Specialist Study

Introduction
In this specialist study project I will be focusing on interfaith relationships, which is a social revolution.
The question is, will interfaith marriage be an inescapable consequence of our culturally dynamic world?
The reason why I have chosen to analyse this specific topic is because I have a huge interest in interfaith
relationships, as I have been in an interfaith relationship myself, which I am not in anymore due to family
disagreements and community reasons. Since this matter occurred in my life it has really changed the
way I look at life as well as my future life partner. I always wanted to go into more depth and find out
about interfaith relationships and what others thinks about interfaith relationships from a religious
perspective is well. Deciding to study this topic for my specialist study project will help me answer my
personal question in depth.

Main Body 1
Interfaith marriage is when one person from one faith involves themselves in a relationship or marries
another person from an external faith. Religion in Britain has changed a lot through time, ‘London is
distinctive, unsurprisingly it is the most religiously diverse part of the country, containing the largest
proportion of people who self- identify as Jews, Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus’ - this is according to the
Dave. Fifty years from today the most common religion in Britain was
Christians. In 2010, the Church of England counted 25 million baptized members out of the
41 million Christians in Great Britain's population of about 60 million. Early Hindus in England were
mostly students during the 19th century. There have been three waves of migration of Hindus to
England since then.
The first Sikh migration came in the 1950s. It was mostly of men from the Punjab seeking work in
industries like foundries and textiles. These new arrivals mostly settled in London, Birmingham and
West Yorkshire. According to the 2011 Census, 2.7 million Muslims live in England where they form
5.0% of the population. Some people don’t have a religion however according to the
British social attitudes survey 2008, ‘there is also some evidence that for those who don’t visit church yet
say they are religious and pray often’ which means even if they don’t have a religion they still do pray to
something and have some sort believe.
Interfaith marriage has become extremely common in today’s date in every religion, one in ten
couples in the UK were in inter-ethnic relationships, a total of 2.3 million people. The rise of
interfaith relationships is undoubtedly a sign of positive integration and a reflection of the more
liberal and inclusive approach we take towards religion, but it is not always without its hardships.
This is according to Lorna Malkin. About 40% of Hindus, Muslims, Jews and Christians marry
outside their faith in London (5).
Main Body 2
Taking interfaith relationships into a narrower route, I will be discussing about what Muslims and Sikh’s
think about interfaith relationships. Love is something which is unconditional and if you do fall in love
feel fortunate as this is what Reza Aslan and Jessica Jackley said ‘sometimes, thank God, we fall in love.
Our best advice: when that happens, don’t think too hard, just choose each other. Because, sometimes, we
find a person who helps us with our blind spots, who helps us glimpse a little more of the divine than we
would have on our own’. Many people have different views on interfaith marriage, this is according to
religion and society is well.
Some Muslims may even choose to marry those who are not Muslim, naturally these trends affect the
traditional cultural fabric of communities, this shows Muslims have a broad mind towards interfaith
marriage and change with the rest of the worlds, and in other words there is revolution. By getting into an
interfaith relationship it does not make a Muslim a terrible person, it means they are open to an interfaith
relationship and learning from a different culture. Because such acts are done, doesn’t mean they always
are, but they remain in the fabric of Muslim life, practiced to greater or lesser degrees.
Samia Rahman who is a Muslim writes in the critical Muslims ‘Love and Death’ issue that there has been
an increase in mixed ethnicity marriage among second- generation Muslims. This shows that some of the
new generation of Muslims have quite an open mind towards interfaith marriages and that as well as
religion love matters as well. According to this Generation of Muslims just because such acts should be
done, doesn’t mean they always are, but they remain in the fabric of Muslim life, practiced to greater or
lesser degrees. (6). According to Jan Mohamed, Muslims who see the world in ways that are richer, more
complex and far more open than we imagine; wider pioneering social trends within civic, corporate,
cultural and commercial spaces. (6)
Moving onto Sikh interfaith relationships and how they take it, The Sikh Gods do not have a problem
with interfaith marriage. I state this because according to Davinder ‘Gurus don't accept division in faith,
caste or gender’. This shows that if the Guru’s don’t accept division in faith then it is not a sin for a Sikh
to marry outside the faith. Furthermore it ‘is not needed for a non-Sikh to convert to marry a Sikh as
Sikhism is not in favor of converting non Sikh’s unless it is the persons will’. This according to H
Bhatti(8)
Main Body 3
On the other hand there are some Sikhs and Muslims that are totally against interfaith marriage for
various reasons. Based on the Sikh code of conduct, the Sikh Rehat Maryada of 1932, the guidelines
advice: "Persons professing faiths other than the Sikh faith cannot be joined in wedlock by the Anand
Karaj ceremony." This is according to the Guru Sahib: the holy book for Sikhs. It is not always easy to
get married to someone who is not the same faith. As stated on
Interfaithshaadi ‘interfaith dating youths face hardships from parents and religious institutions. Falling
in love can affect the faith itself corresponding to Al Jazeera h, ‘Some think it may engorge deviation
from the faith’; not only does it affect the faith it effects the family as well, because in the ‘culture they
think a lot about what other people think instead of their happiness or their children’,
This is what Hannah concluded talking about her relationship with a non-Sikh. In today’s date it’s
about bringing young leaders from different faiths and backgrounds together to learn and understand
each other in a different way. One that inspires them to go off and make meaningful change in society.
The Muslim culture is very similar to the Indian culture, in the sense that they care a lot about what the
society will say instead of the happiness of the child, According to Generation M (11) Muslim men are
allowed to marry outside the religion to Christians however ladies are not permitted to do that at all as
they have to marry a Muslim. However this hasn’t stopped some Muslim woman from marrying outside
their faith. On the other hand Sadia Khan on the Al Jazeera show explained that she thinks it ‘Sets a bad
president because whatever is written in the Quran that is what is said for a Muslim woman should and
every Muslim should follow that’ this was said by. This shows that as well as a social problems there are
also some people that believe the religion itself does not allow women to marry out the religion.
According to Sadia Khans husband ‘You have to agree if they are happy to convert, because in the long
time run there are big differences and could end up in a bad or broken relationships.’ Which in all fairness
is something to be thought about before making such a big decision in life; In some cases people have to
end up choosing between their family or their partner because some parents threaten to disown the person
if such a decision is made. This is according to Generation M.
Main Body 4
According to the survey I did for Leyton Sixth form I found out that nearly half the people who
answered they had a partner, their partner is not the same faith as them. I also found out that more than
half the results had come from the fact that they don’t have an issue with interfaith relationships. The
main reason why some of the Leyton sixth form students have broken up their interfaith is because they
are a different religion to their partner. However on the other hand there was a response from an
anonymous person saying ‘My parents are okay with anyone that is not my religion however that might
change when I get older’. Another anonymous student said that ‘I believe interfaith religions in the long
term can cause problems between families especially when the individual is close to their family, which
is a valid point as well.
After asking the question do you think there could be consequences with marrying someone who has
different believes to yourself? The responses were quite varied, one student said ‘There is nothing
inherently wrong with being within a different belief system, but I find that it can cause problems in a
family and questions like what religion we should present to our child? Can occur ‘which is something to
think about cause what religion will the child follow at the end of the day. Another student said ‘Because
when you get married both of you become one so what the person believes and they do will more likely
drag the other person down rather than help the person to believe’ once again this depends on the
arguments made before getting too deep into the relationship.
75% of the results from the survey show that two loved ones do not need to share the same beliefs in
order to marry each other; the reason behind this is according to one person who stated that ‘You don’t
choose who you fall in love with. So why should religion separate people? When it’s supposed
 To bring people together and teach us how to love each other?’ this point says a lot when thinking
deep into it.

According to the Mohammad Ali a priest at the local Ilford mosque says ‘in the quran it says “Do not
marry idolatresses till they believe; and certainly a believing maid is better than an idolatress even
though she would please you; and do not marry idolaters till they believe), and certainly a believing
slave is better than an idolater, even though he would please you. These invite to the Fire, and Allah
invites to the Garden and to forgiveness by His grace, and makes clear His revelations to mankind so
that they may remember. ”Qur’an 2:221’ through this Qur’anic order, the verse clearly forbids the
marriage of the believing men and women to polytheists, called at the time “mushrikīn”.
So from the priest’s perspective it is forbidden for a Muslim man or women to marry against the Quran.
However on the other hand Mohammad also agrees with the fact that the world has changed and has
become more modern, ‘we live in the 21st century and there are bound to be such changes like this, but
there’s a lot of consciences for someone who’s Muslim to marry someone who isn’t a Muslim, as it can
tear families apart if the families aren’t Morden enough’. This explains that falling in love, may result in
losing family members as well.
‘Religion will always be a stop to love no matter what’ this is according to Sabrjit Singh who is a priest
at the Gravesend Gurdwara He also thinks that ‘ten years down the line there will be no culture left,
which isn’t a good thing, as one day it may even demolish religion is well. Sarbjit said that in the Guru
Granth Sahib it says, ‘killing a daughter or to give a daughter (in marriage) to a non-Sikh, such a person
commits great offence’ and that every ‘Sikh should give his daughter (in marriage) to a Sikh. Thus
Gurmukh meets a Gurmukh also giving a daughter to a Bhadni (non- Sikh) is like giving nectar to a
snake. This sounds quite sower however this is what is written in the Sikh holy book. On the other hand
following the revolution Sarbjit says ‘it’s hard to marry outside the religion as the culture has a lot to say
towards it as well as the community, because in the Indian society respect means lot, but if someone
loves someone a lot then they would do anything for them to be together, even if that means killing the
culture dynamics’.
Conclusion

In conclusion to all the research that I have done, there is quite a big chance that interfaith marriage will
cause consequences in every culture. The reason why I say that is because it’s either the culture that is
completely neglected in a relationship, or the couples can follow both cultures that they follow, even
though it may be hard and may even have a few clashes, according to what I found out in the studies.

After researching this topic, I have learned a lot about both the Muslim and the Sikh culture as well as
both the religions. It has given me a brief outline of what the religions think about interfaith marriages:
in both religion wise and the revolution perceptive. However I believe there could be more research
done on this topic, for example finding out what the penalty would be if both religion couples interfaith
marriages.
I think there could be further research done into this topic, why should religion separate people? This
would be helpful to answer my question as it provides more reliable source of information. Another
question that has arisen from my studies that could be researched in the future is that, has the laws of
different countries affected interfaith marriages. If this is researched it would help come to a more liable
conclusion to my question.