4. Religiosity Model The purpose of this essay is to develop a model of religiosity exclusively for Muslims.

In order to do this, this essay is divided into four sections. The first section attempts to provide an overview of previous models from Judeo-Christian religion. Furthermore, key differences and gaps in religiosity instrumentation are included. The second section is a review of religiosity instruments for Muslims, which includes these difference and gaps. The third section will discuss our own development of the religiosity model based on the previous three sections 4.1 Religiosity Models for Christians 4.1.1 Unidimensional Early religiosity models are Eurocentric in nature and mainly directed to Christian societies. Church membership or church denomination and church attendance, amongst others, are common measurements of religiosity. For instance, Lincoln at all (1999) and Taylor (1988) have used church attendance as one of the indicators of religiosity. This indicator is easily assessed by asking respondents how often they attend religious services. They have demonstrated that demographic variables including age, gender, education and marital status are able to predict church attendance. In addition demographic variables, church attendance can also predict social variables. For example, church attendance can predict, amongst other things, marital satisfaction (Wallin, Clark 1964a), sexual satisfaction (Judy G, Norma L 2005) and depression (M Chaaya et al. 2007) However, there are several shortcomings in using religious attendance as an indicator of religiosity especially when it is used as a single indicator. There are several reasons for this. The first and obvious reason is that not all church goers go to church for religious reasons. Other reasons for going to church include social reasons (Azzi, Ehrenberg 1975), consumption ( Ulbrich and Wallace 2006) , political ( Brown 2003) and even business (Azzi, Ehrenberg 1975). Another shortcoming is that the frequencies of church services vary according to denominations and the individual church itself. Commonly, church members are required to go to Church every Sunday. However, there are many activities organized by the church on days other than Sunday and it depends on the church. Some churches only open on Sundays and special days whilst others open every day. Moreover, the extent to which church members are obliged to attend religious services also varies by denominations. Church Membership can also be an indicator of religiosity. One way to indicate this variable is to ask whether the respondent is a church member. The next step is to ask respondents to indicate whether they are a member of any church and which religious denomination to which they belong. This variable can be a predictor variable and predictive of various social, political and economic variables besides demographic variables. For example, church membership can predict among others, authoritarian attitudes (Barton, Vaughan 1976), conservatism (McCann 1999), attitude towards abortion (Sullins 1999), and economic situation (McCann 1999)

However, there are several drawbacks to using church membership to indicate religiosity especially if it is a single indicator for obvious reasons. First, in a country where religion is invoked in their political or monarchial system, it is common to find members who do not believe, let alone practice, their religion. Therefore, church membership is not really an accurate measure especially as a single indicator for religiosity. A good example is to be found in American civil religion where most Americans are members of the church especially Republicans. American civil religion has been explained previously by Thomas Luckmann where religion is culturized rather than sacralized. Both measures of religiosity have been extensively used by sociologists in their writings. These measures indeed have their flaws and disadvantages. This is because these measures measure extrinsic religiosity rather than intrinsic religiosity (Gorsuch 1988). Therefore, the next section will consider intrinsic religiosity. One of the most frequently used indicators of religiosity and is more intrinsic is religious belief/ orthodoxy. Although it is still a unidimensional measure of religiosity, in order to capture it social scientists use multiple items. For example, Fullerton (1982) used a ten item measurement; (1) Existence of God; (2) Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; (3) God created all things; (4) Jesus of Nazareth was Divine; (5) The virgin birth of Jesus; (6) Jesus's mission was to save mankind; (7) Jesus died but came back to life; (8) Jesus has left the earth but shall return; (9) God will judge men after their deaths; and (10) There is life after death. These items were scaled using a Likert scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree . (Hunsberger 1989) on the other hand reduced the scale to only six items retaining most of the psychometric strengths associated with the Fullerton (1982) scale. This was done by rewording all the items and deleting loaded items. The scale of orthodoxy is indeed comprehensive. But it does have limitations. In Christianity, there are many denominations which have different beliefs and orthodoxy. One of Christian denomination s orthodoxy can be another Christian denomination s apostasy. Therefore, the use of religious orthodoxy as a measurement can be complicated at times, especially as a single indicator. For instance, the concept of Trinity has been disputed by the non-Trinitarian sects of Christianity including Ebionites, Arians and Monarchians. These sects of Christianity believe that Jesus is the messenger of God instead of the son of God. Furthermore, there are other different dogmas which are different between different denominations such as life after death, original sin and the Day of Judgment. 4.1.2 Multidimensional Multidimensional measures of religiosity are said to be a more comprehensive measure of religiosity (Finner 1970, de Jong 1966). This is because unidimensional measures of religiosity such as church attendance and church membership are not able to extensively capture the essence of religiosity. As explained before in 4.1.1, there are many other reasons besides religious reasons for going to church or being a member of a church. Therefore multidimensional religiosity measures are said to be able to take account of complex human behavior. For example, one of the earliest multidimensional religiosity scales was developed by Faulkner and De Jong (1966). They developed five dimensions of religiosity - religious belief, religious self-definitions, ritualistic behavior and religious knowledge and religious effects. Each

dimension has four to seven items offering Likert scale answers ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree . These dimensions however are just a basic example. As the study of multidimensional religiosity developed further, more dimensions were added, more comprehensive items in each dimension were developed and at times, different dimensions from different literatures were integrated ( Schroeder 1968, King & Hunt 1972) . For instance, King and Hunt (1972) developed ten dimensions of religiosity which included six main dimensions along with a number of sub-dimensions within the main dimensions. The dimensions are creedal assent, devotionalism, church attendance, organizational activity, financial support, religious knowledge, growth and striving, extrinsic religion, salience behavior and salience cognition. Multidimensional measures of religiosity also have their drawbacks. The drawbacks do not concern multidimensional religiosity as a whole but the specific dimensions and items. Some of these drawbacks have the same explanation as the drawbacks from the unidimensional measurement of religiosity. An obvious example is church attendance as explained previously; there are a many reasons for church attendance other than religious reasons. One other example is in religious knowledge dimension. This dimension has its drawback in the sense that a person may have the knowledge of the religion but not believe in it all. On the other hand, it is possible that a person does not have the knowledge of the religion yet believes and practices that religion. 4.2 Religiosity Models for Muslims 4.2.1 Unidimensional Sociologists have acknowledged that there should be better measurements of religiosity in non-Christian cultures, heritage and customs. One particular issue is whether traditional Christian religiosity measurements can also be applied to Muslim society by simply changing the semantics e.g. Mosque attendance instead of church attendance and Mosque membership. As noted before, Western biases may be ingrained in traditional measures of religiosity. Multidimensional measurement of religiosity is said to be one way of taking account of complex human behavior in Christian societies. This leads to another issue - whether multidimensional measurement of religiosity can be applied to Muslim societies despite its Eurocentric and Western bias. The essay will continue to discuss the applicability of traditional Christian measurements of religiosity to Muslim societies as well as looking at the applicability of Eurocentric measurement of religiosity to Muslim societies. Indeed, traditional Eurocentric measures of religiosity have been used to study Muslim religiosity. However, it seems there are no studies which use single measures of traditional religiosity e.g. Mosque attendance or Mosque membership. This may be because Muslim religiosity is a relatively new area of religiosity research when compared with Judeo-Christian religions. Therefore, single item measurement of religiosity is considered obsolete. However, there are many studies which use traditional measurement of religiosity that are embedded in multi-items and multidimensional religiosity measurement for Muslims and these studies analyze religiosity with various socio-economic variables (M Chaaya et al. 2007, Ateeq, Muhammad Shahbaz

2010, Syed Shah, Rohani Mohd & Badrul Hisham 2011, Gonzlez 2011). For example, M Chaaya et al. (2007) uses Mosque attendance as one of the items in a multi-item unidimensional religiosity measure to assess depression among elderly Lebanese. On the other hand, Gonzlez (2011) uses Mosque attendance as one dimension of religiosity in constructing a multidimensional measurement of religiosity. Furthermore, Shahbaz (2010) and Shah et al (2011) uses Mosque attendance as one of the items in their ritualistic dimension of religiosity to study new product adoption among consumers. Church attendance and mosque attendance have similar challenges in terms of the different nonreligious reasons for church attendance. However, in addition to the different non-religious reasons for attending Mosques, there are also differences in gender for Muslim religiosity. This is because the extent to which Muslims have to attend Mosque is different between genders. For instance, only men are required to attend Friday prayers. Women are not required to attend1. Therefore in order to accurately measure religiosity, separate analysis must be done between men and women (Gonzalez 2011). Another way of handling this problem is to simply drop this item as recommended by Genia (1993) because most studies which use church attendance or membership do not differentiate between men and women. 4.2.2 Multidimensional The main advantage of multidimensional measurement of religiosity is that it can be customized according to the needs of the researcher. Therefore, to measure Muslim religiosity multidimensionally, irrelevant questions, items and dimensions from Christian religiosity can be removed or modified according to the complex Muslim culture, heritage and society. For instance items to measure religiosity by Allport & Ross (1967) are known for their flexibility and universality and are widely used to measure religiosity for other religions. Although it is argued that Judeo-Christian items of measurement are confined to Christian Communities, authors continue to adapt these items for other religions, namely Islam. For instance, Ibrahim (2007) has modified nine items from Allport and Ross (1967) to measure their dimension of religious life inventory to analyze authoritarianism amongst Muslims. ( Demerdash 1988) on the other hand adapted twenty items from Allport and Ross to develop an intrinsic and extrinsic scale of religiosity which totals thirty-four items. As well as Allport and Ross (1967) there are other multidimensional moulds of religiosity which can be shaped to suit the needs to of Muslim society. For example there is a secularization model (Roof 1976) which measures religiosity using five dimensions. It was later adapted by (Tamney 1980) to measure Muslim religiosity in Indonesia with slight modifications to suit the Indonesian Muslim society with reference to variables such as education, mobility and community size. 4.2.3 Non Judeo-Christian Multidimensional Models Nevertheless, there are authors who are quite skeptical about Judeo-Christian measurements of religiosity for obvious reasons. Most literatures of religiosity are designed to analyze Christian societies. Furthermore, the Islamic concept of religion is fundamentally different from other concepts of religion.

HR. Abu Dawud no. 567, Ibnu Khuzaimah no. 1683, Al-Hakim no. 755

Therefore, new dimensions and items have to be created, including the MRPI scale Krauss (2005) and Khraim (2010) with their own measurement scale. Steven Eric Krauss developed Muslim Religiosity Personality Inventory Scale (MRPI) in accordance to the needs of Muslim society. The MRPI scale contains two main dimensions which were constructed in detail together with sub dimensions within the main dimensions. The first dimension is the Islamic worldview that consists of mainly six articles of faith2 (Rukun Iman) reflecting the Islamic tawhidic paradigm. The six Islamic articles of faith are the most basic details that Muslims have to know, believe and inwardly comprehend about God and religion as laid down by the Al Quran and Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad pbuh3. The second dimension is religious personality which represents the manifestation or expression of a Muslim s religious worldview. There are two forms of expression in Krauss s Model. The first is the fulfillment of the five pillars of Islam4 and the second is living the Islamic lifestyle. On the other hand, Khraim (2010) developed a Multidimensional Religiosity scale which consists of four dimensions - Islamic financial services, seeking religious education, current Islamic issues, and sensitive products. These scales are practical and suitable for Muslims in modern times. The rationale behind selecting these dimensions is to include as many issues as possible so that the dimensions reflect the tenet that Islam is a complete way of life rather than being seen as a bundle of rituals in the narrow religious sense. Despite the flexibility of multidimensional religiosity models, there are also challenges which are relatively similar to traditional measures of religiosity. As explained previously (Gonzlez 2011), the degree of importance in terms of Mosque attendance differs between men and women and the differences are not restricted just in terms of Mosque attendance. Furthermore, as with Christianity, the dimension of knowledge might not be correlated with other dimensions for similar reasons. A Muslim may fulfill his prayers, fasting and Hajj whilst not knowing where in the Al-Quran or Al-Hadith that they have to do so relying solely on parental upbringing or sayings from the Ulama. Similarly, a Muslim may know the commandments in the Al-Quran and Al-Hadith but not believe in some of them let alone practise them. As for the specially-designed Muslim religiosity scale, Krauss (2005) and Hamza (2010) also has some minor shortcomings. For instance, although Krauss s MRPI scale to a limited extent is temporally universal among Muslims, it is lacks contemporary issues which are surfacing in the global community e.g. a Muslim s political and economic view of Islam. At present, some parts of the Muslim world are in constant political turmoil and uprising e.g. Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen. Conversely another part of the Muslim world is experiencing prosperous economic development with the emergence of Islamic financial system and Halal products e.g. United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Malaysia. Hamza (2010) managed to partially include this issue by including Islamic financial services and Islamic current affairs
2

Believe in 1)God 2)Angles 3)Messengers 4) Books of Revelation 5)Day of Judgement 6)Divine decree Peace be upon him is a common reference given to Prophets by Muslims. Prophets include Moses, Jesus, Daniel, Adam, Joseph and the like 4 1) Shahada (Islamic Creed) 2) Five daily prayers 3) Fasting during Ramadhan 4) Almsgiving (Zakat) 5) Pilgrimage to Makah

as separate dimensions in his religiosity model. However, there are more issues which should be included in the model, for instance sexuality. 4.3 Malaysian Islamic Religiosity Model This paper presents constructs for measuring Islamic Religiosity in the context of Islamic countries and more specifically Malaysia. Malaysia is a unique multi-religious and multi-cultural country which contains three main ethnicities that consists of the Bumiputras which includes the Malays, indigenous and Peranakan5, Chinese and Indians. All these races practise many forms of religion which includes Islam, Christianity, Taoism, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. The official religion of Malaysia is Islam and many of its followers are Malays. Malaysia is considered as an exemplary Muslim country which is rapidly developing in accordance with Islamic principles. The sustained economic growth, reduction of poverty, improved social and infrastructural facilities has been termed the Asian Miracle by the World Bank (Naveen 1997). The Islamic principles embedded in the economic development in Malaysia started in the Sixties when the Islamic Pilgrim s Fund was formed. Now, Malaysia has become a Halal hub in the Islamic world. This includes mainly Sharia compliant financial products, Halal food, medicine and also fashion. This is because Islam prohibits Usury (riba), Non-Halal food and inappropriate clothing. However, the development of Malaysia has its costs despite the Islamic revival. The influx of Western hedonistic ideas is seeping through the Malaysian society and jeopardizing Islamic values. For instance, there are many cases of adultery and homosexuality reported by Malaysian religious authorities. Most recently, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) movements such as Seksualiti Merdeka have been promoting values which are against Islamic religiosity. For this model, the dependent variable is Islamic religiosity. Socio-economic variables will be the independent variables, which consist of income, wealth, age, gender and urban rural differences. The next section will focus on the dependent variable and its dimensions to be followed with the independent variable and its interactions (see figure 1).

The decedents of the former colonials for example, Portuguese and Dutch

Indicators for

Independent Variables (IV)

Dependent Variable (DV)

Dependent Variable (DV) Dimensions

Belief

Subdimensdions for DV

Income

Education

Economic Status

(Pillars of Faith)

Wealth

Formal rituals (Pillars of Islam)

Religiosity

Practice

Informal rituals (Muamalat) Food

Married Diet Urban Personal Characteristics Age Personal Finance (Riba) Refrains Sex

Drinks

Pre-Marital Sex (Zina)

Homosexuality Banking

Insurance

Gender

Investments

Figure 1 Islamic Religiosity Model 4.3.1 Islamic Religiosity Dimensions The dimensions introduced in this study are a fusion of a detailed Islamic belief and practices, and the most contemporary issues of Islam in Malaysia. These dimensions are Islamic belief, Islamic practice, sexuality and Islamic finance. 4.3.1.1 Islamic belief For the dimension of belief, this Model will follow closely the MRPI scale proposed by Krauss (2005). Therefore, this model will fully utilize the six articles of faith in Islam which represent the foundation of Islamic creed, namely belief in 1) God 2) Angels 3) Messengers 4) Books of Revelation 5) Day of Judgment, and 6) Divine decree. From these articles of faith, the Islamic belief construct will be developed to ascertain a Muslim s level of agreement towards these six articles.

There are twenty-three items in this dimension - all of them modified to suit the contemporary needs of Malaysian respondents. The response format on these items will be on a 5 point Likert scale (1. Strongly agree, 2. Somewhat Agree, 3. Undecided, 4. Somewhat agree and 5. Strongly disagree). 4.3.1.2 Islamic Practice This dimension of religiosity adapts the Religious Personality dimension from Krauss (2005). The rational of including this dimension is that relying solely on belief is not enough to complete Islamic religiosity. Muslims have to complement their belief by practicing what they belief righteously. The Quran and Sunnah6 have specific guidance on what to practice in the five pillars of Islam which are 1) Shahada (Islamic Creed) 2) Five daily prayers 3) Fasting during Ramadhan 4) Almsgiving (Zakat), and 5) Pilgrimage to Makah. Therefore, the fulfillment of these pillars should be considered as formal rituals. Furthermore, as a religion that is deemed to be holistic, Islam is more the belief in the six articles of faith and the fulfillment of the five pillars of Islam. The daily activities of a Muslim also have a close attachment to Islam. This includes behaviour towards family, human beings and the rest of God s creations. These practices are considered as informal practices. Therefore this dimension aims to evaluate the extent to which Muslims practice Islam in terms of formal rituals and the formal rituals. For this dimension, there are twenty-three items adapted from Krauss s Islamic Personality construct representing formal Islamic rituals and informal Islamic practices. The response format for these items indicates the frequency of the ritual or practice with a five point Likert scale (1=Always, 2=Frequently, 3=Sometimes, 4=Rarely and 5=Never) 4.3.1.3 Islamic Sexuality The third dimension of religiosity consists of two parts. The first part is a Muslim s attitude towards premarital sex. The items relevant for this part will delve into the Malaysian culture of dating or coupling without sex and to be followed by coupling with sex. The second part is Muslim s attitude towards homosexuals. The items in this part will examine the most recent openness in the Malaysian sexuality scene regarding efforts in amending the Malaysian law to recognise homosexuality. This dimension will include twelve items which reflects on the Muslim attitude towards sexuality. For the first part, most of it will be modified from (Simon Simon, Paxton 2004). These items will focus on the extent towards respondents and their attitudes towards dating without sex with chauffeurs, dating without sex without chauffeurs and dating with sex, as examples. The second part will be an adaptation of (Herek 1987)attitude (1987) towards gay and lesbian customs. The response format for these items will be on a 5 point Likert scale ( 1. Strongly agree, 2. Somewhat Agree, 3. Undecided, 4. Somewhat agree and 5. Strongly disagree). 4.3.1.4 Islamic Finance

Prophetic examples to live a life

This fourth dimension has three parts. The first part is Islamic banking. The Malaysian government has emphasized that Islamic financial institutions and products are one of the most important steps in the Islamic revival in the Malaysian economy. Islam has its own guidelines for financial transaction. The most prevalent of all is usury (riba) which is strictly prohibited. This is because financial transactions which contain usury oppress the poor. The second part is Islamic insurance, which is fairly conventional with some differences. These include no elements of uncertainty (Al-Gharar), gambling (Al Maisir) and Usury (riba). This is to ensure that there is justice for the policy holder as well as the insurer rather than profit for the insurance provider. The third consideration are investments in other financial institutions such as unit trusts, bonds and shares, which must be Sharia approved. This means that the institution in which a Muslim is investing is free of uncertainty, gambling, usury, free from dealing with alcohol or other substances which have the same effects as alcohol 7. This dimension includes fifteen items of different Islamic banking, insurance and investment products, eleven of which were adapted from Khraim (2010). The response format on these items is on a three point rank scale (1=Not yet, 2=Thinking about it, 3=Already invested/opened an account).The first part includes various Islamic banking products such as savings accounts (Al-Wadiah), fixed accounts (AlMudharabah) and purchase financing. The second part includes various Takaful products which cater for family, car, education, medical and house fire takaful. The third part includes Sharia approved unit trusts and shares. 4.3.2 Economic Status Economic status is an important exogenous variable in the explanation of religiosity. Albrecht (1984), Gaede (1977) and Stark (1999) have shown that there is a relationship between economic status and religiosity. Economic status is expected to have a negative effect on religiosity. This is based on one of Marx s theories regarding religion as an expression of economic deprivation. Increase in economic status would entail a decrease in economic deprivation, leading to a decrease in religiosity. This is because, once economic deprivation is reduced, there is less need for religion to act as an opiate. However, this is not always the case. There are people who are well-off economically but still hold on to their religion. This is because rich people no longer need to pursue wealth and therefore have more time for religious purposes. In order to measure economic status, income, education level and occupation are used at a micro-level. 4.3.2.1 Income Income is widely used as an indicator of economic status (Scheepers et al 2002 and Stark 1988). High income would entail high economic status. Therefore, high economic status would suggest a high level of secularization. However, there are drawbacks in using income as indicator. For example, some

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) cursed alcohol and the one who drinks it, the one who sells it, the one who buys it, the one who carries it, the one to whom it is carried, the one who consumes its price, the one who squeezes out the juice and the one for whom it is squeezed out. (narrated by al-Tirmidhi, 1295; Saheeh al-Tirmidhi, 1041)

respondents might consider information about income as a private matter. Therefore, other indicators such as wealth and educational level need to be used. 4.3.2.2 Wealth Wealth is also commonly used as an indicator of economic status (Abby Crdova 2008, Gary N. Marks et al. 2000). Both wealth and income is needed as an indicator because there are subtle differences in terms of their affect to religiosity between the two. An individual may have high income for example, Doctors, Lawyers and Professors, among others. However their obligations such as in mortgages, cars, bills and maybe alimony makes it difficult to accumulate significant wealth. They have to work hard to pay these things off. Therefore, there is less time for religion. However, a wealthy individual doesn t have to be super rich but have a savings of 1.5 million dollars, no mortgages, no luxury cars and retired from working in his late thirties would have ample time to be religious. Therefore, a wealthy individual would be expected to be less religious than a less wealthy individual. Amongst the indicators of wealth, which are commonly used in the literatures, are the number of cars, number of rooms in a house and the amount of air conditioning. In order to be compared by income, these indicators are easier to observe. 4.3.2.3 Educational Level The same applies to the educational level where a higher educational level would entail higher economic status and therefore increase secularization. The reason provided by Albrecht and Heaton(1984) and Scheepers et al (2002) is that higher education enhances critical thinking and therefore questions the fundamental beliefs in religion. Alternatively, some evidence (Gaede, 1977, Chatters, 1999 and Hoge & Yang,1994) postulates that there is a negative correlation between educational levels and secularization. This is because better-educated people have a better ability to properly digest and embrace the biblical knowledge provided by the Holy Scriptures.

4.3.3 Personal Characteristics Other than socio-economic variables, several personal characteristics have to be taken into consideration in order to conceptualize secularization for Muslims. Based on certain literatures (Azzi & Ahrenberg,1975, Ianacconne, 1990, and Heaton, 1984), personal factors such as age, marital status and gender are used in conceptualizing religiosity as they may have some influence on a person s beliefs. 4.3.3.1 Age This model predicts that age has a positive effect on religiosity .Age can influence a person s priorities in life. An older person, for example, may be focusing on religion more than anything else. Among common reasons for this is death anxiety (Chan 2005). An older person is deemed to have accomplished what they want. Therefore, there are no more worldly goals besides being in good health, seeing the children

successful and having good social life with fellow elderlies. Therefore, for the purpose of this study, the aforementioned personal factors can also be applied correctly to secularization. 4.3.3.2 Marital Status In this model, we hypothesize that a marriage will have a positive effect towards religiosity. This is because marriage is proscribed in almost any religion typically in Islam. For instance there are many evidences in the Quran that encourages marriage8 and of course, the Quran prohibits adultery which is the main causes of all divorces. 4.3.3.3 Gender Gender may also show some differences in the extent of secularization. There are two expectations for gender and secularization, positive and negative. This is because, generally, women are more religious and men are reluctant to be believers. Evidence provided by Azzi & Ahrenberg (1975) suggested that women used to have lower market wages and therefore were more likely to stay at home being a housewife. Therefore, the common assumption here is that household work is less demanding than having a profession. Consequently, women have more time for religious activities at home whilst their husbands work. However in the Sixties, the emergence of the feminist movements had a major impact on the relationship between women and secularization(Callum 2009) and therefore closely related to the decline in religiosity .The feminist movement aims for gender equality, equal pay and in Malaysia s case, the right to choose between wearing the Muslim veil or not. 4.3.3.4 Rural-Urban differences Regardless of what endogenous variables are, differences in rural/urban does affect religiosity or, for the purpose of our study, secularization. Some evidence (Tamney,1980 and Fischer,1975) postulates that people who live in urban areas are less religious. The reason is that urban areas tend to be more liberal, less traditional and more individualistic than rural areas (Fischer 1975). In contrast to the rural areas, urban areas have many worldly attractions such as museums, cinemas and commercial activities which may prove an attraction for secular activities other than religious (Barro and McCleary 2002). Moreover, there is less social control in urban areas. Therefore, there is less extrinsic religiosity such as Mosque attendance and charity. However, intrinsic religiosity is more accurate in the urban areas because there is no social pressure. Yokley (1971) and Finke and Stark (1988) argue that people living in urban areas have relatively better opportunities to practice religious activities because of their better access to facilities such as churches and clergymen. Furthermore, in relation to the education levels mentioned previously, most intellectuals are concentrated in the urban areas. In Malaysia for example, the International Islamic University of Malaysia is located in an urban area called Gombak in the state of Selangor and most of Malaysia s leading religious academics and researchers are concentrated in this
8

And marry those among you who are single . . . If they are needy, God will make them free from want out of His grace. [Qur'an 24:32]. And those who say, "Our Lord, grant us in our wives and our offspring the joy of our eyes . . ." [Qur'an 25:74]. This includes quotes from the Hadith Get married so you multiply. I shall indeed be proud of your multitude on the Day of Resurrection

university. Therefore, contrary to the general understanding between urbanization and secularization, in some countries urbanization might have a negative effect on secularization. However, for the purpose of this study, a positive relationship between urbanization and secularization would be expected 4.3.4 Interactions 4.3.4.1 Age and Marriage This model predicts that the interaction between age and marriage has positive relationship with religiosity. This is because the effect of age may be indirect it may be related to other changing factors that affect religiosity. For example, an individual in his mid-thirties are likely to be more religious than a mid-twenties individual. This is because mid-thirties is a common age to get married and have family. Evidence provided by Argue et al (1999) indicates that older married people, as in a mid-thirties person are more religious because of family commitment. Furthermore, Wallin, Clark (1964b) postulates that religious married couples are associated with better marital satisfaction and even sexual satisfaction. This is because teachings of religion prohibit infidelity and adultery and encourage marital harmony between married couples. 4.3.4.2 Age and education For this interaction, it is very difficult for us to hypothesize. This is because on one hand, in a general sense, age is closely related to anxiety of death and education level is associated with a more secular and rational thinking. On the other hand it is possible that the element of education includes religious education and therefore interacted with age which brings the anxiety of death, a person can be very religious. 4.3.4.3 Education and Wealth For this interaction, we expect a positive relationship with religiosity. First of all, an educated person knows how to manage his wealth wisely so that he doesn t have to spend more time working. Therefore, there is plenty of time to be closer to god. There is a trend in Malaysia among educated high income Muslim professionals. Instead of being yuppies and spending extravagantly, they save money for early retirement. By the age of 40, they retire, pay off their loans, invest in low returns but safe and Halal investment and be very religious. 4.3.4.4 Wealth and Income We expect negative relationship between the interaction of wealth and income and religiosity for obvious reasons. A wealthy person with high income shows that, the person is a pure workaholic by choice and therefore would surely spend less time for religion. This is contrary to the explanation given for wealth variable in 4.3.2.2 because, a wealthy person supposedly spend less time working and more time to religion. Nevertheless, it is possible that a person is wealthy and has high income because of the nature of his wealth. For instance, if a person owns a very useful patent or copyright, then the income from patent or copyright might have contributed to high income. However this may be an isolated case.

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