In order to explore the religious perceptions of the Muslim family carers in the study, I asked each carer to describe what being Muslim meant to them. This broad question aimed to decipher the extent to which the respondents considered their lives to be religiously informed by their Muslim identities. The majority of respondents explained that they considered themselves to be practising Muslims, and that being Muslim constituted a significant aspect of their everyday lives. Additionally, this initial question about a carer’s religiosity also exposed a link between a respondent’s religious beliefs and their role as a carer. Accounts of these beliefs are examined in this section.
When asked about their relationship to Islam, the majority of the carers in this study reported that they considered being Muslim to be a
significant aspect of their identity. Both Vardah and Parvina
demonstrated this importance by describing being Muslim as meaning ‘everything’ to them:
Vardah: Well it means everything to me. At this moment, I mean the whole of my life, I mean it is nothing without my religion (Vardah cares for two adult daughters with mild learning disabilities) (my emphasis).
Parvina: It means a lot. I love my religion, we eat Halal, we pray five times a day, we fast one month in the whole of the year. It means
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everything to me. It teaches us to help the needy and the poor (Parvina
cares for her son with Down’s syndrome (my emphasis).
Similarly, Iqraam, who cares for three adult sons with learning
disabilities explained: ‘If I am not a Muslim then I am nothing’. These findings are supported by existing literature, where some have
suggested that the religiosity of British Muslims tends to be higher than other religious groups (Modood, 2003). Asking respondents about their religiosity also revealed the inextricable link between the carers’
religious and spiritual beliefs, and their identity as carers. Parvina’s allusion to helping the ‘needy and the poor’ (above) may indicate her awareness of her caring role when being asked about her relationship to being Muslim. More specifically, Dunia described how her
relationship to God provided her with a sense of calm when her challenging caring situations left her feeling like she was ‘losing her head’:
Well, as a Muslim, I pray five times a day. Like meditation, my prayer brought me closer to my God, you know, having that faith and dealing with it. Most of the things I was feeling; it happened at a time when I was going through a lot of struggle in my life and with [son’s name]. What I felt was everything with struggle came ease. I saw that I didn’t get my ease straight away, it was only with a struggle, which I had, and this is what our faith actually tells us, and then ease came. When you put that in the back of your head, it helps you get on with your life, rather than leaving yourself in panic attack or thinking ‘oh my God I am
170 losing my mind?’ You know? My faith helped me to get on with my life (Dunia cares for her son with severe physical and learning disabilities).
The description that Dunia provides about her relationship to Islam was indicative of many of the carers in the study, who reported that their faith in Islam was a significant support for their roles as carers. Similar findings were also reported in Zunzunegui et al.’s (1999) quantitative
study of family, religion and depressive symptoms in caregivers of disabled elderly people in Spain. They argued that religiosity played an important role in the mental health of Spanish caregivers. Omera
reflected these kinds of findings in this research, explaining that Muslim teachings about care and love supported her in her caring role:
I feel very lucky as a Muslim. I am proud to be Muslim. Islam teaches a lot of care and love in our religion. I know that there is a lot of- there is a lot else out there but I think by this way it helps with the caring (Omera cared for her elderly father-in-law before he died).
The role of religion for family carers remains relatively under explored, especially in relation to Muslim carers. Treloar (2002) found religious belief to be an important source of support for the respondents in her study of disability, spiritual beliefs and the church. She explained that a faith in God facilitated an effective coping mechanism for the
respondents in her study (p. 599). In conclusion, she argued that religious beliefs influenced the ways the respondents lived their lives. As such, ‘the participants chose to live out their lives with thankfulness
171 and joy despite difficulties common to experience with disability’ (p. 594). The findings in this research support Treloar’s conclusions,
whereby the carers in the study often reported feeling supported in their caring role by their religious beliefs as Muslims.
The following section employs Weber’s (1922) theoretical arguments about theodicy to explore in more depth the link the carers in the study presented between their religious beliefs as Muslims, and their identities as carers. However, it is important to be aware of the methodological issues surrounding the presentation of religious beliefs in an interview setting. Bywaters et al. (2003) argue that giving an explanation to an
interviewer is an act of self presentation, which combines information, feelings and decisions about disclosure. Furthermore, they describe how explanations can serve a particular function. In this case, accounts of religious beliefs may provide a coping mechanism to manage
feelings about a respondents’ caring role. Bywaters et al.’s (2003)
perspectives adhere to the social constructionist epistemology
employed within this research. Consequently, these issues are kept in mind when analysing the accounts presented by the respondents interviewed for this study.
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