ABSTRACT

The abuse of individuals by religious authority figures has generated considerable political, civic and media attention. To date, much of this focus has been on Catholic and Anglican priests, although instances in the Buddhist community have also emerged. This paper presents an analysis of the experiences of individuals (n = 6) who were victims of abuse by Imams (Muslim leaders) and/or Muslim faith teachers. Participants were interviewed and their accounts analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). This paper presents two superordinate themes that emerged from the rich data set: (i) Toxicity of silence and (ii) Barriers to the acknowledgement of abuse. Findings and implications of the research are discussed in relation to facilitating the reporting of abuse perpetrated by religious authority figures in the Muslim community. The authors argue that the difficulties for victims in reporting abuse have exacerbated the impact of the abuse, affecting their wellbeing and their relationships with their families and their faith.

摘要

宗教权威人物对个人的虐待引起了相当大的政治、公民和媒体关注。迄今为止，这种关注的大部分都集中在天主教和英国国教的牧师身上，尽管佛教界也出现了一些例子。本文分析了遭受伊玛目（穆斯林领袖）和/或穆斯林信仰教师虐待的个人（ n = 6）的经历。参与者接受了采访，并使用解释性现象学分析 (IPA) 分析了他们的账户。本文介绍了从丰富的数据集中出现的两个上级主题：（i）沉默的毒性和（ii）承认滥用的障碍. 讨论了研究的结果和影响，以促进报告穆斯林社区宗教权威人物所犯的虐待行为。作者认为，受害者举报虐待行为的困难加剧了虐待的影响，影响了他们的福祉以及与家人的关系和信仰。