with these scholarly, theoretical discussions so as to be fully informed of the complexity of the challenges and the options available in dealing with them.