Religiosity and the intention to buy luxury goods among young Indonesian Muslims in Jakarta

This thesis examines the relationship between religiosity and the intention to buy luxury goods, among young Muslims in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, a Muslim majority country. In this city, luxury goods are on clear display, owned by rich Muslims and often by Muslim religious campaigners, while the majority of the population struggles, with a very low standard of living. Based on the perceptions of its participants, this research seeks to ascertain whether religiosity, religious orientation, and Islamic religious norms are related to the intention to buy luxury goods. In this case, the intention to purchase is seen as the possible manifestation of perceptions of religious norms or beliefs. From the perspective of social science, mainly the field of consumer behaviour, this study also analyses several possible determinants of the intention to buy luxury goods, such as the perceived value of luxury goods, influences of social groups and global lifestyles, and materialism, as well as the degree of concern of the potential buyers regarding inequality and the vast socio-economic gap evident in Indonesia, particularly in Jakarta. The analyses of the primary data, which were derived from 8 focus groups, 24 in-depth interviews, and a quantitative survey among 510 respondents, show that nearly all of the research participants perceived that Islam allows Muslims to own luxury goods as long as they can buy them legitimately, and that owning these goods does not contradict Islamic values in general. Most of the participants did not see the ownership of luxury goods as having any social issues, even though they live in a society with a huge disparity in income between rich and poor. The results from binary logistic regression analysis indicate that there is a significant relationship between the intention to buy luxury goods and (1) religiosity (negative relationship), (2) experiential value perception (positive relationship), (3) symbolic value perception (positive relationship), and (4) social group influence (positive relationship). However, the last three variables have greater influence than does religiosity. The majority of research participants, across all demographic variables, income strata and educational levels, appreciated the symbolic and experiential value of luxury goods and sought such items as a ‘ticket’ to enter elite social groups. They believed they could own luxury goods, be members of the elite class in Jakarta, and feel religious at the same time. On the other hand, the participants who did not harbour an intention to purchase these goods, yet had higher religiosity mean scores, stated that they did not want to ignore their feelings of guilt if they were to buy luxury goods while there are so many poor people in Indonesia. This thesis argues that the majority of young Muslims in Jakarta who perceive that Islam allows ownership of luxury goods and that such ownership has nothing to do with moral and ethical concerns regarding the vast socioeconomic gap in Indonesia, would have the intention to buy such items, if money were not an issue. Perceived external influences are seen have no significant impact on their intention, except for influence from social groups

Exploring the Role of Muslim Faith-based Schools of Birmingham in Meeting the Religious, Cultural and Educational Needs of Muslim Children and the Expectations of Parents: An Empirical Study

This research explored the role of Muslim faith-based schools in the culturally and religiously diverse city of Birmingham in meeting the religious, cultural and educational needs of Muslim children and the expectations of their parents. The economy- focus post- Second World War mass migration to Europe has acted as the key catalyst for the modern Muslim presence in the UK and wider Europe. While Muslim communities came from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds, Islam has defined their collective identities. With the joining of their families, the first generation of British Muslims have began to realise the challenges of maintaining Islamic values and identities among their offspring who were growing up within an overall secular and multicultural society. This has marked the establishment of Mosques, community centres and most crucially faith-based Islamic school in the UK. The relevance and desirability of faith-based schooling in general and Muslim schooling in particular has come under a close security in the UK. This study focused on the case of Muslim schooling within the context of multi-faith and multicultural city of Birmingham. The study explored parental motives behind the choice of Islamic schools, their distinctive educational ethos and how they address the challenge of helping Muslim children integrate into the wider multicultural British society. The study adopted an empirical research methodology through utilising a mixed-methods research design to investigate its key questions. The main data collection tools were survey, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The study sample included 133 parents, 36 students who graduated from schools and 33 teachers and governors running Muslim schools. The quantitative data was analysed using the SPSS software and the interview and focus group discussion were analysed by adopting qualitative data analysis procedures. The overall research findings suggested that parents held positive views of the Muslim schools but at the same time had high expectations about their general academic achievement as well as the Islamic Education provision. Most of the parents shared the view that Muslim schools needed to adopt a more integrated approach to the curriculum striking the balance between Islamic and secular subjects. Parents overwhelmingly thought that the Muslim schools did contribute to the social and cultural of integration of Muslim children into the wider multicultural and multi-faith British society. However, one of the significant findings of the survey analysis was the fact that parents appeared to be ambiguous about the overall achievement of schools in adequately meeting the academic and Islamic religious, moral and spiritual needs of their children. The conclusion chapter summarised the key findings of the study and discussed the implications of the findings for improving the quality of Islamic faith-based schooling within the context of secular and multicultural British society