The sectarianism nature of contemporary conflicts has conceptualised the prevalence of religion as a coercive influencer in conflict and peace. The embryonic Syrian Civil War (2011 – present) reflects the inherent relationship between religious identity and ideals with conflict through an isolated Syrian protest exacerbating into a Shiite-Sunni sectarianism war. However, this exploration of the parallelisms between the sectarian paradigm and conflict marginalises the significance of religious mediation in peaceful resolutions. Thus, the religious overtones of the Syrian Civil War has perpetuated the conflict through intensifying rigidly isolated religious groups, while conversely, has the potential to resolve the war through pacifism ideology.
The current Syrian Civil War exemplifies the paramount significance of religion, in conflict, through the intertwined trajectories of religion and political power. The Syrian Civil War emerged, following twelve years of brutal repression, as an unprecedented uprising for political liberalisation against Bashar al-Assad’s autocratic regime (Burke, 2013). This inherently political civil war quickly developed into an “overtly sectarian” war of attrition as religious communities support intensified mutual suspicion and intolerance (Warrick, 2012). Consequently, the conflict has penetrated “long-simmering tensions” between the Arab-Sunnis and Arab-Alawites, as a result of the Alawites self-proclaimed superiority as the presiding class; the sects are starkly opposed in the conflict, with the Sunnis comprising rebels from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Alawites forming a coercive bulwark against political modernisation (Arango, 2013). Moreover, the overarching Shiite-Sunni tension extends be...
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...eating society. Ultimately, this vision of a peaceful resolution, in accordance with the New Testament’s recurring themes of forgiveness and peace, provides the theoretical instruments necessary to rebuild a unified, egalitarian Syrian society.
The Syrian Civil War represents a sectarian paradigm of the intertwined relationship between conflict and religion. The humanitarian crisis of the Syrian Civil War encapsulates the negative effects of conflicting religious doctrines stimulating the conflict to prevail. Conversely, the symbiotic effect of the implemented peace proposals and the Christian based pacifism ideology exemplifies the potential of a peaceful resolution for Syria to emanate from religion. Thus, this diversified perspective of religion influences in war foregrounds the formidable power of religion in society to simultaneously devastate and liberate.
Religion is one of the many factors that define an individual. So, any threat to a person’s beliefs is a threat to his or hers’ very being. The clash between Muslims and Christians is just one of the many groups with distinct differences and beliefs. Therefore, these differences in religion often influence political rivalries as well. Throughout history, someone observing world affairs may note that religion is a contentious issue; however, political tension emerges from this very issue in recent times. Doing so has labeled politics as the core of many conflicts worldwide. These battles between religions also inhibit agitation by one group against another, for gaining reputable land, wealth, and political power. Thus, politics is the primary
In his essay, Rodriguez believes that the diplomatic affairs we see on the evening news are merely being disguised as a religious war. The fight over oil or land when in reality it is the fight between whose side God is on, the attacks under the control of Al Qaeda when perhaps it’s the greed for power or world domination. According to Richard, these religious wars are allowing terrorism to become prevalent; often times within the same culture (147).
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, three of the world’s great religions, have their roots as well their “holiest places” in the Middle East. All three religions revere Abraham as a common ancestor. Yet all three have had bloody interchanges throughout history. How and why did Abraham’s children become such a dysfunctional family? Where is God in this “family feud?” Finding answers to these theological questions that could help provide a peaceful future are important for all. Conflicts surrounding this “family of God” involve more people and places than were involved even 50 years ago. For example, currently there are more Muslims living in the United States than Methodists (Geisler and Saleeb, 2001).1
Sixty-three percent of Iraq’s population is Shia Muslim, thirty-three percent is Sunni Muslim (Lunde, 2002). For the past five centuries the minority, Sunni Muslims, have held political power in Iraq. It was not until recently that the majority, the Shia Muslims, was able to experience political power. The tensions between Sunni and Shia in Iraq are not due to religious differences formed after Muhammad’s death 1,382 years ago and are not inevitable, as proven by the relationships between Sunni and Shia in other countries and in the past (Shuster, 2011). The state of unrest surrounding the Sunni and Shia Muslims of Iraq is due to politics, power, and privilege, caused by the change of attitude in Islamic leaders in government and the discrimination of the Shia by the Sunni minority. This has been partly due to the fact that early in their history Shias were not the majority and therefore lost political power. This unbalance and the differences between the two sects are most unstable and evident during times of political unrest (Hunter, n.d).
The French’s mandate over Syria after World Ware One had an irrevocable impact on the nations’s communal factions. The mandate lasted from 1920-1946 and they begun their rule with intentionally made sectarian divisions. They were made in order to prevent Arab nationalism and stifle national independence movements. The divisions were made my religious and national minority. Granting the minorities independent status locations where they make up the majority. For example, there was a large population of Alawites in the mountain range behind Latakia, the French declared them a separate state. The Druze were granted the right and ability to govern themselves in the city of Jabal, just south of Damascus. The one religious group that did not enjoy the effects of the French mandate were the Sunni Muslims. In Syrian history, the Sunnis were viewed as the elitist, being dominant in politics, officer corps, gendarme and the police force. With the imposed separation of communal factions, the Sunnis had less power and influence. The divide-and-rule strategy the French imposed eroded the relationships among Syria’s religious and ethnic groups, ties that would have been valuable later in Syrian politics. Further analyzing the major religious factions of Syria thorough depicts development of their bitter relationships (Fildis).
Religion is a part of society that is so closely bound to the rest of one’s life it becomes hard to distinguish what part of religion is actually being portrayed through themselves, or what is being portrayed through their culture and the rest of their society. In Holy Terrors, Bruce Lincoln states that religion is used as a justifiable mean of supporting violence and war throughout time (Lincoln 2). This becomes truly visible in times such as the practice of Jihad, the Reformation, and 9/11. The purpose of this essay is to show that as long as religion is bound to a political and cultural aspect of a community, religious war and destruction will always occur throughout the world. A historical methodology will be deployed in order to gain
G. Hossein. “Legitimacy, Religion, and Nationalism in the Middle East.” The American Political Science Review, Volume 84, Issue 1 (1990. 3), 69-91.
The topic of peace has been on the mind of historians, political leaders, and the general public for as long as our history has been recorded. Will there ever be peace in the Middle East? Will the age old battles, both foreign and domestic ever end? This question, pondered on throughout decades of Western civilization, has both a simple answer and a complex reasoning. To even begin to uncover the answer, one must understand the conflict and its deeply rooted origins to even draw a hypothesis of the outcome. We must first venture into the guarded minds of radical Muslims, our coalition forces, and the minds of the non-violent Muslims who seek liberation from the grip of evil. We must delve into the history of the Islamic world, the tales of the Jihads, and attempt to understand the motivations beneath.
Much of the history we are taught in grade school and secondary education is filled with stories upon stories of political movements and uprising. The vast majority of these movements had one or two political leaders at the forefront whose ultimate goals included such things as liberating an oppressed people or reclaiming a status taken from a group of people by an outside force. Leaders of such movements have used a wide range of tactics to gain support for their political agendas, but one particular tactic has been so often used by said leaders that this tactic certainly deserves a closer examination. This tactic is religion. No matter what the nature of the movement may have been, so often we have seen and continue to see today how political leaders have made claims that God is supporting their cause. From the Crusades to the recent activities of Al Qaeda, the need for God’s support has been shown to be very important to establishing the legitimacy of a political agenda. What happens when the political agenda fails to faithfully correspond with the religion it claims as its backing? Is there a relationship between the effectiveness of a political agenda and the faithfulness with which it adheres to the tenets of the religion it claims as its support? Indeed there is such a relationship, and upon closer examination, we will not only see that political agendas that faithfully adhere to the tenets of a proposed religious affiliation tend to be successful, but we will also see why this is the case. We will then consider how this knowledge can be used today to address current instances of oppressive regimes. First, however, let us examine why it is at all desirable for a political leader to ...
Sørli, Mirjam, Nils Gleditsch, and Håvard Strand. "Why Is There so Much Conflict in the Middle East? ." The Journal of Conflict Resolution 49.1 (2005): 141-165. JSTOR. Web. 8 June 2011.
The ongoing war in the Middle East has created much controversy in the eyes of western civilization. Like the youth movement of the 1960s, war tends to create tension between tradition and newly adapted lifestyles. Plus, for every war in history, there have always been problems for the citizens of either side. Therefore, war exhibits fundamentalism at it’s best, easily allowing different religions to protest the “apparent” atrocities of customary civilization. In turn, some of these protests ended up taking a more extremist route when dealing with such radical issues. As Karen Armstrong puts it, “Perhaps the most important factor to understand about this widespread religious militancy is its rootedness in a deep fear of annihilation. Every fundamentalist movement I have studied in Judaism, Christianity and Islam is convinced that modern secular society wants to wipe out religion-even in America. Fundamentalists, therefore, believe they are fighting for survival, and when people feel that their backs are to the wall, some can strike out violently.” (Karen Armstrong)
The article chosen for this review is by Raymond G. Helmick titled Does Religion Fuel or Heat in Conflicts?. The article discussed how religion does in fact play a role of some type within most all notable conflicts throughout history and continues through into today’s conflicts. The article talks about how religion faith is in itself “an all-encompassing outlook on life, on the world and its meaning” (Helmick, Peterson, 2001, p. 81). Many of the world’s wars and violent acts against others can be attributed to the different religious beliefs. When the topic of religion is brought up in any type of discussion, one must understand that it is viewed in many different ways and that it can at times fuel the fire when for the most part its aim
Based on the constructivist view, the Civil War in Syria is initiated by the identity conflict between two groups which are the Assad’s regime and the rebel. Assad’s regime originates from minority Alawite, who made up 12 percent of the Syria population and also dominates most of the position in Syria government (citation). However, this identity conflict is not on religion based as the rebel’s side consists variation of group such as Sunni sect, Free Syrian Army (FSA) and other citizens. Besides, the Assad’s regimes as well consist of other society despite of the Alwite. Based on this condition, it is clearly portray that, even though a group is made up of multiple identities, they still can pursue t...
Lawson, Fred H. "Syria." Politics & society in the contemporary Middle East. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010. 411 - 434. Print.
For many centuries, Judaic and Arabian societies have engaged in one of the most complicated and lengthy conflicts known to mankind, the makings of a highly difficult peace process. Unfortunately for all the world’s peacemakers the Arab-Israeli conflict, particularly the war between Israel and the Palestinian Territories, is rooted in far more then ethnic tensions. Instead of drawing attention towards high-ranking officials of the Israeli government and Hamas, focus needs to be diverted towards the more suspect and subtle international relations theory of realism which, has imposed more problems than solutions.