Using qualitative research methods, this Cardiff-based project investigates the perspectives that young Shia Muslims in Britain have today, towards the concept of religious authority, and how these perspectives and attitudes affect their lives. The study reveals the perceptions of British Shia Muslims on the issues of religious authority and its relevance vis-à-vis their own lives in the UK. The project’s findings expose stark contradictions in the attitudes of some British Shia, with their dissatisfactions with clerical religious authority on one hand, and a sense of compulsion to abide by their rulings on the other.
The research opens up this relatively uncultivated area for further social science research within UK’s Shia population, particularly with regards to attitudes towards religious authority and its impact.