Young people have 1 in 4 chance of being bullied because of their faith » Communities » 24dash.com

1 in 4 young people who practice a religion have been violently bullied due to their faith or wearing of religious symbols according to a new report out today by Beatbullying.

Many young people went on to explain that this led them to self harm, drink alcohol or take drugs as a consequence.

The report also found that 1 in 5 young people choose to mix largely with friends of the same religion and 1 in 20 said that their families do not approve of them having friends of other religious faiths. Both findings show a lack of interfaith cohesion across the UK and draw a clear link as to why there is a noticeable level of intolerance around faith.

The research, released today to mark the beginning of Anti Bullying Week, also showed that more than twice as many young people as adults actually practice a religion, yet almost half of young people never talk about religious issues at all.

Beatbullying, the UK’s leading bullying prevention charity, run Interfaith bullying prevention programmes, funded by the Government, to divert the behaviour of those using faith as a reason to bully their peers. These programmes have been proven to reduce incidences of faith based bullying by 45% in participating schools. In fact, 84% of young people who graduated the programmes, who were bullied before, report that they are no longer being bullied.

Emma-Jane Cross, Chief Executive of Beatbullying said: “The findings from our survey clearly indicate the lack of support and direction our young people have to openly discuss and understand faith based issues with their peers. Beatbullying worries that this lack of cohesion is cultivating at best a lack of understanding and at worst a lack of tolerance of other faiths.”

“Beatbullying’s work proves that by providing outlets for young people to discuss the issues that matter to them, we can effectively reduce anti-social and violent behaviours between young people. As a result, the Government must encourage and resource faith community organisations who are working with local, regional and central Government to promote social cohesion, tolerance and commonality.

“The Government must also undertake a comprehensive piece of research to map the extent and depth of faith based bullying between our young people, and publish explicit guidelines sitting outside what has been written on race. These must then be disseminated to all schools in England and Wales if we are to see a significant change in behaviour amongst our young people.”

“Faith based bullying must be included as a category when Government legislates to require schools to record all incidents of bullying across their school environment.”

Also supporting the programmes is Special Beatbullying Ambassador, Dame Kelly Holmes who said: “Beatbullying’s work on the ground is making a real difference to people’s lives. They really understand the causes of serious issues like knife and gun crime, and they know that diverting gateway behaviour like bullying can have a significant effect on problems later in young people’s lives.”

Of all the young respondents to Beatbullying’s survey, 80% said that they believed in a God and half this amount said they practiced their religion. While according to the Office of National Statistics only 18% of adults report practicing a religion.

The report is compiled from interim results from Beatbullying’s Interfaith programme, funded by the Department of Children Schools and Families (DCSF) and City Bridge. It encourages young people from different faiths to identify a common humanity, working to reduce and prevent incidences of faith-based bullying, bigotry sectarianism and intolerance whilst celebrating differences and positively endorsing all faiths equally.

To read the full report, visit www.beatbullying.org.