The Nature and Structure of Muslim Religious Reflection

Muslims are often stereotyped as having rigid, fundamentalist attitudes. To date, studies have not examined the degree to which Muslims endorse a questing approach to religion, thus displaying openness to the exploration of religious practices and beliefs. A sample of 123 Australian Muslims and 74 Malaysian Muslims completed questionnaires including measures of: questing, as measured by Batson and Schoenrade's 12-item Quest scale (1991b) and Altemeyer and Hunsberger's 16-item Quest scale (1992); conservative religious belief, as measured by the Religious Fundamentalism Scale (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992); and Muslim religious reflection, as measured by a newly developed and validated measure named the Islamic Reflection Scale (IRS). The psychometric properties of the IRS are reported with associations between the other religious measures. Findings are discussed in terms of levels of Islamic openness and questing, and implications of a targeted measure of Muslim Religious Reflection for understanding the religious maturity of Muslims.