Introduction

Religious Minorities and National Belonging

Despite being a significant minority within the general population, several studies have indicated that Western Muslims tend to participate less intensively in national cultural and health debates (e.g. Akhtar, 2012; Norris et al., 2004). Research has shown that the views of Muslim minorities on cultural and health issues are often not represented by political leaders in the West (Asad, 2002). In their research, Goodrich and Busick (2017) discussed how the views of religious minority groups could be overlooked or neglected by ‘an insensitive majority’ in debates such as abortion or gay marriage legalisation.

Researchers have found that a low sense of national belonging decreases the likelihood of minority groups participating in political debates (De-Rooij, 2012; Frampton et al., 2016; Sinno, 2009). Active discrimination against minority groups, inter-group hostility, the blocking of the attainment of citizenship, and stigmatisation within the media have also been shown to lower the national identification of minority groups and ultimately lower their national sense of belonging (Maliepaard & Verkuyten, 2018; Rosenstone & Hansen, 2003; Verba et al., 1995).

Carr (2016), in his qualitative study of experiences of Islamophobia in Ireland, discussed the specific role of national belonging. In particular, that study highlighted ‘experiences of identity crisis’ (Carr, 2016, p.58), ‘being accepted as Irish’, ‘having to affirm one’s Irishness in the course of social interaction’ as processes which created a complex sense of national belonging (Carr, 2016, p.60). As one participant described, ‘You don’t know where you belong… but your identity is Irish’ (as cited in Carr, 2019, p.74). Within the Muslim community in the UK, this has been described as ‘unsettled belonging’ (Frampton et al., 2016).

Muslim Attitudes to Abortion

A political health debate common in many countries is the legalisation of abortion. Many studies have found links between the role of religiosity and attitudes to abortion (e.g. Finner & Gamache, 1969; Blake, 1971; Jelen, 1990; McIntosh et al., 1979; Tamney et al., 1992; Hoffmann & Miller, 1997). Carol and Milewski (2017), in their analysis of large transnational survey data of European Muslims, found that Muslim minorities’ attitudes towards abortion reflected the widespread attitudes in their countries of residence. For instance, French Muslims were the most liberal, and German Muslims were the least. Differences in religiosity and broader values explained the differences between the non-Muslim majority and Muslim minority, though some variance was explained by religious denomination. Amongst college students, Carlton et al. (2000) found that students, both males and females, with a stronger religious affiliation were more conservative in their views about abortion and suggested that it was ‘wrong’. On the other hand, it was also found that students with less association with religion were more liberal in their views towards abortion. Francis et al. (2019) found that Muslim and Catholic students in England and Wales with higher religiosity scores were ultimately less accepting of abortion. This finding suggests that religiosity is key in shaping individual attitudes towards abortion (Sullins, 1999).

In contrast, in their quantitative study, Kashyap and Lewis (2013) found that young Muslims were no more religious in terms of practice than older Muslims and Christian peers. However, religion was salient to their sense of self: ‘This expression of religious identity among Muslim youth likely represents a ‘more personal form of Islam’ in which a strong identification with Islam does not entail strict observance but carries ethical, cultural or emotional connotations’ (Kashyap & Lewis, 2013, p.18). They suggest that these data supported the ‘individualisation’ of religious choice in which religious values were adapted to youth needs and circumstances.

Ireland and Abortion

To date, there are 133 countries where abortion is legal upon request and 65 countries where it is illegal (Jones, 2018). Until December 2018, Ireland was one of the only countries in the European Union which held restrictive laws regarding abortion. Ireland has generally been a morally conservative country with conservative laws (Crowley et al., 2013). For example, homosexuality in Ireland was a criminal act up until 1993. Divorce was only legalised in 1997, and contraceptives only became legally available in 1973 (Crowley et al., 2013). Research suggested that in Ireland, the Catholic Church prescribed women the role of procreating and serving the family (Gray & Ryan, 1998, pg. 126, as cited in García-del Mora & Korteweg, 2012). Salleh (2009) has argued that this traditionally prescribed role of women heavily contributes to the stigmatisation of abortion by political and religious leaders.

Abortion in Ireland was entirely banned under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act (Duffy, 2018), and with several legal variations, this continued to be the case up to 2018. In May 2018, a national referendum voted to bring in legalised abortion under the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018. Under this Act, abortion was permitted without restriction during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and later in cases where the pregnant woman’s life or health was at risk or in the cases of a fatal foetal abnormality. Unlike several previous Irish referenda on the legislation on abortion, this was passed by popular vote.

Muslims in Ireland and the 2018 Abortion Referendum

The 2016 Irish Census recorded just over 63,000 Muslims, approximately 1.3% of the population in Ireland. In comparison, the Polish community, the largest ethnic minority in Ireland, makes up approximately 3% of the population. Muslims are a small ethnic minority within the Republic of Ireland but the third largest religious group in Ireland after the Catholic and Protestant churches (CSO, 2016; Scharbrodt & Sakaranaho, 2011).

In Sharia Law, the critical question concerning abortion centres on the concept of ‘ensoulment’, the point when the soul enters the body (Katz, 2021). Determination of the time of ensoulment is based on Qur’anic scripture and typically is designated as 120 days of gestation. In her discussion of Islamic jurisprudence of abortion, Bowen (2003) reflected on the range of perspectives within Sharia Law ‘Muslim legal schools differ both on questions of when the soul enters the foetus and also on the permissibility of abortion’ (p.55); ‘Even after ensoulment, abortion may become permissible if the mother or family has a good reason, but it still carries a heavy stigma. Muslims believe it is an action better avoided, even if they feel abortion is medically necessary’ (Bowen, 2003, p. 55).

There is a diversity of Islamic institutions in Ireland with a range of perspectives on social issues (Carr, 2019). It is unlikely that there is a homogenous ‘Irish Muslim opinion’ on abortion (Carr & Fanning, 2019). The 2018 Abortion Referendum was an issue of significant national importance in Ireland. Despite overwhelming media coverage in the year leading up to the referendum, as a clear example of majority insensitivity, there is no recorded perspective on how Muslims polled or voted on this issue. During the referendum, local and national newspapers captured the views of some of the leading Muslim clerics living in Ireland. In an online article in The Irish Times, Dr Ali Selim of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh, Dublin, said, ‘Muslims believed abortion was permitted only where the life of the mother was threatened and, even then, every attempt must be made to preserve the life of the mother and the unborn’ (McGarry, 2017). In the same paper, Dr Al-Qadri (2018) pointed out that The Islamic Council of Jurists of Makkah (Muslim World League) issued a fatwa in 1990 with majority votes stating that if the life or health of the mother was in danger, abortion was permissible because the life of the mother superseded the life of the unborn.

The Current Study

This study was conducted at University College Dublin (UCD) with young Muslim women who were University College Dublin students. The UCD Student’s Union supported the pro-choice campaign and actively carried out protests in support of the campaign throughout the 2018 Referendum. This paper explores young Muslim women’s perspectives on abortion and whether large-scale national moral debates such as those in Ireland affect religious minorities’ sense of belonging to that country.

Materials and Methods

Aim

This study aimed to explore young Muslim women’s perspectives on abortion and the effect of the outcome of the 2018 Irish Abortion Referendum on young Muslim students in Ireland and their sense of belonging within Ireland.

Researchers

The first author is a Muslim woman who was raised in Ireland and has been a resident for 18 years. She was the primary investigator on the project and the only interviewer. She designed the interview schedule and also analysed the data. The first author had direct experience of living through the period in question (the 2018 abortion referendum) as someone from a minority religious group. She did not know any of the participants personally. The second author is a white Irish male, born in Ireland, who supervised the project. He lived in Ireland during the 2018 abortion referendum as a member of the cultural majority. The two authors felt this was an under-explored area with an under-represented group. Because of this, an open exploratory approach was taken to framing the interview schedule and coding the data.

Qualitative Design

Semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interview consisted of seven open-ended questions about attitudes to abortion in general and, more specifically, how the outcome of the 2018 Irish Abortion Referendum impacted participants’ sense of belonging in Ireland (see Supplementary Material 1 for Interview Schedule). Reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was chosen as the analysis method for this study because it is theoretically flexible and is compatible with an inductive exploratory approach.

Participants

Convenience and snowballing sampling methodologies were used. The inclusion criteria for this study were female students at University College Dublin (UCD) who self-identified as being from an Islamic background and were aged 18–35. There are no available data on the political perspectives of the participants or whether they partook in the 2018 Referendum. Rather, this sample was chosen as females of this age group would primarily use the new abortion services.

The UCD Islamic Society and the UCD International Society were contacted for participant recruitment. An email outlining the nature of the study was sent to both societies, requesting to recruit participants. Although the Islamic Society granted permission to do so, the International Society did not. A presentation outlining the nature of the study was given at an Islamic Society event, recruiting five participants. The remainder of the participants were recruited through snowball sampling.

A total of ten participants were recruited for the study. Most participants were first-generation immigrants to Ireland (n = 10). Of these, eight completed their primary education in their country of origin (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, and Libya) and their secondary and third-level education in Ireland. The remaining three participants completed primary, secondary, and third-level education in Ireland. Only one participant was born in Ireland. The majority of the participants were undergraduate students (n = 8). There were two social science post-graduate students, one at Master’s level and one at PhD level.

Materials and Procedure

All interviews were conducted in UCD, in a familiar and comfortable environment for participants. An information sheet was given before the study, informing participants about the procedure, the benefits and risks of participation, how the research results may be acquired in the future, the availability of counselling services, and the contact details of the researchers. Consent forms were signed both by the participant and the researcher. An electronic recording device was used. Audio recordings were transcribed and stored as Word files on a password-protected laptop.

Ethical approval was granted by University College Dublin’s Research Ethics Committee. Participants were given a broad outline of the subject to be discussed before the interview, why the research was being carried out, and how their information would be used. It was made clear that participation was voluntary and that participants were free to withdraw from the study at any time.

Data Analysis

Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis following the procedure suggested by Braun and Clarke (2006). Their six-step recursive process consists of familiarising oneself with the data, generating initial codes, developing themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and reporting appropriately. NVivo software (2018) was used to organise the data.

The first author (YA) familiarised herself with the dataset by re-reading each of the transcripts, noting any initial ideas about relevant features of the data. The first author was trained in appropriate coding methodology. The first author then coded the data semantically and latently. Candidate themes were reviewed and modified through discussion between the researchers. In order to avoid in-group bias, a further independent researcher reviewed the themes identified in the data to ensure reliability. An inter-coder reliability score using Cohen Kappa k = 0.84 was achieved.

Results

Overview

Six major themes emerged from the data (see Supplementary Material 2 for Table 1: Themes, Subthemes, and Illustrative quotes). Each theme was composed of several codes, and each code was illustrated by quotes from the data. It emerged that religion played an important role in all areas of the participants’ lives. Therefore, when discussing abortion, most participants associated their beliefs with the teachings of Islam.

Emergent Themes

Theme 1: Specific Circumstances

When asked about their beliefs about abortion, all participants reported that abortion should be made available in Ireland. However, it should only be done under certain circumstances. This theme comprises two separate codes: Defined Circumstances and Rape.

Defined Circumstances

Almost all participants claimed that abortion should be permitted in certain circumstances. A recurring circumstance discussed by the majority of the participants was medical complications. One particular participant claimed that abortion should be permitted in cases where there was a medical complication in general:

I believe it can be done under certain circumstances like for medical complications or … under certain like time limits... because it is also influenced by my religion… so... like it should be done just on the command … so if you want have an abortion you should have an abortion or if you don’t have a good strong reason to do it.. then you shouldn’t have it.. so healthy embryos shouldn’t be aborted..

Some participants discussed medical complications in further detail. For example, participants largely supported abortion in cases with a substantial risk to the mother’s or baby’s life. Several participants suggested that abortion should be available, particularly when there is considerable risk to the baby’s life:

Or if the baby’s life is in danger… and… it’s better to terminate the baby, then you should be allowed.

There was also a lot of support for abortion in cases where the mother’s life was at risk due to the pregnancy. Almost all participants suggested that abortion should be granted in cases where the pregnancy caused serious risk to the mother’s life:

it is medically required and the mother’s um life is in jeopardy.. especially because her life is already established and the baby’s life is not established.

In Cases of Rape

Although not as prevalent as medical complications, some participants suggested that pregnancy caused by rape is an acceptable reason for abortion.

[if] it was an exceptional circumstance like if a woman was raped and she got pregnant. In those instances, abortion should be allowed, and I’m a total advocate for that…but again… only in certain circumstances.

Theme 2: Islam

Although in different contexts, all participants referred to Islam when discussing abortion throughout the interview. It is evident, therefore, that Islam played an important role in participants’ views towards abortion. Almost all participants agreed that their views on abortion were based on Islam. This theme comprised two subthemes: Knowledge of Islamic Laws on Abortion, and The Relationship between Personal Views and Islamic Laws.

Knowledge of Islamic Laws on Abortion

When asked about their personal views on abortion, all participants referred to Islam in their answers. They generally discussed what the Quran said about abortion and the circumstances in which it is permitted:

In Islam... we know that the… soul is blown into the child while he’s still in his mother’s stomach.. or uterus?... So to have an abortion means you’re killing a soul, so that’s why I believe it has impacted my beliefs as a Muslim.

Only like happens for like medical reasons and like if it puts danger on the woman’s…the mother’s life or the child’s life so we’re allowed to abort it but like it’s under a certain time limit again.

However, some participants seemed to have different perceptions of Islamic laws on abortion. One participant claimed that abortion in Islam was completely prohibited:

Abortion is haram as in like not permitted in Islam, so... umm definitely… I don’t like the idea of young kids or even a baby you’re basically trying to kill a soul.

Almost all participants highlighted that Islam does not condemn abortion and does permit abortion but under a certain time frame only:

in Islam, you can only get an abortion up to 120 days and that’s only if the mother’s life is in danger or the child develops an abnormality or something.

And like in Islam, you can get an abortion for up to 120 days, but it’s like only if there’s a serious risk to the mother’s life and the child’s life, and I think like after that, it is not allowed.

The Relationship Between Personal Views and Islamic Laws

Throughout the interviews, participants discussed their personal and Islamic views on abortion. Participants generally attempted to link their personal views with their religion. The majority of the participants revealed that their personal views were strongly related to Islam:

it’s really hard to understand or have a grounding in something like abortion, and I think my choice or my views on abortion derives directly from my religious beliefs… definitely.

For me personally, it has to align with my views. If it doesn’t align with the views of what my religion says... I can’t have those views…

However, there was one participant who claimed that her views on abortion were independent of her religious beliefs:

I don’t think religious beliefs have influenced my views on abortion.

While most participants agreed with the Islamic context of abortion, many of them argued that other factors should also be taken into consideration in terms of when abortion is viable.

in cases of rape I feel like people should be allowed, I think also like money and age should be taken into consideration.

Theme 3: Family

For almost all the participants, family played an important role in shaping their opinions on abortion. The subthemes that comprised the general theme of Family are Strict Family, Older Generation, and Western Upbringing.

Strict Family

Almost all participants discussed the views of their parents and how that shaped their personal views. The participants also suggested how parents who had stronger religious views were stricter. Evidently, religiosity played a role, as being raised in a strict family influenced the religious views of participants:

my family is very strict so like I’ve had a very strict religious upbringing and I feel like that affects my views.. and because of that I’ll be at lesser risk of having an unplanned pregnancy.

Older Generation

When discussing the influence of family on participants’ views towards abortion, the majority acknowledged that the older generation was more conservative than the current one. In particular, most of the participants agreed that when forming opinions about issues such as abortion, the older generation tended to be more conservative in their views not only because of religion but also because of their cultural values:

Well I believe older generations are more culturalist [sic] than us… Because they didn’t grow up here, they grew up in old Muslim community or something like that. So they see things differently than we do. Things we see as normal, they might be like oh no... that’s a bit too much or that’s too strict. It’s the whole different opinions and different … you know because they don’t really interact with non-Muslims that often as we do...

Western Upbringing

Throughout the interviews, it was also suggested by some participants that because they grew up in Ireland and not in their native country, they were more accepting of social issues such as gay marriage or abortion. Participants also suggested that people who were raised in Western countries tended to be more liberal than their parents when forming opinions:

because I’m living in Ireland, I’d say I have a more open mind about abortion like depending on the age of the mother and financial circumstances and also society that there should be the option there to get an abortion.

Theme 4: Misuse of New Abortion Laws

A recurring theme throughout the interviews was that people might misuse the new abortion laws. Almost all participants agreed that people would misuse the availability of abortion for unplanned pregnancies, particularly the younger generation. The subthemes that made up this theme include New Laws Used as a Contraceptive Measure, Future Generation Less Likely to Use Protection, and Premarital Sex Condemned in Islam.

New Laws Used as a Contraceptive Measure

Almost all participants argued that people would be more likely to use the new abortion laws as a contraceptive measure. Some participants suggested that people will use it to avoid responsibility. Overall, participants generally felt that the new laws regarding abortion were not going to be used for the right purposes by some people in Ireland:

I think that young girls shouldn’t take advantage of the new laws regarding abortion and that um they also shouldn’t have unprotected sex just because abortion is available now.

Future Generation Less Likely to Use Protection

Participants generally thought that people would misuse the new abortion laws in Ireland, but in particular, they felt that the future generation would be the most likely to do so. Participants generally had the perception that the future generation would be less likely to use contraception during sexual intercourse as they have the option of abortion available to them.

once abortion is legalised then… I’d say that in the future Muslims are probably like more likely to have sex before marriage and more likely to have unplanned pregnancies because of that. Muslim people … because obviously if abortion is legalised then they have the option there and it’s more likely to occur because they won’t use Protection.

Premarital Sex and Abortion

The majority of participants believed that abortion would be less likely amongst Muslim people as in Islam, premarital sex is condemned:

In [Muslim countries], like I said, sex is condemned, so it wouldn’t be as relevant to younger people there… because there wouldn’t be as many unplanned pregnancies there amongst young people compared to Ireland.

I wasn’t umm… suddenly going completely against Islam… and saying oh it’s ok to have sex outside of marriage… If it were up to me I would say no sex or like you know no premarital sex.

Theme 5: Stable Sense of National Belonging

When discussing their sense of national belonging, participants’ answers varied moderately. Almost all of them suggested that the outcome of the abortion referendum had little or no influence on their sense of belonging in Ireland. The main codes within this theme include No Change to Sense of National Belonging and No Sense of National Belonging to Begin With.

Contrast Between Religious and National Perspectives

When presented with the question in the interview: ‘Did the outcome of the abortion referendum change your sense of belonging to the Irish community?’ most participants claimed that there was no change to their sense of belonging.

I don’t think it has changed my sense of belonging anyway because personally … I’m not an overly strict Muslim and so I’m not really that conservative and because I grew up here I would consider myself far more liberal than other Muslims who grew up in Muslim countries… and because of that I wouldn’t say it’s really changed my sense of belonging the Irish community.

Another participant suggested that if she were more religious, perhaps, then the referendum would have affected her sense of belonging:

I feel like if I was more religious it would’ve [changed my sense of belonging to Ireland]…

For several participants, underpinning this stability was their religious liberalism. They felt their sense of belonging may have been more challenged if their beliefs were more conservative.

No Sense of National Belonging to Begin with

A few participants suggested that the outcome of the 2018 Abortion Referendum did not affect their sense of belonging to Ireland because they did not feel like they belonged in Ireland to begin with. Factors such as the length of time they had been living in Ireland as well as their physical appearance were important to participants when indicating their absence of belonging:

No not at all because you know it doesn’t matter how much you try... if you look different or if you believe different to the general community, you’re never really part of a community you’re always just an outsider.

Theme 6: Consequences of Historical Abortion Legislation

When asked about their beliefs on abortion, all participants referred to popular cases of women who had died/suffered due to historical abortion legislation in Ireland. The consequences of historical laws were important to participants when explaining the value of reform of abortion laws in Ireland. Subthemes of the Consequences of Historical Abortion Legislation included the following: Well-known Cases and Travelling Abroad for an Abortion.

Well-known Cases

Several participants referred to well-known cases of women who had been denied an abortion and consequently died. A few of them referred particularly to Savita Halappanavar from 2012 (a prominent case in Ireland in which a lady died, who had requested an abortion on health grounds, which was denied to her):

Considering the death of the woman in Galway after she desperately needed one [an abortion] and then her life and the baby’s life were both lost.

Because you know abortion was kind of raised here amongst women… it was mainly because of the Savita case and other cases

Some participants discussed the general cases of women who had died as a consequence of consequences of the historical legislation:

well like I think that it was good that they’re actually taking this matter into consideration and that they’re actually doing something about it because we’ve all heard the stories before it was legalised about women that have died because they weren’t granted abortions

One particular participant was a medical student, and she explained how many deaths could have been avoided if abortion had been legal:

I’m in hospitals I can see what really happened you know.. things that could have been avoided if these women were.. granted the abortion.

Participants generally discussed the consequences of historical legislation in a remorseful tone. Sympathy for such women was heavily expressed by one individual:

I did feel sorry for people who had all those stories… umm.. about abortion in whether it’s rape or whether they had complications or something and they couldn’t you know do anything because they’re in Ireland.

Travelling Abroad for Abortion

Travelling abroad to avail of abortion services was another recurring concept throughout the interviews. Due to the lack of services in Ireland, many Irish women were forced to travel abroad to seek medical help:

I think that because other countries do have this law… that yes abortion is allowed, and many people did travel from Ireland to England just to get abortion done... because of whatever complications or problems they have…

Also in videos on Facebook of like you know girls aged between 13-14 getting pregnant and travelling to England for an abortion and comments will be filled with how ridiculous Irish laws are for not letting such girls to have an abortion and how she’s not ready to be a mom.

Discussion

The main aim of this research study was to explore the attitudes of young Muslim women to abortion and to understand how the debate around the Irish Abortion laws affected young Muslim women’s sense of belonging in Ireland.

The study found that the majority of participants held the view that abortion was permissible under particular circumstances. The possible circumstances in which participants believed abortion was permissible included medical complications and in cases of rape. This finding is consistent with Carlton et al. (2000), which assessed college students’ attitudes towards abortion. In their study, they found that the majority of participants agreed that abortion should be permitted in certain situations. For example, they found that 67% of the participants indicated that abortion should be allowed when the mother’s life is at risk, and 71% agreed it should be allowed for rape victims. The Muslim women in the current study expressed similar views to other Irish populations, e.g. medical students (Fitzgerald et al., 2014).

Although the participants largely supported the referendum’s outcome, they grounded this opinion in their religious faith. This finding concords with wider European trends on the importance of religious perspectives on moral decision-making, as discussed by Kashyap and Lewis (2013). Similarly, Frohwirth et al. (2018) found that over 70% of their participants mentioned religion when discussing their views on abortion. Although not conducted amongst the Islamic population, findings from Carlton et al.’s (2000) study on attitudes towards abortion amongst predominantly Catholic college students indicated similar results. In contrast, many pro-choice advocates from the European cultural majority underpin their pro-choice perspectives with rights-based rather than religious arguments (Rominski et al., 2017).

The family was also an important indicator of participants’ views on abortion. All participants referred to the influence of family when asked about their views on abortion. This view is supported by the findings in Pearce and Thornton (2007) study on religious identity and family ideologies in the transition to adulthood. This research suggests that a strong relationship exists between the mother’s religion and the child’s views on abortion, premarital sex, and cohabitation.

The majority of participants admitted that while they had complex feelings about the legalisation of abortion in Ireland, it did not impact their sense of national belonging. This finding is consistent with Carr (2016) and Hou et al. (2018). For instance, Hou and colleagues found that 69% of the participants had a strong sense of belonging to their host country. In the current study, participants described a nuanced view of belonging in the context of political engagement. The participants described a range of concerns about premarital sex and the potential frequency of abortion, common for people with higher religiosity (Uecker & Froese, 2019), but in contrast to the perspective of the cultural majority. Participants highlighted that these issues could challenge a sense of national belonging more than abortion. This tension between minority and majority values mimics the xenophobic argument that the cultures of Islam and the West are incompatible (Simonsen & Bonikowski, 2020). However, the ‘culture-clash’ argument mistakes the intricacies of the relationship between religious and national identification as described by participants in this study and the complexity of how individuals cope with the demands of ‘multiple belongings’ (Martinovic & Verkuyten, 2012, p.893). This dynamic complexity can be seen in the third theme, how the participants reflected on the role of family, generation, religion, and Western upbringing, and in the fourth theme, where participants reflected on their concern about how the next generation of Muslims might move further away from Muslim values.

Participants in the current study appeared to describe a natural tension, wanting to belong to both a minority religious group and a majority national group simultaneously. Similarly, Carr’s (2016) participants discussed difficulties in personal identity when national identity involved behaviours which contrasted with their religious views. In particular, they discussed the use of alcohol amongst young Irish people and its link to Irish identity, which significantly challenged their own sense of ‘being Irish’. Martinovic and Verkuyten (2012) showed that the association between Muslim identification and national identification was negative for participants who perceived relatively high-value incompatibility between religious and national identities but not for participants perceiving little value incompatibility.

A few participants indicated that they had no sense of belonging to Ireland, to begin with, describing being treated as an outsider as a barrier to a sense of belonging. Implicit in these comments was the desire for national belonging, which was hindered by actions from the majority group. Maliepaard and Verkuyten (2018), in their study of Muslims in Western countries, described the rationale for the national dis-identification as intrinsic religiosity and perceived discrimination. This finding was similar to Carr (2016), where participants highlighted active stigmatisation and exclusion by the cultural majority as actions which undermined their sense of national belonging.

Fleischmann and Verkuyten (2021) frame the intricacy of this type of belonging within social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), describing that groups hold a notion of collective identity that provides a sense of belonging, place, and meaning, allowing individuals to feel grounded and connected (Haslam et al., 2009). Situations, where individuals are forced to choose between their religious and national values, become intrinsically stressful and can lead to increased religious identity and decreased national identity. Understanding the challenges of ‘multiple belongings’ within a social identity theory framework would allow the cultural majority to ease that intrinsic tension for the minority by not creating a false choice of Irish or Muslim identity, for instance, but creating opportunities to embrace an identity of Muslim-Irish. Opportunities could include the role of symbolism, political representation, the canvassing and reporting of minority views, a respectful stance towards religious perspectives in the public sphere, and an anti-reductionist perspective on what nationality means (Simonsen & Bonikowski, 2020).

Strengths and Limitations

There are several limitations to the study. There are no available data on the political perspectives of the participants or whether they took part in the 2018 Abortion Referendum. Nor is there information on the religiosity of the participants. These limitations prohibited greater examination of the underlying factors. The sample was small and self-selecting. It did not necessarily represent the perspectives of the broader Muslim population.

Conclusion

In conclusion, participants largely supported the legalisation of abortion as proposed in the 2018 Irish Referendum. Liberalising the Irish Abortion laws had no significant impact on young Muslim women’s sense of belonging in this study. The cultural majority have the opportunity to support a sense of national belonging through recognising that individuals will hold multiple belongings and work to reflect the perspectives of minorities in large national debates.