"Vi skulle aldrig få bygga kyrkor i deras länder" : En undersökning om attityder gentemot islam och muslimer bland elever på en katolsk friskola

Sweden is today a country with ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. My aim in this study is to study what view of Islam and Muslims that students at a Catholic school in Stockholm have. The reason why Catholic schools are interesting to study is that previous research has showed that Muslim students around Europe often attend catholic schools as they are regarded as more tolerant towards religion. This study is based on a questionnaire and personal interviews with upper secondary students at the Catholic school in Stockholm. The result is compared with previous research on students of the same age group (12-15 years). The results of the survey show that the majority of students have a positive attitude towards Islam and Muslims, but that there is a small group at the Catholic School who have negative attitude towards Islam and Muslims. The negative attitude increases when it comes to the Muslim’s rights, for example the right to build mosques in Sweden. The results also show that students with parents with higher education are more tolerant than students with parents with no academic education. I have used Mattias Gardell’s definition of Islamophobia to analyze the result from the survey and interview among the students at the Catholic school. When using this definition, we can see that the students have some islamophobic thoughts about Muslims and Islam. The results indicate that the school needs to actively work with this question in a more constructive way. One of my suggestions are that they need to talk more about Islam and Muslims during the lessons so the students gain knowledge about the religion but also create situations where non-Muslims and Muslims meet. In this way, students can integrate with each other. This study only shows the attitudes among the students at this Catholic School

"Vi skulle aldrig få bygga kyrkor i deras länder" : En undersökning om attityder gentemot islam och muslimer bland elever på en katolsk friskola

Sweden is today a country with ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. My aim in this study is to study what view of Islam and Muslims that students at a Catholic school in Stockholm have. The reason why Catholic schools are interesting to study is that previous research has showed that Muslim students around Europe often attend catholic schools as they are regarded as more tolerant towards religion. This study is based on a questionnaire and personal interviews with upper secondary students at the Catholic school in Stockholm. The result is compared with previous research on students of the same age group (12-15 years). The results of the survey show that the majority of students have a positive attitude towards Islam and Muslims, but that there is a small group at the Catholic School who have negative attitude towards Islam and Muslims. The negative attitude increases when it comes to the Muslim’s rights, for example the right to build mosques in Sweden. The results also show that students with parents with higher education are more tolerant than students with parents with no academic education. I have used Mattias Gardell’s definition of Islamophobia to analyze the result from the survey and interview among the students at the Catholic school. When using this definition, we can see that the students have some islamophobic thoughts about Muslims and Islam. The results indicate that the school needs to actively work with this question in a more constructive way. One of my suggestions are that they need to talk more about Islam and Muslims during the lessons so the students gain knowledge about the religion but also create situations where non-Muslims and Muslims meet. In this way, students can integrate with each other. This study only shows the attitudes among the students at this Catholic School

”Maybe the British didn’t really leave” : En undersökning om hur sex kvinnor upplever vithet på Sri Lanka

The aim of this study is to describe the perception of whiteness among Sri Lankan women. An article published by the Sunday Leader show that there is a long tradition among women in Sri Lanka to use beauty products, such as bleaching creams to enhance facial lightening. Over 33 000 bleaching products are sold per year in Sri Lanka.  Parameswaran and Cardoza conclude that Sri Lankan women with lighter skin tone are regarded as more beautiful and attractive than those with dark skin. Furthermore, fair skin is associated with power, authority and high privilege.   This study is based on individual; face-to-face interviews with six women between ages 19-30 living in Sri Lanka. The results from the interview have been compared with Dyer’s theory of whiteness and Ahmed’s theory about lived experience of whiteness. The results of this study showed that the interviewed women have been introduced to the whiteness norm during childhood by their parents and relatives. Today, these women are still affected by the whiteness norm and it has shown to be unavoidable to live in the Sri Lankan society without relating to it