The Role of Religion in Conflict and Peace-Building

THE ROLE
OFRELIGION
IN CONFLICT
AND PEACE-
BUILDING
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The Role of Religion
in Conflict and
Peacebuilding
September 2015
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The British Academy 2015
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Contents
Acknowledgementsiv
Abbreviationsv
About the authors vi
Executive summary 1
1. Introduction 3
2. Definitions 5
3. Methodology 11
4. Literature review 14
5. Case study I: Religion and the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict 46
6. Case study II: Mali 57
7. Case study III: Bosnia andHerzegovina 64
8. Conclusions 70
9. Recommendations for policymakers
and futureresearch 73
10. Bibliography 75
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Leonie Fleischmann and Vladimir Kmec

fortheir assistance in the preparation of this report and to Philip Lewis,
Desislava Stoitchkova and Natasha Bevan in the British Academys
international policy team. This project also benefitted from a productive
roundtable discussion held at the British Academy on 15 December
2014, which brought together officials from various branches of the
UKgovernment, faith-based representatives, British Academy Fellows,
as well as senior and junior specialists from the fields of international
relations, theology, sociology, history, philosophy, development studies,
law, conflict and security.
The report has been peer-reviewed to ensure its academic quality.

Theviews expressed in it are those of the authors, and are not
necessarily endorsed by the British Academy, but are commended
ascontributing to public debate.
The report was commissioned and funded by the Department for

International Development.
Abbreviations
AQIM Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb
DFID Department for International Development (UK)
GSPC Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
HCI High Council of Islam (Mali)
LBGT Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
MNLA Mouvement national pour la libration de lAzawad (Mali)
MOJWA Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa
NGO Non-governmental organisation
UIC Union of Islamic Courts (Somalia)
UK United Kingdom
UMCOR United Methodist Committee On Relief
US United States
About the authors
DR SARA SILVESTRI is a Senior Lecturer in International Politics at City

University London and Affiliated Lecturer at University of Cambridge,
where she also leads the Faith, Ethics and Public Policy programme at
the Von Hgel Institute. Her research and publications focus on religion
and international affairs, Islam in Europe, and intercultural relations.
She has been awarded several grants to research these issues and
has consulted extensively for amongst others the European Union, the
United Nations, the British Council, and the UK and other governments.
PROFESSOR JAMES MAYALL FBA is a Fellow of the British Academy

and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the University of
Cambridge, and fellow of Sidney Sussex College. He has published
widely on North-South relations, international theory and the impact
of nationalism on international relations and conflict. In 2011 he co-
edited (with Ricardo Soares de Oliveira) and contributed to The New
Protectorates: International Tutelage and the Making of Liberal States.
Executive summary
The role of religion in conflict and peacebuilding has all too often been
depicted in binary terms: it is seen as a source either of violence or of
reconciliation. This simplification obscures the complexity of the subject
and shows that there is no common understanding of the central terms
of the debate. As a starting point for a more meaningful analysis, this
report aims to find a workable definition of religion a concept that is
frequently applied to a diverse range of situations, institutions, ideolo-
gies and actors. Most recent efforts to define religion have focused on
how it is understood and experienced by individuals, rather than how
it is assessed by institutions or doctrines. By observing how religion
operates and interacts with other aspects of human experience at the
global, institutional, group and individual levels, we can gain a more
nuanced understanding of its role (or potential role) in both conflict
andpeacebuilding.
The major part of this report comprises a literature review, which aims
to synthesise contributions from a variety of academic disciplines,
including politics and international relations, peace and conflict stud-
ies, theology, history, philosophy, sociology, social psychology, security
and terrorism studies. The report also draws on research and relevant
publications from faith-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
Three conflicts that have shown some religious dimension are

examinedas case studies, namely those in Israel-Palestine, Mali and
Bosnia-Herzegovina. We identify the concepts, actors and arguments
at play in each instance, and show in what ways and to what extent
different aspects of religion were implicated either in the violence
or in the building of peace, or both. We find that religious factors
and motivations vary in each case, supporting our contention that
when it comes to understanding their role in situations of conflict,
contextiscrucial.
2 The Role of Religion in Conflict and Peacebuilding// British Academy
This report puts forward several recommendations for policymakers,

particularly those involved in conflict resolution or mediation, and
for scholars in the field. Underpinning them all is our key finding
that religion is never a static or isolated entity, but should rather be
understood as afluid system of variables, contingent upon a large
number of contextual and historical factors. It is rarely easy to discern
the complex ways in which religion permeates a conflict, but it is vital
for those involved in this area of study and diplomacy to strive to do
so if progress is to be made in understanding them. Finally, a word of
caution: we must be careful not to give undue prominence to religion
in all instances; it is not a major factor in every conflict and there is
a risk that it can sometimes come to obscure more deeply rooted
causesandmotivations.
1. Introduction
This project does not attempt to provide a definitive answer to the

extremely difficult questions of whether religion is a cause of conflict,
and if so, how the faith-based violence that has plagued the opening
of this new Millennium can be stemmed. Instead, it reflects on the
interpretive lenses and language that we use for dealing with these
questions. It is also a modest attempt at providing some intellectual
tools for grappling with the multifaceted concept of religion in contexts
of conflict and peacebuilding around the world.
We seek to examine and analyse the relationships between faith and

conflict, without producing an encyclopaedic review of existing literature
focusing these terms, or on the understanding of violence among world
belief systems. The aim is to identify features of religion, as well as the
interpretive trends put forward by scholars that share an interest in simi-
lar questions but come from diverse disciplinary fields. We hope that
this effort will not just make an academic contribution to a burgeoning
field, but will also address real and pressing concerns faced by policy-
makers and the general public alike. This is particularly important as the
international community has gradually shed its secularist scepticism
and has awakened, in the course of the past 20 years, to the realisa-
tion that religion matters in diplomacy and foreign affairs (see among
others: Johnston and Sampson 1995; Johnston 2003; Thomas 2005;
Hill2013; UNFPA 2014; Mandaville and Silvestri 2015).
In this endeavour, however, caution is needed not to exaggerate religion

as a cause of violence. As Cavanaugh (2009) has pointed out, much of
the current debate on religion and violence, and on the religion versus
secularism dichotomy, is based on incoherent understandings of religion
and of religious violence, and of how the latter differentiates from secular
violence. Focusing on the myth of religious violence, he warns, prevents
us from tackling violence and the different conditions, ideologies,
practices and symbolism under which it emerges and spreads.
We hope that the findings of this report will be useful to those promot-
ing peace in different social, economic and political settings around the
world, and in particular for the UK government at a time when religion,
in one form or another, appears to be entangled in a large number of
international conflicts and zones of instability.
2. Definitions
2.1. Religion: part of the problem
Terms such as religiosity, spirituality, faith, belief, transcendence,

sacred, sense of belonging, culture, and identity are all components
in the idea of and have sometimes been used synonymously with
religion, but in fact they all have distinct meanings. Like its supposed
counterpart, secularism, the notion of religion is a relatively recent
social and intellectual construction of the West, and in particular
aproduct of the Reformation. Based on a theological construction of
authority in reference to a book (MacCulloch 2004), the idea of religion
became afunction of power relations (Asad 1993; Thomas 2005;
Philpott 2001; Shakman Hurd 2007), and according to Oxford historian
Diarmaid MacCulloch (2004), a concept imposed on human behaviour
by Christianity and especially its Protestant variant. In fact, as he has
highlighted, the Protestant concept of religion became an instrument
of intellectual hegemony because of the spectacular reach and
power of the British Empire and the United States (US). The religious
appellative Hinduism, for example, is but an invention of the British
Protestants administering India in the early nineteenth century as they
were coming to terms with the rich variety of cultures, philosophies,
spiritualpracticesand observances of the sub-continent.
In reality, religion is not static, but is constantly being reconfigured

(Cavanaugh 2009; Woodhead 2011). Despite the absence of a universal
definition, it is possible to identify some broad and common ways of
understanding religion. The substantive approach looks at the content
of religion, that is, key scriptures, theologies, bodies of doctrine, and
values and beliefs enshrined in these. Complementary to this is the
functional approach, which highlights what religion does to people,
such as providing them with sources of identity, morality, law and order,
or by linking them together into communities. Rather than elaborating
asingle cohesive notion of religion, though, each of these two

approaches in turn points to a number of multifarious concepts.
It is therefore not surprising that in the current debate in the humanities

and social sciences about the rediscovered vitality and significance
ofreligion in contemporary societies, three important questions need
to be raised. The first is whether we can reach an exhaustive definition
of what is commonly called religion, faith, or sacred? If so, what would
be its constituent elements? And third, what are the most appropriate
concepts, objects, and methodological and interpretive parameters to
use in the study of religion?
These questions are even more important for those seeking to establish
the role of religion in situations of conflict and peacemaking/peacebuild-
ing. This paper does not attempt to provide a new scholarly definition for
religion. Rather, it aims to establish a practical understanding of what
is commonly called religion and what that entails, essential to any
analysis of whether features of this phenomenon matter in triggering,
averting, or mitigating conflict, and if so, which ones.
Most commonly, religion is understood to be a system of beliefs

and values associated with particular organisational forms (e.g. ritual
practices, institutions), and with a supra-natural deity embodying and
emanating some absolute truths. However, such an understanding
fails to capture those traditions (especially Asian) that do not revolve
around a single God and tend to function as philosophies of life. In such
contexts, religion is best defined as a conceptual and moral framework
for understanding and ordering lives and communities (Skidmore 2007,
4). Moreover, even when a divinity, beliefs, doctrine and institutions
are clearly identifiable, focusing only on these elements will still not
be enough to permit a deeper and sophisticated appreciation of the
power of religion. This is because the substantive approach to religion
ought to be complemented by a functional one, looking at how faith
is articulated in practice, considering if and how it affects individual
or groups behaviour, thoughts and choices. In analysing religious
fundamentalism, for instance, Ernest Gellner (1992, 3) argues that what
really matters is not doctrine but ritual, loyalty to procedural rules and
celebration of community. Following various scholars, including Duffy
(2004) and Thomas (2005), we can conclude that the experiential level
(i.e. experiencing shared values and commitment) is as important,
or perhaps even more important than the intellectual and cognitive
dimension of faith.
British Academy // The Role of Religion in Conflict and Peacebuilding 7
Increased awareness of the Western origins of the concept of religion

and its inextricable links with the idea and processes of secularism
and secularisation (see among others: Taylor 2007; Asad 1993, 2003;
MacCulloch 2004; Martin 2005) requires that the net be cast wide.
Contemporary research cannot be limited to organised and collec-
tive forms of religion only. It is also necessary to consider the role of
individual subjectivity and experience, the invisible presence of religion
(Luckmann 1967) in everyday life (McGuire 2008), in the fluidity of cul-
tures, identities, and social movements, and in the dynamics of global
transformations. Awareness of the weight of history in shaping religion
is also essential if we are to appreciate the way it expresses itself today.
It is important to resist the temptation to try to understand faith through

homogenising categories such as religious institutions (e.g. churches,
mosques) and communities (e.g. the Muslim Brothers, the Evangelical
movement) when attempting to gain a deeper understanding of how
religion works and the many ways that it matters to people. Perhaps
afuller picture of religion in todays world could be gained by observing
how religion manifests itself concomitantly at all these levels global,
institutional, group and individual.
An initial attempt to empirically distil the essence of religion in

acomprehensive manner was made by American sociologists Glock
andStark (1965). They set out to identify, using a quantitative method,
five key features of what is commonly understood to be religiosity,
namely the ritual and the ideological components, the experiential/
emotional side, intellectual engagement, and the consequential
dimension or the effects of embracing a religion has on other aspects
of a persons life. While these features are supposedly related to each
other, they do not necessarily appear in equal measure in each scenario.
They are useful analytics because they succeed in condensing a series
of relevant concepts drawn from a variety of perspectives on religion.
This kind of analysis of religion is further complemented by the quali-

tative approaches taken by French sociologist Hrvieu-Lger (2000)
and American anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1993). Hrvieu-Lger
concludes that despite its having become invisible and fragmented in
the post-modern world, religion as an expression of believing retains
a strong connection with tradition; the constant efforts to revive and
reconnect with the idea of tradition (even when it is completely re-
invented) and with the memory of this continuity, are what makes
religion vibrant and powerful in the present. Geertz is renowned for his
definition of religion as:
(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful,

pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3)
formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and (4)
clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5)
themoods and motivations seem uniquely realistic (Geertz 1993, 90).
Yet, he also provides another definition that is perhaps more pertinent

in attempts to understand how and why religion matters to so many
people today, and how it motivates some individuals so strongly to act,
whether for good or for bad. For Geertz, religion tunes human actions
to an envisaged cosmic order and projects images of cosmic order onto
the plane of human experience (Geertz 1993, 90).
The desire to attain this cosmic order is what engenders political

theologies, that is, sets of ideas that a religious body holds about
legitimate political authority in the world (Philpott 2007a, 507). This
global perspective of world order and political authority is what makes
religion relevant to the study of international relations. Religion offers
more compelling reasons than do Realpolitik and economic advantage
for people to put their lives on the line, as it provides a vision of reality
that transcends temporal and terrestrial life and thus inspires people
tomake the ultimate sacrifice (Johnston and Cox 2003, 14).
Some, such as Juergensmeyer (2003), contend that the very idea of

and the vivid imaginary associated with engagement in a cosmic war
fought to protect some absolute truth is one of the central drivers of
faith-based terrorism. However, there are several ways to analyse and
criticise political arrangements from the perspective of Gods ways with
the world (Scott and Cavanaugh 2007, 2), and different political theolo-
gies stemming from a single faith tradition have proven to generate
both violence and peace. This means that we need to reconsider rigid
assumptions about and categorisations of any religion as bad (violent)
and political, or good (peaceful) and non-political.
2.2. Conflict
While there is not room in this report to elaborate on theories of conflict,

a working definition of conflict is nevertheless necessary in the interest
of clarity. For Ramsbotham, Woodhouse and Miall (2005, 13), conflict

isan expression of the heterogeneity of interests, values and beliefs
that arise as new formations generated by social change come up
against inherited constraints. By asserting that conflict is an intrinsic
and inevitable aspect of social change and that the way we deal with
conflict is a matter of habit and choice, they seem to imply that under-
standing conflict and conflict resolution requires bypassing approaches
relying on rational choice that privilege state actors, and instead focus-
ing only on competing material interests and hard power.
Thus this paper adopts the concept of conflict in its broadest possible
sense, which includes both symmetric and asymmetric conflicts (i.e.
involving similar and dissimilar parties) and also Galtungs (1969, 1975)
widely accepted view that violence occurs not only in a direct way (the
act of harming or killing) but is also hidden in societal structures (socio-
economic or juridical systems) and culture (the ideas shaping peoples
attitudes), and that behaviours, structures and attitudes have to be
addressed simultaneously to achieve peace.
Attitudes are, of course, intertwined with perceptions, which are identi-

fied by Juergensmeyer (2003) and many others (e.g. Wolff 2006) as one
of the factors that can trigger religious and ethnic violence. Perceptions
are key to the construction and perpetuation of identities and narratives,
both of individuals and of communities. Thus it is not surprising that per-
ceptions of prejudice, victimhood, and discrimination are central in the
dynamics of structural, physical and cultural violence, whether religion
or ethnicity are involved or not.
Given the fluid and kaleidoscopic nature of conflict, it is difficult to disen-

tangle causes and effects and draw clear conclusions, so a holistic ap-
proach that takes contextual variables into account is required. Religion
may well be one of these variables, whether as something that may
contribute to provoking or to solving conflict. However, its role should
not be taken for granted and is certainly not fixed.
One of the foremost thinkers on peace is again Johan Galtung.

Hisdistinction between positive peace (the absence of indirect and
structural violence) and negative peace (the absence of direct violence)
is used widely today to analyse situations of peace and conflict (Galtung
1964). Variations of his theory and subsequent developments of it have
been presented by leading scholars such as Jean-Paul Lederach (1996)
and John Burton (1988), among others. A vast body of literature exists
on the implications of favouring one set of terminology over another

in relation to conflict resolution, peacebuilding and peacemaking.
In the interest of conciseness, this paper uses these three terms
interchangeably, but acknowledges that processes of transformation
are central to paths leading towards peace. This transformative and
gradual dimension involves stages of negative and positive peace
and is especially important when it comes to appreciating religions
contribution to peace.
3. Methodology
Given the complexity of the subject matter in this report, and the
number of philosophical questions that it raises, we have chosen to take
a qualitative and interpretive approach. It is based on a critical review
of existing literature from a variety of academic fields, including but not
limited to politics and international relations, peace and conflict studies,
theology, sociology, history, social psychology, security and terrorism
studies. It also examines materials that faith-based NGOs have pro-
duced on conflict and peacebuilding, and builds on existing research
focusing on religion that has been undertaken and funded by DFID to
study the roles of civil society and equality in conflict and peacebuilding.
In our analysis of all of these sources, we have devised a methodol-

ogy that aims to capture the diversity of approaches that have been
deployed in the study of the relationship between religion and conflict/
peacemaking, and also in the practice of dealing with these issues
(i.e.from the perspective of diplomats/policymakers and faith-based
organisations). We consider this inclusive methodology necessary to
ensure breadth, objectivity and nuance of interpretation in this report,
and to ensure that no particular conceptual framework was imposed
that might limit or skew the investigation of such a complex and
multifacetedtopic.
An exhaustive literature review is beyond the scope of this study, so for

practical purposes we have organised the review into three sections.
The first provides a broad overview of the relationship between religion
and conflict. The second examines sources that identify religion as
adriver of conflict, while the third looks at sources that provide evidence
of cases where religion acts as a driver of peace. In addition, in an effort
to cover aspects of the subject that may not have been fully captured
in our literature review, we present three case studies. These delve into
the details and compare them in situations where religion is normally
considered to be a powerful force promoting violence or peace. The

case studies allow the reader to appreciate the specificities of different
socio-economic and historical contexts. More importantly, they also al-
low readers to unravel the bundled concept of religion in these conflicts,
identify some of its key features, and examine if and how they intersect
with each other as well as with other factors shaping conflict and peace-
making. Specifically, we concentrated on:
a. the type of concepts (religious or not) that emerge in a conflict

thatis considered to be religious;
b. the actors (religious or not) involved and those that use
theseconcepts;
c. the kind of arguments (religious or not) that are used by the
identified actors in deploying the concepts.
This division into these three sections is important as a means of

capturing some key nuances of the issues under investigation, which in
turn are helpful for elaborating appropriate and tailored policy responses.
While many conflicts can be branded as religious, the religious factors
at play are different in each situation. For example, by focusing one
section on religious concepts we can determine if and in what ways
areligious claim is central to a war (e.g. Islamic State wants to establish
and strengthen its Caliphate), or how a religious concept is borrowed by
a non-religious cause (e.g. a nationalist fight where what is at stake is
not religious rule but control of territory and resources by a particular
ethnic or national group, as in the case of the Yugoslav conflicts).
At the level of actors we can distinguish what kinds of people or

groups are involved in a conflict that is considered religious, whether
they are religious or secular leaders, individuals or communities, male or
female. The assumption here is that there are situations where religious
concepts/claims may not be central to a conflict and yet the conflict
is considered to be religious because prominent religious figures
are involved. Similarly, there may be situations where non-religious
personalities appropriate religious concepts to help them implement
their plans. Finally, by focusing a third section on arguments we aim to
consider the type of rationale used by religious or non-religious actors
that may deploy either religious or non-religious concepts. By applying
simultaneously the three levels of analysis, we are able to portray
the degree to which religion is relevant to a particular situation, and
thus to identify targeted policy responses. The hope is that such an
exercise that breaks down a very complex situation by analysing these
factors could be of particular use for those civil servants and policy- and
decision-makers that are grappling with the dilemmas of responding
swiftly to crises with a religious dimension, whether at home or abroad.
The case studies provide snapshots of conflicts in three different

regions of the world where the role that religion may have played is
disputed. Using the analytical framework above, each case examines
what aspects of religion, if any, have been factors in causing,
maintaining, preventing or resolving conflictual situations and violence.
The choice of case studies is selective, and not representative of all
possible typologies of conflicts and all religions in the world. However,
we have included cases that involve three different religious traditions
(Christianity, Islam, Judaism) albeit all from the same Abrahamic
family and three regions that are often viewed as hubs for ethnic
conflicts: the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans (see Wolff 2006).
We also focussed on covering a range of configurations of conflict;
the countries selected have distinct histories, socio-economic
characteristics, institutional capacity, and are in different positions
vis--vis Western powers and European history. They are also significant
in that they offer examples of conflicts at different stages (ongoing
in Israel-Palestine; officially ended in Bosnia and in Mali, although
tensions between communities persist) and involving both inter-faith
tensions (Israel-Palestine, Bosnia-Herzegovina) and intra-faith ones
(Mali, and to acertain extent also Palestine and Israel, if we consider
the split between Muslims supporting Hamas and Muslims supporting
Fatah, and the array of Jewish movements and parties holding
disparateviews).
Finally, despite their specific local origins, these conflicts all have an
international dimension in common, namely international aid or the
intervention of international troops, and also because they can have
repercussions on faith communities abroad).
4. Literature review
[C]onflict and violence often have a religious dimension, whether

they occur between adherents of different faith traditions or rivals
within a faith tradition. Religion may play a role as a marker of identity,
a mobilizing device, a basis for rationalizing violent behaviour or
asource of values on which to base peace-building and reconciliation.
The relationships between religious and other key actors, especially in
the state, are complex. Religious leaders may play important roles in
instigating or preventing violence, and in either sustaining bad feeling
or attempting to prevent a re-occurence. The various organizational
forms associated with religious traditions may provide a basis for
mobilization, give humanitarian assistance during the emergency,
assist longer term recovery and build peaceful (or confrontational)
relationships in the longer term. (Best and Rakodi 2011, 5)
For a long time, mainstream publications on conflict and peace studies,

as well as those on international relations, tended to ignore the subject
of religion. However, prolific literature that addresses the relationship
between religion, peace, conflict and diplomacy began to emerge during
the 1990s. Much of it was contradictory, often written from a religious
perspective by individuals with a religious background. But much of it
was also inspired by universalist thinking, analysing the bridges built by
religions across societies and throughout history, without neglecting the
divisive power of religious discourse. Thus, this report devotes substan-
tial attention to this literature. In addition, our broad understanding of
the notion of conflict has led us to incorporate in this study a section
addressing the topic of what is generally called religious terrorism.
4.1. Religion as a driver of conflict
Religion is often seen as a key cause of conflict, both in individual

societies and on the international scene. While the proponents of this
viewpoint are numerous, one scholarly figure ought to be remembered

as the central point of reference for this argument. Samuel Huntington
(1993; 1997), borrowing partly on an idea put forward by British-Ameri-
can historian, Bernard Lewis (1990), became the most prominent voice
claiming that religious and cultural identities would be the main driver
of international conflict in the new world order following the end of the
Cold War. He argued that although the nation state would remain the
most powerful actor in the international arena, the clash of civilizations
would become the new force fuelling conflict. His categorisation of the
world into nine different civilisations is based mostly along religious
lines. He contends that conflicts can occur both on a local level within
astate with groups belonging to different civilisations, or among neigh-
bouring states (fault-line conflicts); and also on a global level between
and among states that belong to different civilisations (core-state con-
flicts). He argues that civilisations compete on the international scene,
and that this competition can turn into violent conflict, most importantly
because of the different religions that have formed these civilisations.
Conflict lines on the international scene, he maintains, are primarily
those between the Muslim and the non-Muslim world, which have
shaped the history of conflict for centuries (Huntington 1993, 1997).
As powerful and representative of the current status of international

affairs as this may seem, such a primordialist view of religion does not
promote convincing discussions that take into account aspects of Islam
or Muslim societies that could determine conflicts and international
affairs today. This kind of argument also fails to appreciate how Islam
becomes intertwined with other factors, which might better explain
conflict dynamics inside and between neighbouring countries and also
within entire regions. Most importantly, the Lewis-Huntington argument
can be criticised for being based on weak history and for underestimat-
ing or ignoring deep fault lines that have existed within andamong
denominations of the same religious family.
Besides examining religion as a driver of violent conflict, scholars have

also been concerned with the extent to which religion may indirectly
foster or tolerate violence. The nexus between faith and conflict is
thus addressed by referring to religion as a cause of structural violence
through discrimination and exclusions. This line of reasoning is sup-
ported by the fact that religious identities can erect potent boundaries
and provoke fierce confrontation within a group when there is exces-
sive emphasis on claims by some that they belong and adhere to or
are protecting a set of absolute truths. Anthropologists often examine
how, within and across societies, religion is used to create differences

among people. Political scientists argue that religion, through its
inherent distinction between an in-group and an out-group, can lead to
structural violence both within societies and on the international scene.
Urging that we take into consideration the existence of various levels
of violence, Galtung (1969) argues that religion is often the source of
cultural violence, a form of violence that is used to legitimise other
forms of violence. Without seeking to establish a direct cause and effect
between religion and violence, Galtung shows how different factors
such as religion, ideology, language and ethnicity become intertwined
to shape ways of thinking and behaviours that can lead to situations of
exclusion, discrimination and eventually also physical violence.
Another way of establishing an indirect relationship between religion

and violence is by focusing on the inaction of religious groups. Boulding
(1986), for example, argues that religions have not succeeded in using
their potential for peacebuilding, and thus they have lent support to
states when they are at war. While religion has not ignited a conflict,
ithas worked as an obstacle to peace.
The majority of experts on religion and politics, nationalism, and conflict

and peace, however, concur that conflicts are usually characterised
by aset of motivations and their interactions, and thus an analysis of
conflict factors cannot be limited to only one of these dimensions, be
it religious, political, historical, or economic (see, for example, Berdal
2003, 492; Laitin 2007; Mayall 1990; Toft 2007).
The Iraqi-born British historian Elie Kedourie (1960) became famous

for his controversial view of nationalism as a Western invention. He
regarded nationalism as the greatest evil of the twentieth century, the
export of which was particularly catastrophic in the Middle East. While
likening nationalism to religion because of its despotic and divisive quali-
ties, Kedourie did not, however, attribute the emergence of nationalism
to religion; indeed he regarded the two as being essentially opposed.
Scholars with expertise on the Indian subcontinent (among them: Talbot

2007; Bhatt 2001; Mayall and Srinivasan 2009; Waseem 2010) argue for
more nuanced readings of the apparent inter- and intra-state religious
conflicts affecting India and Pakistan. This means examining central
elements in the emergence of violent attacks on religious minorities
and on sacred sites. Among those are the historical legacy (from both
during and before the colonial era), attempts to elaborate modern
(secular) nationalist projects, weak state institutions, and blatant

competition forpolitical power among and within ethnic groups and
competing religious and political leaders. It is against the background
of these factors and in the changing context as societies feel the
pressures of modernity, globalisation and multicultural society, that
violence becomes morally and religiously sanctioned, argues Indian
psychoanalyst Sundhir Kakar (1996).
Taking into account economic factors, a global study coordinated by

Oxford professor Frances Stewart (2008) reaches similar conclusions.
Itcentres on the hypothesis that violent conflict in multicultural
societies occurs in the presence of major horizontal inequalities among
culturally defined groups. The argument is that when cultural differences
coincide with economic and political differences between groups, this
can cause deep resentment that may in turn lead to violent struggles.
This builds on the work of Gurr (1993) and Collier et al. (2003), whose
theories stress the centrality of mobilisation based on group identity and
poverty and deprivation in conflict. It also confirms the finding by Fearon
and Laitin (1996) that multicultural societies do not generate conflict just
because they are multicultural. It is rather the combination of multiple
factors that ignites conflicts.
Wolff (2006) proposes comprehensive elaboration on these factors.

Heusefully distinguishes between underlying (structural, political,
economic, social, cultural, perceptual) and proximate causes of conflict
(i.e. the role of leaders and their strategic choices, both domestically
and in neighbouring countries). Underlying causes are necessary, but
not sufficient conditions for the outbreak of inter-ethnic violence (Wolff
2006, 68). The proximate causes, by contrast, enable or accelerate
conflicts in situations in which all or some of the underlying ingredi-
ents are present (Wolff 2006, 7071). Accepting the existence of this
multiplicity of factors leading to multiple configurations thus explains
why, despite similar basic conditions, not every situation of ethnic ten-
sions leads to full-scale civil war (Wolff 2006, 71). Ethnic conflicts, Wolff
argues, are not necessarily always about ethnicity; rather, this is often
a convenient common denominator to organize a conflict group in the
struggle over resources, land, or power [] a convenient mechanism to
organize and mobilize people into homogeneous conflict groups willing
to fight each other for resources that are at best indirectly linked to
their ethnic identity (Wolff 2006, 6465). Ethnicity and religion are not
synonyms but they frequently overlap. Thus it seems safe to conclude
that religion as any other factor can be part of the picture but cannot,
alone, be acause of conflict.
Fox (2003) has demonstrated that self-determination and nationalism

are the primary causes of ethnic conflicts, while religious factors
can influence the dynamics of the conflict and increase its intensity.
Furthermore, religion causes violence only when it is combined with
these other factors (Fox 2004b). Fox (2001) specifically examines
the role of religion in conflicts in the Middle East and their resulting
characteristics, based on the Minorities at Risk dataset and religious
factors, and he finds that religion plays a disproportionately important
role in ethno-religious conflicts in the region, more so than in non-
Middle Eastern states with Muslim majorities. States in the Middle
East are also disproportionately more autocratic than in other regions.
However, despite the unique importance of religion, Fox argues that
the prevalence of religious conflict is not explained by either the Islamic
or autocratic character of the states, and in reality the ethno-religious
conflicts in the Middle East are not significantly different from similar
ethnic struggles around the world. This, he concludes, contradicts
Huntingtons (1993) notion of Islams bloody borders, as the conflicts
in the Middle East are not more violent than other ethnic conflicts. He
warns, however, that actions based on Huntingtons notion could lead to
a self-fulfilling prophecy. In a further study also based on the Minorities
at Risk dataset, Fox (2004) does argue that religious conflict is more
contagious than non-religious conflict; however, only violent conflicts
cross borders while non-violent ones do not.
The nature of grievances and demands in a conflict is central to the

analyses of Svensson (2007) and Fox (2003). Fox argues that when
religious issues are important, they will change the dynamics of
the conflict, (2003, 125). This can be attributed both to the role of
religious institutions within the state and to the way in which religion
influences international intervention in ethnic conflict. Internally,
religious institutions tend to facilitate a reaction if the grievances have
religious importance; however, if they have no religious importance the
religious institutions often inhibit protest. With regards to international
intervention, Fox maintains that other states are more likely to intervene
if they have religious minorities in common and if the conflict is ethno-
religious. Using data from international interventions, he shows that
Islamic states are most likely to intervene and that Islamic minorities
are most likely to benefit from that intervention.
Svensson (2007) argues that across religions, where the grievances or

demands are based on explicit religious claims, the negotiated settle-
ment of conflict is less likely to succeed than if there are no religious
claims. He demonstrates that the chances for negotiated settlement
are not affected if the conflicting parties are from different religious
traditions. Svenssons argument is based on data from intra-state
armed conflicts between 1989 and 2003, using the Uppsala Conflict
Data Programme. He concludes that efforts should be made to prevent
conflicting parties from developing their demands in religious terms,
given that negotiated settlements are more likely if religious claims are
not involved.
Galtungs (2014) theory of the peace potential of religions essentially

focuses on the factors that can make religions prone to promoting
violence and then extrapolates from these to identify and develop the
factors that lend to the potential of religions to maintain or build peace,
arguing that the latter can and should be promoted. Although he notes
that different religions have different degrees of potential to promote
peace, he clearly acknowledges that there is no automatic connection
between the belief system of a specific religion and the use of force
by its followers. He also rejects the notion of religious conflicts, as
conflicts are multi-dimensional and complex and cannot usually be
reduced to only one causal factor (Galtung 2014, 32). To understand the
peace potential of religions, he looks to what extent religions are prone
to promote or reject direct violence and structural violence.
With regard to direct violence, Galtung (2014) argues that the idea of
being a Chosen People and the value of aggressive missionarism
built into the core belief system of a religion can lead to direct violence
perpetrated by its followers. Holy War and Just War become terms
used to justify the use of violence against other people.
He notes that all religions advocate a special relationship with their

god(s) and fellow believers, thus creating in-groups and out-groups.
However, different religions also have different potential to promote
other forms of structural violence, such as economic exploitation and
political repression. Galtung cites the example of slavery, which was
legitimised in religious terms by some Christians.
Based on this theory, Galtung develops a generalised model of major

religions in the world and classifies them according to their inherent
potential to reject both direct and structural violence. Most importantly,
he argues that, in general, Hinduism rejects both forms of violence and

thus has a large potential for peace. However, Hinduism is less than
explicit about rejecting direct (physical) violence, and it also tolerates
and promotes structural (cultural) violence through its caste system.
Islam rejects a societal caste system (structural violence), but is prone
to promote direct violence through its doctrine obliging all its followers
to defend the faith. Other religions, in particular Christianity, are predis-
posed to promote both structural and direct violence. Galtung clearly
accepts that this theory is a general one, and that there are many pos-
sibilities to cite counter-examples. However, he uses his theory mainly
to justify the need for more dialogue, both intra-religious and inter-faith,
which can promote the peace potential of religions (Galtung 1997).
In the light of the research evidence presented so far, it is clear why

many if not all scholars of religion and politics subscribe to the
expression ambivalence of the sacred; religion itself is also neither
good nor bad, but its power can be used to accelerate violence (bad) or
promote peace (good) across societies (Appleby 2000; Haynes 2011;
Philpott 2007a). Trying to distinguish between religious and secular
violence is not only useless but also dangerous (Cavanaugh 2009)
since, privileging religious explanations also serves to depoliticise
and securitise in the political realm (Jackson and Gunning 2011, 382).
The consensus seems to be that while religion should not be taken
for granted as the main driving force of violence and conflict, it cannot
be excluded from accounts of international relations, impacting both
interstate relations and domestic politics (see among others Fox 2004a;
Thomas 2005).
4.2. Islam and faith-based terrorism
In his response to Huntingtons clash of civilizations article (1993),

Edward Said (2001) argued that not only political leaders, but even
academics can fall into the trap of simplification by basing their argu-
ments on a perception of static, rather than dynamic relations between
social and religious groups. He points out that the use of labels for
groups, rather than groups themselves, are driving factors of conflict.
For him, the political and academic discourse on religious identities that
distinguishes between the West and Islam promotes and amplifies
conflict (Said 2001). Cavanaugh (2009) echoes this by arguing that the
prevalent discourse of the violent force of religion is a myth that has
been constructed by Western societies to legitimise their existence;
and this myth is used to justify violence perpetrated by the West against
Islamic societies.
Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, Islam has been centre
stage when it comes to research on the links between religion and
conflict. Popular commentaries facilely point to the ideological sources
of conflict, maintaining that the Quran is inherently violent and that all
forms of Islamism are nothing but an antecedent of violence, terrorism
and totalitarianism. Indeed, a dataset of suicide attacks from 1981 to
March 2008 shows not only an escalation of these from 2000 onwards,
but also that most contemporary suicide attacks can be attributed to
jihadist groups (Moghadam 2009), while until recently the evidence
(from a study taking into account data up to 2003) was that secular and
religious groups had been responsible for a roughly equal number of sui-
cide actions (Pape 2003). Several scholars, including Moghadam (2009)
and Khosrokhavar (2005) have shown how key the religious ideology of
martyrdom is to explaining this sudden rise of Islam-motivated suicide
missions. Yet other experts on Islam and terrorism play down without
ignoring the ideological component. In their view, the escalation of
violence carried out in the name of Islam must be attributed to a combi-
nation of factors where contextual variables, individual psychologies and
opportunity structures in a society are central (Hafez 2003; Jackson and
Gunning 2011; Mandaville 2007; Wiktorowicz 2005a). Looking at entire
processes rather than examining individual factors, ideas or actors
appears to be more productive in capturing the shifting role of religion,
and of Islam more specifically, in the current challenges of conflict and
terrorism that the international community faces.
On the theme of radicalisation, biographical studies of convicted

terrorists have been carried out and there is no conclusive evidence
demonstrating if or how religion plays a role or showing what the typical
profile of the would-be radical, and his or her path to radicalisation,
is. Rather, the literature urges us to see these dynamics against the
backdrop of societal and global transformations and their challenges
to individual identities (see Roy 2004; Wiktorowicz 2005a; Coolsaet
2011; Schmid 2013). For instance, after researching the trial evidence
of the first convicted Islamist terrorist in Australia, Aly and Striegher
(2012, 850) come to the conclusion that religion plays a far lesser role
in radicalization toward violent extremism than the [counterterrorism]
policy response contends.
Certainly, Islamic State and other jihadist groups legitimise themselves

through a repertoire of ideas that have broad resonance among
Muslim-majority populations (Hamid 2014). But the fact that radical
jihadi groups resort to Islamic sources to justify their violent acts cannot,
on its own, prove that Islam is inherently violent. Rather, as Wiktoro-
wicz (2005b, 94) argues, it demonstrates their tactical ability to frame
violence in Islamic terms, which is possible thanks to a gradual erosion
of critical constraints used to limit warfare and violence in classical
Islam. Many, therefore, have urged moderate Muslims to pre-empt this
manipulation of Islamic knowledge. Yet, Moghadam (2009, 78) warns,
we have to recognise that the factors involved in this type of terrorism
are multiple and diverse and that the battle against suicide attacks will
not be won by exposing the inconsistencies of Salafi jihad alone.
Following Gellner (see section 2.1.) we could argue that the central
problem is not the religious truth itself, but the exclusivist mindset of
those appropriating and disseminating it. Similarly, for Berman (2007),
the origin of conflict lies not in religion, but rather in extremist thinking,
be it radical Islam/Islamism (which he calls Muslim totalitarianism),
Christian religious fundamentalism, fascism, secular dictatorships, or
extreme authoritarianism. During the twentieth century, violent conflict
on the international scene was caused by such extremist thinking, rather
than by religion per se. It is also important to remember that adherence
to strict religious practices or conservative views is no guarantee
that fundamentalism has been embraced (Brekke 2012). Andwhile
it has often been the case that violent actions have stemmed from
fundamentalist beliefs, no automatic mechanism has been identified
whereby fundamentalism entails violence (Almond et al.2002).
Terrorism studies experts often seem to look at religion through

anarrow lens that focuses only on ideology. Rapoport (2002) was
central in popularising the term religious (or faith-based) terrorism
with his theory of the waves of terrorism, while others categorised
it as new (Laqueur 1999; Neumann 2009). Juergensmeyer (2003)
warns against the cosmologies of violence emanating from religion,
andHoffman (2006) too stresses the powerful role of religious
narratives and the position of religious leaders in legitimising acts of
violence. However these scholars are also careful not to demonise
religion per se, and they all acknowledge too that other factors need
to be taken into consideration. For instance, according to Rapoport
(2002), the latest current wave of religious terrorism includes
features of previous waves of terrorism (i.e. anarchy, self-determination,
socialism). Even someone like Juergensmeyer (2003), who believes

that religion has provided the motivation, world view and organisation
for either conducting or supporting acts of terrorism, acknowledges
that other contextual variables also need to be addressed in each case
beingexamined.
Based on a quantitative comparison of Islam-related terrorist attacks

between 1968 and 2005, Piazza (2009, 63) accepts that religiously-
motivated terrorist groups are indeed more prone than are secular
groups to committing attacks that result in greater casualties. He shows
that in that period Islamist groups were responsible for 93.6 per cent of
all terrorist attacks by religiously-oriented groups and were responsible
for 86.9 per cent of all casualties inflicted by religiously-oriented terrorist
groups (Piazza 2009, 64). However he demystifies the assumption that
Islamist terrorism is more lethal than other types of terrorism, by point-
ing out the constellations of ideologies that fall under the nebulous term
Islamism and that besides religious ideologies and practice, one should
also focus on groups organisational features and goal structures. On
the basis of this type of analysis, he argues, only Al Qaeda and similarly
structured groups are likely to be seriously dangerous.
Many have also asked whether economic factors have a role to play
when people engage in terrorism and in faith-based political violence.
Research by Krueger (2007) as well as by Piazza (2006) and by Canetti
et al. (2010) has found no evidence that poverty or loss of economic
resources are predictors of engagement in terrorism. However, Canetti
et al. (2010) did find that distress and loss of psychological (rather than
economic) resources do have a correlation with religion in the context
of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Piazza, on the other hand, argues that
state repression and party politics are important predictors of terrorism
(2006) and that countries with minority groups experiencing economic
discrimination have a significant likelihood of being exposed to domestic
terrorist attacks (2011).
Another line of interpretation puts aside religious values and beliefs

to focus instead on particular individuals in privileged/elite positions
within particular religious traditions and communities. Once again,
the argument is not that religion itself leads to violence, but that it is
manipulated by opportunistic and power-thirsty (faith or political) leaders
who appropriate religious language for their own ends. Toft (2007, 103)
has named this phenomenon religious outbidding; that is, elites
attempt to outbid each other to enhance their religious credentials
and thereby gain the support they need to counter an immediate

threat. Typically religious language is used to cultivate the identity of
those mobilised and to reinforce out-group markers of the other. This
process, Stewart (2009) notes, does not happen all at once, but takes
place over a long period of time. Apart from using religion for grand
causes, it is often the case that leaders resort to it to promote their own
underlying interests and so again it is not religion per se that contributes
to conflict but rather the way it is used within societies.
Following this line of analysis, Toft shows that compared with either
Christianity or Hinduism, Islam was greatly over-represented in civil
wars in the twentieth century. She argues that political leaders in the
Islamic world used religion to lend themselves greater legitimacy,
and thus increase their capacity to mobilise the population and
strengthen their power base (Toft 2007). De Juan (2015) arrives at
asimilar conclusion in his study of religious elites in intrastate conflict
escalation. Besides providing quotidian norm setting, religious
leaders communicate specific narratives and shape the religious
selfconception of the believers and are also crucial in the constitution
of radical religious conflict interpretations (De Juan 2015, 764). His work
examines the motives of religious elites to call for violence rather than
the structural prerequisites of their success. Using case studies from
Thailand, Iraq and the Philippines, he shows that competing religious
elites try to mobilize their followers against their rivals to establish
their predominance within their religious community (De Juan 2015,
765). He also notes that in this competition for material and dogmatic
supremacy, these religious elites become inclined to promote violence,
establish alliances with political elites and thus become triggers of
intrareligious and intrastate conflicts (De Juan 2015, 762). Yet, the
scholar insists, religion is not itself the cause of the conflict.
In his acclaimed book, The Ambivalence of the Sacred, Appleby (2000)

goes beyond arguing the obvious, i.e. that religious texts can provide
justifications for either promoting peace or war, pointing out that both
violent extremism and non-violent movements can be religious. Instead,
his interest is in the factors that cause religion to be used to legitimise
violence. For him, it is religious illiteracy, a lack of understanding of
religious writings and their interpretations by the common people,
which makes it possible for reckless political and religious leaders to
manipulate populations to achieve their violent objectives. At the same
time, Appleby sees the inherent ambivalence of religion as fundamen-
tally positive because it provides opportunities for peace promotion.
4.3. Religion and state failure/collapse
There appears to be a strong correlation between the emergence of

religious conflict and situations of state failure or collapse. Fox (2007),
for instance, tracks state failures between 1960 and 2004, identifying
the shifts in the role of religion and state failure. Using data from the
State Failure dataset, he identifies an increase in state failure related
to religion as a proportion of all state failures during this period, and
finds that it became the most common kind of state failure in 2002,
after which he identifies religion as an element in the majority of all
conflictsthat relate directly to state failure.
Since 11 September 2001, state failure and state collapse have been
associated with terrorism and labelled as the Orthodox Failed States
Narrative, which developed based on the experience of the rise of the
Taliban in the collapsed state of Afghanistan (Verhoeven 2009). Several
studies argue that there was an increase in Islamic extremism in the
state failures experienced in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia in the 2000s.
However, they also differ in how much the various authors emphasise
the role of religion as a cause of increased extremism and offer different
explanations for the phenomenon.
Mwangi (2012), for example, identifies the combination of state collapse

and Islamism in Somalia as accounting for the legitimacy gained by
Harakat Al-Shabaab Al Mujaheddin (Al-Shabaab), a non-state armed
extremist group that provided local governance in Somalia, confirming
the fears that arise from the Orthodox Failed State Narrative. He
portrays Islamism not as a theological construct but as a political
ideology that helps provide answers to the contemporary social and
political challenges facing the Muslim world. Mwangi argues that radical
Islam is most powerful as a mobilising tool when Muslim populations
feel threatened by secular or Christian states. Following Hoehne (2009),
he links the rise and radicalisation of Al-Shabaab with the joint American-
Ethiopian anti-terror strategy, as well as the difficulties the Somali
people faced under conditions of state collapse, which left the country
with no central authority. Devlin-Foltz and Ozkececi-Taner (2010, 89)
also consider the case of Somalia and while they too found a correlation
between state collapse and an increase in Islamists appeal and
influence, they go on to argue that, state collapse does not necessarily
generate more violent ideologies rather [it] allows those committed
to violence under all circumstances to allay more moderate elements.
They conclude that political opportunities make violence a normal and
effective means of political competition (2010, 105), and when secular

groups employ violence, moderate Islamist groups may move to view
violence as necessary and align themselves with a wider range of
Islamists, which can increase the influence of more extreme factions.
However, Islamist groups in both Somalia and Iraq had also to recognise
the non-ideological interests of the population to gain legitimacy in
those countries.
Other scholars are even more dismissive of the Islamist terrorism threat
in Somalia. For Bryden (2003, 25), an analyst with the International Crisis
Group, the most persuasive feature that attracts followers to Al-Itixaad,
the group supposed to be Al Qaedas main branch in the country, is its
financial clout: few Somalis are attracted by the movements theologi-
cal pedantry or its proclivity to violence. Moreover, Islamists are the
last addition to a witches brew of ethnic, religious, and geopolitical
tensions in Somalia and thus have to compete with domestic, regional
and foreign forces in a crowded political arena (Bryden 2003, 26). Thus,
he concludes, Somalia poses a more concrete and immediate threat to
international security as a cockpit for regional interests than as a link in
the chain of transnational terrorism (Bryden 2003, 26). In fact, as Shinn
(2003, 80) commented, the underlying conditions of East Africa and
the Horn contribute directly to conflict and the use of terrorist tactics;
the region has porous borders and readily available weapons, and
poverty and social injustice are widespread.
In the long history of tribal confrontations affecting the Sudan (and

South Sudan), religion is often said to play a central role. However,
Islamic identity has proved not to be a fixed or constant marker of
Sudanese communal tensions. Instead, it has been tactically played
(i.e.taken up and also in turn abandoned) under particular circumstanc-
es by different groups and individuals (Jok 2007). Identities, we know,
are never static and are always socially constructed, but this appears
to be especially true for Sudan, where the notions of racial, ethnic and
religious identity are particularly fluid (Jok 2007).
Cramer and Goodhand (2002) are also interested in how those vying
for authority seek to gain legitimacy in failed or collapsed states. They
identify three methods that historically have been used for gaining
legitimacy in Afghanistan, namely tribalism, Islam and nationalism. They
explain that many Afghans perceive the nation as a religious community
and therefore during times of crisis, the notion of jihad has been used
to mobilise the population. They track the historical use of Islam in
the development of the state and argue that the emergence of the
Taliban was part of a process of different forms of Islamic influence in
Afghanistans history. Radicalisation of Islamic groups in the 2000s was
a means of gaining legitimacy in response to the crisis of political Islam
(Roy cited in Cramer & Goodhand 2002, 903).
Verhoevan (2009, 419) presents another dimension of the rise of Islamic

extremism in failed states, arguing that in the case of Somalia, external
factors had the greatest impact. He argues that US-led fears of an
AlQaeda safe-haven forming in Somalia led to a self-fulfilling prophe-
cy. He argues that Americas fear that the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC)
were Somalias neo-Taliban, caused them to create conditions, through
the American-Ethiopian axis, which pushed the moderate nationalist
militants who were actually succeeding in creating order and stability,
towards the radical, real (inter)national jihadis. (2009, 407). Verhoeven
then concludes that the international community must move away from
the terrorism/failed state nexus and conceptualise state collapse as
aseries of painful but essential processes of creative destruction.
Hossein-Zadeh (2005, 2) also deems external factors important in the

link between failed states and terrorism, arguing that it was Western
imperialism and Western policies in the Middle East region that caused
the Muslim world to turn to conservative religious leaders as a source
of defiance, against the Western powers, rather than the nature of Islam
or the clash of civilisations theory. He assesses Western intervention
efforts and development programmes in the Middle East, arguing that
at times when these programmes met the hopes and aspirations of the
people, an Islamic alternative was not embraced. However, when the
people were demoralised and disappointed, an Islamic revival was nur-
tured instead. The study therefore disputes the proposition that Islam is
inherently confrontational and claims that socioeconomic and geopoliti-
cal policies account for the reactions of the Muslim people. Hisconclu-
sion, however, that Islam is not more violent than other religions does
not follow from his study, but the historical account of the factors that
influenced the Islamic revival is useful in highlighting the peripheral role
of religion.
While all of this evidence shows the presence of religious factors or ac-
tors in failed, weak or collapsing states, there seems to be a consensus
among experts that the relationship between religion, state failure and
violence is not unidirectional. Indeed, for many, the structural absence
or malfunctioning of institutions, the prevailing cultures of fear, as well
as regional dynamics of instability, pave the way for extremist religious

ideologies and ethnic rivalries to take over, rather than the other way
round (see among others Fearon and Laitin 2003; Wolff 2006, 2011).
4.4. Religion as a driver of peace
Academic and policy-oriented literature on religion and international

affairs is rich in publications arguing that religion is a useful if not
necessary instrument for achieving peace. More specifically, religious
beliefs/values, religious leaders and faith-based organisations are
thought to have huge potential in promoting peace in any society and/
or in the international arena. Scholars in the US (Johnston and Sampson
1994; Johnston 2003; Appleby 2001; Gopin 2000; Smock 2002; Shah et
al. 2012; Coward and Smith 2004; Little 2007) seem to be leading this
school of thought. In fact, faith-based diplomacy was invented in the
US (see for example the journal The Brandywine Review of Faith & In-
ternational Affairs). The US Institute of Peace has developed substantial
resources for interfaith projects and publications, and the US govern-
ment recently created an office for religious engagement in the State
Department (Johnston and Cox 2003; Mandaville and Silvestri 2015).
However, some important works in this vein are emerging in Europe
too (e.g. Thomas 2005; Galtung and MacQueen 2008). In addition to the
academic literature, numerous faith groups and NGOs are also mobilis-
ing and producing policy reports to promote and enhance the contribu-
tion by religious actors to development and reconciliation.
The camp of those arguing that the religious dimension needs to be in-
cluded in conflict resolution work is vast, but different authors highlight
different reasons, aspects and priorities for this. Hence we have divided
the following sections according to themes.
Religious beliefs and values

In The Ambivalence of the Sacred, Appleby (2000) emphasises that
ethics and ethical convictions, as expressed through religious beliefs,
are main drivers for peace. Regardless of which religion may be preva-
lent, the ethical power of religion can help to unite divided societies.
For Thomas (2005) too, religion has a role to play, especially as it can
facilitate a dialogue about virtues for shaping a better society. However,
while acknowledging this and the useful characteristics of faith-based
networks and NGOs, he warns against a reductionist approach, in which
an instrumentalist perspective of religion and a logic of problem-solving
prevail while the need to address other issues and involve other actors
is downplayed or discounted.
References to the Christian contribution to non-violence and

peacebuilding are abundant. The key concepts are reconciliation,
which is based on Gods own reconciliation with a sinful humanity,
the powerful model of Jesus self-sacrifice to redeem humanity, and
his invitation to turn the other cheek, and finally his attention to the
poor and the marginalised that encourages Christians to care about
the dignity of the human person. In Christianity, there is a close
relationship between social justice and reconciliation; one cannot
happen without the other. This helps to explain the important work
of Christian denominations in mediation and in promoting transitional
justice (see Philpott 2007b). Christian values are also at the heart of the
Western conception of human rights, even though a parallel, at times
competitive, secular account exists. In the aftermath of World War II,
the work of Christian denominations and the ecumenical movement
were important pillars for the peaceful reconstruction of Europe and in
the establishment of the European Communities (see Thomas 2005;
Byrnes and Katzenstein 2006; Leustean 2014), even though the project
of European integration later took a highly secular and liberal character,
focused mainly on economic and political reasoning.
The majority of case studies in textbooks on religion and politics refer to

mediation work or interfaith activities promoted by Christian denomina-
tions, such as those done in South Africa with Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, in Mozambique with SantEgidio, in the US with Martin Luther
King, and also the courageous work in Nigeria, the Middle East and the
Balkans of various priests (see Thomas 2005; Little 2007; Smock 2002;
Lederach 1996, 1997). Buttry (1994) elaborates on the Christian heritage
of non-violence and peacebuilding. He argues that Christian teaching and
values provide the foundations for Christian peacemaking, i.e. Christian-
ity provides a whole set of non-violent responses to conflicts worldwide,
both within and between societies (for a similar argument see also
Friesen 1986). The work of Sampson and Lederach (2000) is often re-
garded as landmark research in demonstrating the pioneer role played by
Mennonite communities in the history of their non-violent contributions
to peacemaking. In addition, Quakers and Jehovahs Witnesses, two
groups that are part of the Christian family, have also made explicit their
pacifist stance and rejection of violence (MacCulloch 2010).
Biggar (2013), on the other hand, provides a thought-provoking and

profound analysis of Christian justifications for the morality and even
the necessity of war, based on a thorough review of the long tradition
of the just war theory in Christian thinking, combined with modern
insights into international relations and the realities of war. By doing so,
he aligns himself with the great Christian philosophers behind the just
war theory, and adapts it to the modern world. He argues that war can
sometimes be a necessity and that therefore, the Christian just war
theory ultimately helps to end conflict and promote peace.
Muslim scholar Abu-Nimer (2003) argued that Islam is based on funda-

mental human values encoded in the Quran, related religious writings
and the Islamic tradition. Based on those values, Muslim societies have
developed a considerable set of non-violent tools for conflict resolution
and peacebuilding experiences. Traditional ArabMuslim mechanisms
for dispute resolution include third-party mediation and arbitration
in any form of social conflict. Such mechanisms also included tradi-
tional reconciliation methods, based onthe value of forgiveness and
publicrepentance.
Abu-Nimer (2003) also looks at how Islam developed a theory of de

facto just war principles, both referring to jus ad bellum and jus in bello:
War is permissible in self-defense, and under well-defined limits. When
undertaken, it must be pushed with vigour (but not relentlessly), but
only to restore peace and freedom of worship of Allah. In any case,
strict limits must not be transgressed: women, children, old and infirm
men should not be molested, nor trees and crops cut down, nor peace
withheld when the enemy comes to terms. At the same time, Islam
has a tradition of non-violent resistance, also cited by Abu-Nimer (2003),
which is exemplified by peaceful protests against British colonial rule in
Egypt in 1919, the 1948 Iraqi uprising, the Iran Revolution in 197879,
and the Sudanese insurrection of 1985.
Social justice is a fundamental concept in Islam. It has been a central

tenet of the Muslim Brotherhoods mobilisation, and even Al Qaeda
has tactically justified its attacks by elaborating on this Islamic concept,
combining it with apparent Third Worldist claims. Abu-Nimer (2003)
shows how social justice and other Islamic values can help promote
peaceful conflict resolution: According to Islam, a nation cannot survive
without making fair and adequate arrangements for the sustenance
and welfare of all the poor, underprivileged, and destitute members of
every community. The ultimate goal would be the elimination of their
suffering and poverty. It can thus be argued that Islam is well suited
to fighting against structural violence. Islamic values, he explains, are
based on universal dignity of humanity, the equality of all races, ethnic
groups, and the sacredness of human life and forgiveness are values
that underpin any form of positive conflict resolution and help to build
peaceful societies (Abu-Nimer 2003).
On a similar note, Sachedina (2000, 20) highlighted the centrality of

Koranic teachings about religious and cultural pluralism as a divinely
ordained principle of peaceful coexistence among human societies.
His work is a classic detailing of the human, non-violent values in Islam.
Said et al. (2001) presented a valuable collection of essays exploring
both Islamic teachings and practice on peaceful conflict resolution.
They argued that Islam promotes, in theory and in practice, the values
of justice, harmony and absence of war. Said et al also made a case
for Islamic approaches to peacebuilding (Said et al 2002), and Kalin
(2005) examined the concept of peace in the Islamic tradition to
provide acontrast to the focus in the literature on the legal aspects of
declaring jihad. He identified four contexts: the metaphysical-spiritual in
which salam, as one of the names of God, is assigned a substantive
value; the philosophical-theological context in which the question of
evil is addressed; the political-legal context, which is the locus of the
legal discussions of war; and the socio-cultural context, which looks
at the Muslim experiences of diversity with other faiths. Kalin (2005)
concludes that Muslim communities must start addressing a proper
ethics of peace to assist in resolving of ethnic or sectarian conflicts
inMuslim societies.
Galtung and MacQueen (2008) analyse in detail the contribution

to peacemaking by Asian religions such as Buddhism or Taoism,
with reference to Galtungs general theory of mentioned above.
Bypresenting the ideas of 18 eminent Buddhist leaders, Chappell
(1999) enlarged the understanding of Buddhist peacemaking traditions.
Starting from and underlining the central role of achieving inner peace,
he emphasises that Buddhism has a strong track record of providing
peaceful answers to social and political violence, in particular through
its worldwide grassroots work, and points to the responsibility
that Buddhists have for promoting peace. However, others critique
Buddhism for being too much of an individualistic tradition that does
not really stress the importance of being at peace with the others, and
note that it has missed opportunities to achieve peaceful solutions,
inSriLanka and Tibet for example (Neumaier2004).
According to Berling (2004), Confucianism has the potential to work for

the common good, thanks to its notion of harmony and its stress on
moral values and rituals. The works of Johnston (2003) and Little (2007)
also contain case studies on Asia as well as other regions.
In their collection of essays, Polner and Goodman (1994) provide

afirst-hand account of the traditions of non-violent conflict resolution
in Judaism. Similarly, Steinberg (2000) argued that there are specific
Jewish approaches to conflict prevention and mediation, a theme also
developed comprehensively by Marc Gopin, a prominent author and
practitioner in the field of conflict resolution, who specialises on the
Middle East. Gopins (2000) central argument is that while the worlds
major religions, in this case the three monotheistic ones, have histori-
cally and until today contributed significantly to violence, they can also
be a key source of peace and conflict resolution, and their commit-
ment towards peace can be identified in both classical theology and in
modern interpretations. He notes, for example, that in Judaism there
is the biblical concept of God fighting battles for the Children of Israel
and Rabbinic analyses of milhemet hova (obligatory war) and milhemet
mitzvah (war as fulfilment of a positive deed before God), but alongside
those are the Rabbinic belief in shalom (peace) and pikuach nefesh
(preservation of life). In Islam, the Quran identifies jihad (holy war), but
later interpretations split this into state jihad and religious jihad. There
are also both peaceful and violent interpretations of the Mahdi tradition
of a prophesied redeemer in Islam. Gopin highlights the complexities
within all these religions in the way they conceive war, violence, peace
and nonviolence.
Gopin (2000) bases his critique of Western diplomacy on its ignorance

of religious values and practices. He argues that religion and religious
values need to be merged with traditional Western conflict resolution
policies and practices, and that religious values, such as empathy,
nonviolence and sanctity of human life, should be used to frame the
language of conflict resolution. To achieve this, there is a need for a com-
prehensive understanding of religious values, institutions and practices,
particularly the ways in which they have traditionally and historically
approached issues of war and peace and the complex, variability of
interpretations within each of the religions. Gopin cautions that the use
of religious values and strategies of conflict resolution will be heavily
dependent on context, potentially different each time enemies interact.
He emphasises, therefore, the need to work with those involved in the
conflict rather than imposing a particular, albeit religiously educated,

view from above (Gopin 2000).
Gopins work examines the issue of how religions approach Others

outside their faith, and both the difficulties and opportunities this
presents for conflict resolution. For him, the concept of universal values
and homogeneity are not part of the religious traditions, which draw
important distinctions between believers and non-believers. Heargues
that this is not a negative or necessarily conflictual aspect of religion,
but a natural part of human identity. Gopin maintains, however, that
what is significant is how the boundaries are negotiated and the extent
to which prosocial interpersonal values of religious tradition exists,
as opposed to antisocial values (2000, 80). He also notes that in all
religions there is rarely a call to kill on a massive scale, although the
existence of proselytisers, those who have a theological issue with
the Other, is a problem for his argument that religions promote conflict
resolution. He suggests that there is a need to find a balanced world
view that does not necessitate the destruction of the Other, and also
aneed for significantly more consideration and recommendations on
how such religious groups can be approached.
In his conclusion, Gopin provides a broad list of recommendations

forreligious figures and for policymakers, both globally and regionally.
Particularly salient for policymakers are his suggestions that there
is a need: to support religious leaders and those with important
standing to move towards peace in the face of criticisms of heresy; for
policymakers to understand the fears of religious groups, both actual
and remembered ones, and develop policies that confront them; to
become familiar with the potential effects of polices on the religious
lives of communities; and, to allow religious constructs as well as
religious groups needing to be part of the process of conflict resolution
to guide policies, without giving them overwhelming power.
As Fox (2000b) noted, despite his insightful contributions, Gopin (2000)

unfortunately centres his study on the monotheistic religions, thus
overlooking the potential contributions of other religions. Furthermore,
much of Gopins book is focused on the internal conflict between
religious and secular Jews in Israel and on the ways to overcome
this, rather than on interreligious conflict. Gopin did suggest applying
to interreligious conflict the Mahoket concept, a traditional form of
conflict resolution within Judaism, in which there is mutual respect
between conflicting parties who agree-to-disagree. Yet this does not
seem to comply with his own emphasis on the need to treat each
conflictual context separately and approach each situation according to
its unique nature and the particular hermeneutical engagement of the
religious actors involved.
Gopins concluding remarks, unlike his practically grounded and broad

recommendations, provide an overly idealistic world view, in which he
argues that militant religion will only disappear once global civilisation
develops into a serious human community with a set of high ideals that
are perceived and actually are substantive and attractive from a spiritual
and ethical point of view (2000, 223). Whether or when this will happen
is impossible to say, but his theological observations and practical rec-
ommendations do show the potential for the successful incorporation of
religion into conflict resolution.
In another work, Gopin (2001) examines the role of forgiveness in

conflict resolution (as opposed to justice) and approaches this question
by studying the concept of forgiveness in several religions, a theme
also covered by Helmick and Petersen (2001) in an edited volume. They
argue that forgiveness as a tool in conflict resolution can be effective
only if it is used to cross religious boundaries and is transferred from the
individual to the political arena. Hadley (2001) expanded on this analysis
by examining how restorative justice finds expression in religious
traditions worldwide.
Religious leaders and religious organisations

A rich strand of research including a number of works commis-
sioned by DFID has examined the role of faith-based organisations
and religious leaders in promoting the peaceful resolution of conflicts
through mediation. Faith-based mediation is seen as an important
contributor to conflict resolution and peace. However, no work sees this
as a complete substitute to traditional diplomatic avenues. The pioneer-
ing work of Johnston and Sampson (1994) brought together scholars
emphasising the comparative advantage of religious actors. Basing their
findings on case studies from East Germany, Philippines, South Africa
and Zimbabwe, they argued that individuals that based their work on
either religious or spiritual thinking were in a better place to reach out to
regional and local actors than were politicians that did not. Similarly, Cox
et al. (1994) argued that religion can be well suited for resolving particu-
larly prolonged, stalemated or intractable conflicts. The key characteris-
tics associated with (typically local) religious leaders that enable them to
help in situations of conflict include authority, trust, professionalism and
also cultural and practical/experiential closeness to the people involved

(see among others: Lederach 1996; 1997; Smock 2002).
On a pragmatic level, especially when conflict resolution and peace-

keeping are proceeding in collaboration with development programmes,
religious organisations and leaders have also proven particularly effec-
tive in delivering aid and effective development projects. This is because
faith communities, in addition to being trusted, are inexpensive and they
work rapidly, relying on wide networks of volunteers that are fervently
devoted to the cause and ready to put their lives on the line. This has
proven to be more effective than the work of the salaried staff of large
and bureaucratic international organisations and secular NGOs (Barnett
and Stein 2012).
Bercovitch and Kadayifci-Orellana (2009) focus on the conditions condu-

cive to the success of faith-based mediation, finding that the legitimacy
and leverage of religious actors can be powerful factors in promoting
successful mediation processes. Aroua (2010) makes a case for media-
tors who have a deep understanding of religious beliefs and ideals,
which enables them to promote interreligious dialogue by translating
codes from one value system to another (mediators as translators).
Funk and Woolner (2001) emphasise the role of inter-faith dialogue in
promoting conflict resolution.
Even when peace processes do not lead to a sustainable peace,

religionis nonetheless thought to positively contribute to peace as it
can help build trust between and among social groups and individuals.
Scholars have also noted that many conflicts do not have a religious
component, but that even when that is the case religious leaders can
often play a beneficial role in promoting peace (Aroua 2010).
Religious movements and leaders may also promote the setting of

national and international norms on peace, and generally contribute to
worldwide peace by changing the international discourse on religion and
peace. The historic contribution by Martin Luther King to the spread of
non-violent resistance and international and national anti-discrimination
laws is a prominent example for peace-generating dynamics, discussed
extensively in the scholarly literature.
Case studies have analysed the transformative power of religion and

contributed to scholarly thinking on what religions have in common,
rather than on what divides them. Appleby (2001) gives examples from
different faith traditions: the Catholic NGO SantEgidio that promotes

ethical values in conflict situations in Africa and uses mediation as
atool to promote peace; Buddhist actors promoting human rights in
Cambodia; and Muslim communities that successfully promote peace
in parts of the Middle East. More recently, his work has focused on
Catholic approaches to peacebuilding, looking at the work of many
transnational Catholic NGOs such as Caritas, and exploring how Catholic
social teaching and the preferential option for the poor have been
gradually expanded to go beyond social and economic development,
towards reconciliation (Schreiter et al. 2010). Michel (2008) specifically
focuses on the role that transnational Islamic movements play in
fostering non-violent relations in the Muslim world. The commitment
to positive societal change, personal transformation, and interreligious
dialogue is fundamental for these movements. Study and service
are key elements underpinning the thinking of their adherents
(Michel2008).
Douglas Johnston (2005) also emphasised the crucial role of faith-based

organisations in conflict prevention and resolution. He concludes that
local organisations can have direct influence within their societies and
be particularly effective, as they promote indigenous ways of preventing
and resolving conflict and can have important moral authority because
they are anchored in local communities.
Weingardt (2007) provided a thorough examination of the peace

potential of religions, their inherent positive power, and specifically the
role of religious leaders. His first main argument is that more research is
needed to understand the role religions can play in de-escalating violent
political conflicts and promoting peace. Whereas mainstream scholarly
thinking, in particular in the wake of Huntingtons work (1993, 1997),
focused on the negative role that religion has played in conflicts around
the world and throughout history, Weingardt argues that religion has
also had a positive role in preventing, controlling and ending conflicts.
He accepts that it is difficult, if not impossible, to get a precise measure-
ment of the peace potential of religions, but maintains nonetheless that
religions have an inherent potential for peace, and should be seen as
afactor that contributes to de-escalating conflict.
Weingardts second main argument is that the peace potential of

religions lies in the fundamentals, such as writings, teachings and
traditions, rather than in the institutions themselves. Religion-based
actors (in contrast to individuals acting on faith or on the basis of an
institution only) base themselves on a comprehensive understanding of

their religion and not on a narrow-minded, individualistic and potentially
arbitrary definition of it. By doing so, they can promote peace not only
in religious conflicts, but also in conflicts with limited or no religious
dimensions. Such actors can be: a) religious communities and religious
institutions as well as their representatives; and, b) institutions,
individuals, initiatives, movements that are not necessarily directly
linked (i.e. financially, institutionally or through persons) to religious
institutions (Weingardt 2008a, 2008b).
Weingardt cites as examples Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther

King, as well as the Quakers and SantEgidio, all of whom were or are
inspired by religious values, and have used them to promote peace in
a variety of ways, including preventing direct violence, fighting against
structural violence and bringing about positive societal change. In
addition, he analyses a variety of case studies (about 40) where religion
played a positive role in conflict resolution and conflict de-escalation,
concluding that the characteristics defining the conflicts, the actors,
and interventions are manifold and diverse. The cultural, religious and
political contexts, the type of conflict, the issues at stake, the conflict
range, parties to the conflict and the outcomes of the conflict vary as
much as conflict intensity, duration and development. The religion-
based actors belong to different religions and confessions, work as
individuals or in interreligious cooperation, and have varying degrees
of institutional attachment, notoriety, political influence and implication
in the conflict. They also differ in their approaches to reducing violence,
their level of interaction, methods, actions, efficiency and their impact
on the conflict. In other words, Weingardt argues, the peace potential
for religion is manifold; it can be used to promote peace in a variety of
ways and there is no one way forward, but a myriad of them to exploit
the positive power inherent in religions.
Weingardt (2008a, 2008b) does not stop with this rather obvious
analysis. The violent conflicts that he analyses share two main similari-
ties. One is that previous secular activities to reduce violence have
not had satisfactory results, and the second is that decidedly religious
elements participating in actual activities to reduce violence are of
only limited significance and are thus not sufficient to explain concrete
positive results. It is therefore important to understand what is common
to religion-based actors and also what is the basis of their power to
transform conflicts. He argues that these actors share three character-
istics. The first is professional expertise, or conflict-specific knowledge.
The second is credibility, or perception of the actors as neutral and fair

by the parties in conflict. Thethird is closeness to the conflict, namely
emotional, personal, and/or human proximity of the actors to the conflict
parties and/or theconflict.
The confidence and trust that religion-based actors inspire in the

parties to the conflict depend on these three characteristics, building
confidence in their professional and conflict-specific qualifications,
in their ethical and moral qualifications, and also in their emotional
qualifications. Weingardt (2008a, 2008b) argues that all actors that want
to promote peace should ideally have these characteristics, but he also
contends that religion-based actors have a comparative advantage:
they often have a credit of trust.
There are three main reasons for this credit of trust. First is that
reference to religious thinking can be used in all cultures as a means
to justify in a comprehensible and legitimate way peaceful and
non-violent conflict resolution. Secondly, conflict parties often
see religionbased actors as able and willing to consider not just
obvious facts, but also underlying and profound dimensions of
conflict resolution, such as morality, responsibility, reconciliation,
and forgiveness. Lastly, religionbased actors, in contrast to secular
actors, are often perceived to be driven less by self-interest than by
considerations of general interest ofall.
Deep and widespread respect for religion underlies these perceptions

by conflict parties, even though religion can also have negative
connotations. Weingardts general view (2007, 2008a, 2008b) is that
this respect can be attributed to a general but certainly not universal
taboo on attacking religious dignitaries or religious sites. He maintains
that conflicts in which the religious affiliation of the adversary is used
to legitimise violence are the exception and not the rule, and that
even in these conflicts (e.g. in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Israel-Palestine),
directattacks on religious leaders and sites constitute a red line.
In the same way as religious leaders are respected, religion-based

actors are accorded the respect they require to promote peace. Through
their credit of trust, it is relatively easy for them to start a conflict resolu-
tion process. In other words, religion provides an opportunity to engage
with the conflict parties, but it is not itself a guarantee for successful
conflict resolution.
A key lesson from the evidence in all this literature is that there is no
single path for religious organisations or religious leaders to make a
difference in conflict resolution, and that a flexible approach should be
taken in identifying religious leaders capable of playing a significant
role. Littles (2007) fascinating account of grassroots peacemakers
tells how they contributed to peaceful conflict transformation because
they were inspired by religious values and ideals, and they used
religion-specific mediation and dialogue tools and communication
techniques. He argues that policymakers have not yet sufficiently taken
into consideration the need to promote grassroots peacemakers and
include tools inspired by religion in their toolkit. The religious actors
presented in his case studies are often ordinary clerics, not people in
positions of power, and some were even ostracised in their respective
communities precisely because of their courageous steps to promote
reconciliation in the face of dominating prejudice. Their endeavours were
successful because of a combination of qualities and circumstances
and the individual ways in which religious beliefs and resources were
used. Thus, the communication strategies, language, and symbolism at
play in each situation were different, indicating that the outcomes were
highly context-specific, including also the personality of the religious
figure leading the peace initiative, even if sometimes the same religious
tradition was present in different case studies.
4.5. Ways to promote the transformative power of religion
A further strand of academic literature on religion, conflict and

peace is oriented around policy and action. It asks in which ways
the transformative power of religion and its potential can be used
to unite societies and to promote peaceful international relations.
Lederach (1996, 1997) argued for and also developed conflict resolution
mechanisms that focus on culture and religion as positive tools for
bringing about change and for promoting a holistic approach, rather than
an antagonistic approach that divides societies along religious lines.
Faith-based peacemaking, for Johnston and Cox (2003, 1518), is more

about reconciliation than about conflict resolution, that is, it centres on
restoration of healthy and respectful relationships between the parties.
This type of intervention in a conflict situation entails four components.
First, it offers a new (moral) vision of how reality and relationships
with one another can be. Secondly, it builds bridges, i.e. tangible
and intangible connections between diverse groups so that they can
communicate their respective needs and aspirations. It also heals

the actual conflict, usually through mediation, and lastly, it also heals
the wounds of history, which would otherwise inhibit future healthy
relationships.
Complementary to this is the analysis of different stages of religious

conflict transformation provided by Appleby (2000). He argues that
transformation of religious conflict should take place at all levels of the
conflict cycle. Several tools are involved. One is conflict management,
which needs to be supported by raising public awareness about conflict
drivers and origins. Another is conflict resolution, which should be
based on dialogue and educational activities to promote understanding
of the Other. In addition, mediation activities and good offices need to
be undertaken by religious leaders. Other tools are post- conflict peace-
building and structural reform, which require intervention by religious
leaders and organisations through humanitarian activities, and social
integration activities, particularly for the most vulnerable and poorest
parts of society.
Appleby also identifies three modes of religious conflict transformation.

First is crisis mobilisation, the social mobilisation inspired by religion
during an acute crisis, such as the non-violent opposition by Gandhi to
British colonial rule. Second is the saturation mode, or the long-term
peace work at different levels of society that leads to the institutionalisa-
tion of peacebuilding activities within a society, such as the peace work
done in Northern Ireland for several decades. Third is the interventionist
mode, or activities undertaken by religious actors, internal and external,
such as mediation and training activities.
An important body of literature offers practical advice on how to

promote interreligious dialogue, and to use religion for peacebuilding
purposes. Steele (2011) emphasises the need for long-term commit-
ment to transforming societies to build peace. Other scholars stress
that when dealing with conflict situations, practical problems should be
addressed first, before value differences are tackled with respect and
common understanding.
Academics in this field argue from either an experientialist (e.g. Marc

Gopin) or a constructivist perspective (e.g. Jean-Nicolas Bitter 2003,
2009). Experientialists focus on individual experiences, based on
the fact that devotees all share experiences of spirituality this is
the common feature of religions worldwide and can thus come to
a mutual understanding of conflicts and ultimately promote conflict

resolution. Constructivists, on the other hand, see religion as a means
for the members of a society to obtain orientation and guidance.
Religion can thus help its members to create meaning and provide an
understanding of conflict drivers. Gopin (2000) argued that policymakers
need to develop and actively promote the potential of religions to cope
with violence and overcome conflict, that religions can help societies
to develop a shared vision of joint responsibility and commitment, and
that the in-depth study of religious value systems can help us to better
understand conflict drivers within religions, and eventually turn them
into peacebuilding factors.
The experientialist and the constructivist approach are both non-

functionalist approaches. They see religion as a set of norms and rules
that directly form the reality that its adherents experience. In contrast,
functionalist approaches emphasise the ways in which religion can
be used to decode and decipher principles, norms and rules within
asociety, and thus contribute to an understanding of the perceptions
and values of conflict actors (Aroua 2010).
Scholars apply these different theories to case studies to analyse the

transformative power of religion. Looking at local conflicts between
Christian and Muslim communities in Nigeria, Smock (1995, 2002, 2009)
emphasises the bridging, universal role of religion, based on individual
spiritual experiences of the devotees (experientialist approach). Bitter
(2009) examines to what extent religious beliefs divide people in Tajik-
istan, and shows, nonetheless, how peace can be promoted with practi-
cal activities that address concrete problems (constructivist approach).
From a more practical perspective, Weingardt (2008a, 2008b)

establishes a list of factors that in his view can strengthen the role of
religion-based actors in promoting peace, based on a thorough analysis
of case studies from around the world. It is worth summarising these
points here.
1. Religion-based actors need sufficient financial, technical and human

resources for expert training, networking activities, public relations
campaigns, human rights monitoring, electoral observation, conflict
prevention and reconciliation projects.
2. Internal religion-based actors are needed. Even if external
actors want to get engaged in conflict resolution activities, they
are more likely to succeed if they rely on internal actors in the
conflict. Yet,Weingardt argues, such actors need to be identified,

strengthened and supported over the long run, through support to
relevant organisations and actors through trainings, cooperation,
and networking. The value of involving faith-based grassroots actors
and whole indigenous communities, and not just religious leaders,
is reiterated by a number of scholars (see among others Little 2007;
Lederach 1997; Johnston 2003, 2005).
3. Religious education should focus on the positive aspects of religion.
Whereas religious analphabetism (or illiteracy) per se does
not lead to conflict (see also Appleby 2000), religious education
that focuses predominantly on the confrontational and violence-
supporting elements of religion can be exploited by political and
religious leaders to promote violence and foil peace processes.
Thus, education on the peaceful elements of ones own religion
and of those of other people can be a strong factor for building
resilience against violence. The US State Department and the UK
Foreign & Commonwealth Office have already been taken up this
recommendation, and set up training programmes on religious
literacy for their personnel, even though participation in both
schemes is on a voluntary basis (Mandaville and Silvestri 2015).
4. Moderate religious leaders need to be supported. The crucial
role played by moderate religious leaders has been widely
acknowledged. Weingardt (2008a, 2008b) believes that the
international community should support these leaders early on and
that their role as partners in dialogue and cooperation should be
strengthened to counteract fundamentalist tendencies in religion.
This last point recommending support for moderate religious leaders,

however, deserves some critical consideration because of some
inherent hidden downsides. First, it may prove very difficult to identify
such leaders, partly because of shifting alliances that they may develop
and because it may be a challenge for the layperson to establish the
criteria by which a religious leader can be categorised as moderate.
Second, a focus on leaders is likely to ignore the voice of women as
most organised religions are structured along patriarchal lines, but
women have proven to be important actors, often operating on the
domestic level both in promoting peace and in condoning violence
(Gnanadason, Kanyoro and McSpadden 1996; Skidmore and Lawrence
2007). Third, when governments or diplomats interfere in the religious
sphere and start sponsoring particular faith groups or individuals, the
autonomy and legitimacy of the latter often become tarnished in the
eyes of their own religious communities. This was very clear in the
UK when the government attempted to promote moderate Islam in

the context of the counterterrorism policy, Prevent, in the course of
the 2000s. Among British Muslim communities, it was felt that those
organisations and individuals that had engaged with the government
orreceived state funding had lost credibility (see Silvestri 2010).
Galtung (2012) calls upon international leaders to explore the enor-

mous reservoirs of experience that are presented by religions. He
emphasises that the insights of religions can help societies to judge
political developments. For him, religions provide a toolbox to promote
peace; their comparative advantage is their transcendence perspec-
tive (Galtung 2012). He believes that different religions can be used to
address different forms of violence. Buddhism, for example, provides
perspectives on how to address direct violence; Islam can be used to
fight against structural violence. However, more research needs to be
done to fully understand the lessons that can be learnt from different
religions. Similarly, Stckelberger (2012) argues that research in peace
studies has not yet succeeded in fully understanding the instrumen-
talisation, of religion, or how it can be organised and adapted for their
discipline. Again, more research is needed to grasp the complexity of
economic, social, political and ethnic forces. Stckelberger (2012) also
warns that excluding religion is a way to postpone problems not to solve
them; moreover, integrating religion early can pre-empt the emergence
of violent fundamentalism before it is too late.
Johnston and Cox (2003, 14) provide a systematic elaboration of the

attributes that enable religious leaders and religious institutions to influ-
ence peacemaking . These actors have well established and pervasive
influence in the community and typically (though not always) a reputa-
tion as an apolitical force for change based on a respected set of values.
They also have a unique leverage for reconciling confliction parties,
including an ability to rehumanize relationships and they possess the
capability to mobilize community, national, and international support
for a peace process. But most importantly, they exert a transcendent
authority for their followers that is the envy of most temporal leaders.
Some scholars have developed models for specific activities to promote

the positive force of religion. Abu-Nimer (2001) described a training
model of interreligious peacebuilding, which he sees playing a funda-
mental, central role in transforming conflicts, given the crucial place that
religious identities have and have had in many conflicts, such as those in
Northern Ireland, the Middle East and former Yugoslavia. Interreligious
training should focus on the individual experiences of practitioners and

they should be encouraged to share their positive experiences. Using
a religious narrative to describe peacebuilding and conflict resolution
activities can help parties to the conflict better understand and accept
outside interveners. Any such training should help the participants
expand their perception of a conflict from one that is narrow-minded to
a perspective that is open-minded and tolerant. As its main objective, in-
terreligious peacebuilding should strive to change the attitudes towards
the Other. Changing attitudes is a process requiring several steps, which
has been used for a long time in training workshops on conflict resolu-
tion. Abu-Nimer argues that a combination of both the elicitive model,
which focuses on the participants experiences, and the prescriptive
model, which focuses on the trainers experiences and their sharing of
those experiences with the participants, is more effective than either of
the two models on their own. For Abu-Nimer, an ideal training workshop
consists of five phases: Getting started, Situating our work, Know
where you stand, Meet the other, and What can we do together?
(Abu-Nimer 2001, 691). These phases should help participants explore
their identities and understand the identities of others. The aim is both
to share and understand commonalities, such as common values and
understandings of society and conflict, and also to reflect on differenc-
es, on their potential for conflict and advantages in promoting peace-
building. Ultimately, the participants should be encouraged to search for
future activities to resolve conflicts peacefully.
For Abu-Nimer (2003), interreligious training needs to be deeply

anchored in the religions of its participants. In other words, training for
peacemakers must be based on a narrative that originates with the
teachings, scriptures and traditions of the religions of these peacemak-
ers. As discussed in Section 4.4, he argues that Islam is based on
fundamentally humane concepts and has developed a whole set of
non-violent tools for conflict resolution, but that many Muslims do not
have sufficient knowledge of the Islamic tradition and experience in
peacebuilding. Hence there is a need not only to train Westerners in
non-Western modes and rituals of conflict resolution, but also to support
the emergence of indigenous (non-Western) actors able to articulate the
search for peace from within their own faith tradition.
Stewart (2009, 31) argues in favour of improved monitoring and early

warning mechanisms, noting that in most conflicts, both religious and
ethnic, there are many warning signs, often recorded by independ-
ent observers, frequently ignored by decision-makers for a variety of
reasons. For policymakers, these warning signs and the time span
needed to mobilise a population for violent conflict provide important
opportunities for the international community to intervene: The need
for both religious and ethnic leaders to work at mobilisation for some
time preceding a conflict gives rise to possibilities of monitoring and
intervention to prevent conflict occurring (Stewart 2009, 1).
In recent years, there have been reports that evaluate faith-based dia-
logue programmes. These provide a good assessment of practical chal-
lenges to such dialogue and point to the need for additional research.
Garfinkels 2004 report, What Works? Evaluating Interfaith Dialogue
Programs, is an attempt to provide a rigorous analysis of how such
programmes can enhance religious tolerance and transform societies.
It argues that religious dialogue programmes need to include religious
dimensions at all stages of the project.
5. Case study I: Religion
and the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict
5.1. Background
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is widely seen as

a nationalist struggle, where both sides are concerned with issues
of security, sovereignty and self-determination and not on building
a state based on Islamic sharia or Jewish halakhic laws (Frisch and
Sandler 2004, 78). The roots of the modern-day conflict are identified in
ethno-political differences that emerged in the late nineteenth century
(Milton-Edwards 2006), since both Israeli Jews and Palestinians have
legitimate and inalienable rights which are rooted in the historical
experience of each people, rather than other factors (Tessler 1994, xi).
Fox and Sandler (2004) and Frisch and Sandler (2004) argue that the
nationalist and state-centric identity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
is partially due to the norms of the international system, of which both
sides wish to be a part.
Despite the dominance of national identity in both the causation and

development of the conflict, religion and religious aspirations have
also played a role in the conflict, in many ways intensifying it (Fox and
Sandler 2004). It has been argued that the conflict has been religicised
(Milton-Edwards 2006), so that growing religious elements are used
to perpetuate rather than resolve it. In his study of the role of religion
in ethnic conflicts, Fox (2000a, 17) argues that the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict conforms to the model in which secular conflicts, those fought
over national rather than theocratic claims, often evoke the use of reli-
gious legitimacy and institutions and, in doing so, can be transformed
into religious conflicts. However, while religion is used to promote the
national struggle in almost all cases, the governing bodies will not let
religion become dominant in a way that would threaten their collective
candidacy in the exclusive club of territorial nation-states (Frisch and

Sandler 2004, 93).
The injection of religion into the conflict can be seen among both
Israelis and Palestinians in the emergence of groups inspired by religion
that reject compromise on the basis of religious reasoning, and often
promote violence in order to achieve their goals. There are similarities in
the use of religion and violence by the two sides, although the religious
concepts, the ways in which violence is employed, and the identities
of those considered to be religious actors highlight differences both
between the two peoples and among the various groups concerned.
On the Palestinian side, there is a very clear link between religion,

conflict and violence, in the cases of Hamas (Islamic Resistance Move-
ment) and Islamic Jihad. According to the former, the Palestinian cause
is not about land and soil, but it is about faith and belief (Islamic Resist-
ance Movement cited in Litvak 1998, 148). Hamas has used religion to
legitimise the use of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Singh
2012) but also, in line with Foxs (2000a) argument, to gain power in the
Palestinian nationalist political landscape. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad
promote the use of suicide bombings against Israel. However, in a study
of martyrs, it was found that individuals engaged in suicide terrorism
in the Second Intifada had several motivations and not only religious
ones (Moghadam 2003). Given the changing political reality of the Oslo
Accords, Hamas shifted to promote a non-violent, social jihad along-
side a military one encouraging the Islamisation of Palestinian society
(Hatina1999).
Based on extensive fieldwork in Gaza, Gunning (2009) has provided

adetailed study of Hamas evolution as both a political party and
areligious and civil society actor able to mobilise and strategically
articulate its political thought. His analysis pays particular attention to
the structural and historical context within which Hamas has operated,
and to the way in which the movements political theory has been
coherent with its political practice. This sophisticated and rounded
picture thus enables Gunning to elaborate on the power of this actor
beyond its religious identity, and to criticise simplistic labels of Hamas
as a terrorist organisation.
Fatah, on the other hand, while imbuing its speeches and publications
with Islamic symbols (Frisch 2005), was essentially a secular nationalist
movement, which aimed to play by the rules of the international system.
However, during the Second Intifadah, they were under pressure both
to encourage and to adopt suicide bombings as a strategy (Luft 2002).
The emergence of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military wing of
Fatah, which conducted suicide bombings during the Second Intifadah,
was not, however, a shift towards the Islamisation of Fatah. Rather it
was a strategy of the nationalist organisation to use Islamic symbols
and allusions to mobilise the public for Palestinian nationalist goals and,
in fact, to discourage the rise of Islamic movements (Frisch 2005; Luft
2002). For Fatah, Islam was used as a means to an end, whereas for
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Islam itself was the end. According to Milton-
Edwards (2006, 72) the growing religious dimension and the rise of
Islamist movements in the region should be seen not as fundamentalist
movements but as resurgent movements, riding the wave of growing
Islamism, both internally and externally, for the sake of a wider struggle
over territoriality, identity, ethnicity, economy, nationalism, colonialism
and imperialism, as well as over religion.
On the Jewish side, religious-inspired violence within the Israeli-

Palestinian conflict is more commonly seen among extra-parliamentary
groups, although with links to political parties. The aftermath of the
Six-Day War in 1967 and the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978
triggered the emergence of the extreme right (Hecht 1993), steeped
in messianic religiosity but constrained by political realities (Sprinzak
1991a). Some argue that there were precursors to this in the religious
objection to the Israeli Proclamation of Independence (Peleg 1997),
which included universal values of equality between religions and races
in Israel and such grievances with secular Israel played a role in the re-
course to violence. Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) emerged, claim-
ing that Judea and Samaria (West Bank), which had been conquered
in the war, were inalienable and non-negotiablebecause God had
promised them to Abraham (Sprinzak 1987, 203). According to Sprinzak
(1998, 1991a, 1987), the violence of Gush Emunim was incremental
because of the combination of a messianic belief in redemption and the
context of a national conflict. They were mainly a vigilante movement,
aimed at combatting the failures of the Israeli authorities to protect the
settlers against Arabs in the territories and to maintain order in the West
Bank. The violence was therefore not religiously motivated, although the
rabbis opposed none of their actions (Sprinzak 1987).
A Jewish Underground emerged as a revitalisation movement in

response to internal changes in Gush Emunim (Sprinzak 1999; 1991a),
which included pragmatic decisions that led to the subordination of
religious concepts to the moral authority of the state (Taub 2007).

Theywere against subservience of traditional Jewish norms of religious
observation to the secular government in Israel, and believed in the
institutionalisation of Jewish theocracy (Sprinzak, 1987). They sought
to blow up the Dome of the Rock, clearly a religiously motivated act of
violence, one that Gush Emunim would not have thought of (Sprinzak
1987). Based on Kahanist ideology, they believed that Jewish violence
in defence of Jewish interest is never bad (Sprinzak 1991b, 56).
In more recent years the Hilltop Youth have emerged as second and
third generation religious-nationalist settlers, mobilised by the failure
of the older generation to halt the 2005 Gaza Disengagement. They
engage in price tag attacks, which are physical acts of violence and
desecration of mosques when compromises are made with the Pales-
tinians or settlements are demolished, and unlike their parents, they do
not affiliate with traditional religious authorities (Boudreau 2014; Byman
and Sachs 2012). Their overriding goal is to deter Israeli leaders from
implementing a possible future Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement
that entails removing Israeli settlements from the West Bank (Nir 2011,
277). Carton (2011) argues that while their actions are religiously moti-
vated, there are also sociological, psychological and political influences.
While a minority of Israeli Jews undertake acts of Jewish terrorism,

Hecht (1993, 14) argued that they should not be viewed as an isolated
extremist faction but as a very influential school that has been push-
ing the entire Israeli right towards greater ultra-nationalism, greater
extra-legalism, greater militarism, greater ethnocentrism, and greater
religiosity. Although Hechts remark was made over two decades ago,
the outcome of the Israeli elections of March 2015 and the ensuing
alliance between the right-wing Likud Party and ultra-orthodox groups
appear to confirm the societal shift towards greater ethnocentrism and
religiosity. The amalgamation of ultra-orthodox religious doctrines with
ideas of nationalism is said to have caused the violence employed by
the assassin of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (Sandler 1996, 148149).
Religious nationalists are at the forefront of opposing any peace process
that involves territorial withdrawal, resulting in non-Jewish control of
any part of the Land of Israel (Newman 2005). Peace, however, is not
negated by these groups, as their concept is religious, accompanying
ultimate redemption (Newman and Hermann 1992).
5.2. Religious concepts
In the Readings in the Laws of Martyrdom of the Islamic Jihad there is

an intertwining of religion and politics (Hatina 2005). The word shaheed
(Muslim martyr), itself denotes a religious concept (Moghadam 2003),
and the religious doctrine of jihad (holy war) is referenced in the mani-
festos of Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Fatah (Frisch 2005; Hatina 2005).
This refers to the moral superiority of Islam over infidels and other
cultures (Hatina 2005, 242). The religious concepts of jihad and shaheed
are closely linked to modern secular concepts of thawra (revolution)
and fidai (sacrifice) (Johnson cited in Hatina 2005). Given the identi-
fication of Palestine as an Islamic Waqf or trust, jihad is central in the
struggle for a Palestinian state (Singh 2012). For radical Islamists, the
fall of Jerusalem into infidel hands is perceived as a wound that must be
healed (al-Khalifa Khutba, cited in Milton-Edwards 2006, 79). Ignoring
jihad is considered a sin and the highest way to please Allah is the inten-
tion (niya) of becoming a martyr (Hatina 2005). Martyrdom comes with
the Islamic promise of an afterlife replete with gold, palaces, feasts and
virgin brides (Kushner 1996, 333), as understood from some readings of
Surah 78 of the Quran and according to a weak Hadith tradition.
In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the belief that only Islam and not
nationalism could liberate Muslims from foreign (infidel) rule (Milton-
Edwards 2006, 83), highlights both the Islamic nature of the struggle
but also the general confinement of the movements to the liberation of
Palestine rather than a global jihad. The concept al-siyasa al sharyya
(subject to political considerations) enabled warfare to include a
defensive jihad that allows killing of civilians (Hatina 2005). Unlike Fatah,
Hamas and Islamic Jihad both aim to implement sharia law in Palestine
and to rule over the infidels. The pragmatic approach of Hamas to agree
to ceasefires is explained by the Treaty of Hudabiyya, in which, deriving
from the behaviour of the Prophet, Islam gives permission for peace to
be made with an enemy for a specific period of time, no longer than ten
years (Hatina 1999).
The religious concepts of Gush Emunim are based on the teachings

of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, who stated that ours is a messianic age in
which the Land of Israel, in its entirety is to be reunited (Sprinzak 1987,
198). The Israeli demand to settle in Judea and Samaria is based on
Gods promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob made 5,000 years earlier
(Jones 1999; Lustick 1987; Sprinzak 1987). Furthermore, redemption
and the End of Days would be possible only in the Greater Land of
Israel, and so territorial compromise means forfeiting redemption

(Sprinzak 1987, 203). The Holocaust and the Arab-Israeli wars are
explained as part of the redemption period of the Messiah Son of
Joseph, who would ultimately fail, but as an integral part of the process
(Lustick 1987). Kook believed that the Israeli government was legitimate
in the process towards redemption (Sprinzak 1987). However, there
was a halakhic edict that prohibited the evacuation of settlements in the
Land of Israel, and even a call for soldiers to disobey orders in the Gaza
disengagement (Arboff 1999).
Rabbi Kahane promoted a more violent interpretation, although he

believed his was coming directly from the Halakha, or Jewish religious
law (Sprinzak 1991b). He believed in the necessity of a physical struggle
against the Gentiles, with Jewish violence sanctified and glorified for
its own sake, since it proves the might of God by reversing the history
of humiliation (Sprinzak 1998, 120). Kahane argued that God could
no longer put up with humiliation after the Holocaust and created the
State of Israel as revenge against the Gentiles, with the very definition
of Jewish freedom implying the ability to humiliate Gentiles (Sprinzak
1991b, 50). Concepts such as Kiddush Hashem (sanctifying the name
of God) are used to justify grave acts of terror, including the 1994
Hebron massacre and the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
(Sprinzak 1998). Sprinzak (1998) also explains the use of certain rulings
that underpinned the attack on Rabin, although there was no Rabbinical
sanction. Din Rodef refers to a ruling against someone who provides
Gentiles with information about Jews or gives them Jewish property
and din moser refers to the ruling on Jews who surrender Jews to
Gentiles. Jews are obliged to kill a moser (a Gentile that surrenders
Jews to Gentiles) without trial (Sprinzak 1998). Kahane also called for
violence against Jewish Hellenists (Boudreau 2014), that is those open
to the infiltration of Western values into Judaism. This underpinned
some of the price tag attacks against left-wing peace organisations
in Israel. In these more radical groups, the term Amalekite is used to
identify enemies of the Jewish people. The Biblical story, where God
demanded the destruction of the Amalekites by the Children of Israel,
isused to sanctify violence (Jones 1999).
The Hill Top Youth, while inspired by the teachings of Kahane, do not use
messianic language and the land is seen as the end in and of itself, not
just a means to redemption. Settling the land as their biblical ancestors
had done is their form of redemption (Carton 2001).
5.3. Religious actors
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade all promoted
violence with reference to Islam. Leaders of the political movements,
as well as Sheikhs and Muftis, can be identified as key actors. Youth
movements played a role in education and mobilising, as did mosques.
Individuals identified in Frischs (2005) study of suicide bombing showed
few similarities, however. They were not core members of the political
organisations and went through a significant period of training from the
organisations before undertaking the task. They were recruited from
mosques and schools (Kushner 1996).
Rabbis played a significant role in inspiring certain religious worldviews

through interpretations of the Bible and the Halakha. They were also
consulted in order to sanction certain acts of violence; the two greatest
acts of Jewish terrorism were conducted by a rabbi and an unconnected
individual, who had apparently been raised with these interpretations
(Sprinzak 1991a). A number of Kahanes followers had been members
of the Jewish Defense League in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to
Israel to follow their rabbi (Friedman 1986). The Hill Top Youth are young,
second or third generation settlers. The ideology they espouse was
disseminated through synagogues or institutes of higher Jewish learn-
ing (Newman 2005), as well as from the Bnei Akiva youth movements,
encouraging younger participation (Newman and Hermann 1992).
5.4. Evidence
In the case of the Palestinian studies cited here, evidence was drawn
from speeches of leaders from the political movements, and from their
websites (Frisch 2005). Quotes from sheikhs and muftis and publica-
tions from the organisations were also used (Moghadam 2003; Hatina
2005), as were newspaper articles (Milton-Edwards 2006; Moghadam
2003; Litvak 1988). In his study of the motivations for suicide bombings,
Frisch (2005) consulted the obituaries of the martyrs. Milton-Edwards
(2006) conducted interviews. Gunning (2009) did interviews and
observed participants. The Quran and commentaries of it were also
consulted (Hatina 1999; 2005).
Evidence for the studies on Israel also came from a wide variety of
sources. In particular, the writings of the leading rabbis were sourced,
including those of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook and his students (Lustick 1987;
Sprinzak 1998, 1991a, 1987), and the speeches and writings of Rabbi
Kahane (Sprinzak 1991b). The writings of the leaders of the movements
were also consulted, including the Gush Emunim journal, Nekuda
(Sprinzak 1998, 1991a, 1987; Friedman 1986). Newspaper articles pro-
vided evidence of attacks that had occurred and interviews with groups
responsible (Nir 2011; Newman 2005). Some also involved primary
interviews with settlers (Boudreau 2014).
5.5. Confliction resolution
Bar-Siman-Tov (2010) argues that the political power of religious

movements and their use of terrorism have the potential to prevent
the possibility of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For this
reason, it is necessary to diffuse the radical religious elements of both
sides if there is to be resolution of the conflict (Bar-Siman-Tov 2010;
Jones 1999). Moderate religious commentary from religious sources
is needed to legitimise a political compromise and one that removes
the emotionally charged elements from religious values (Bar-Siman-
Tov 2010, 256). Jones (1999) noted that in the Jewish case, religious
teachings do sanction territorial compromise but the centre-left, which
promotes a two-state solution, gives only lip service to Judaism and it
needs to incorporate the language and values of religious nationalism
if it is to gain support from religious groups and diffuse the violent
tendencies of some of their members. Following the 1995 assassination
of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, there was a conscious
rabbinical effort to exercise control over the rhetoric of the extreme
rightand to rule out political violence (Sprinzak 1991a).
Although currently based in the US, Mohammed Abu-Nimer, founder

and director of the Salam Institute for Peace and Justice in Washington,
DC, is a Palestinian from Israel and a major voice on interfaith reconcili-
ation. He maintains that there is a need for a process of moving from
religiocentric perspectives to religiorelative ones, which calls for
interreligious awareness that focuses both on the similarities between
the religions and their differences (Abu-Nimer 2004; 2011). Furthermore,
religious leaders should be consulted in peace negotiations, particularly
on religiously sensitive issues (Landau 2003). One suggestion is that
religious leaders draft their own peace agreement alongside a politi-
cal peace agreement (Abu-Nimer 2004). The 2002 Alexandria Summit
brought together religious leaders from the Middle East to promote
Israeli-Palestinian peace on the basis that, according to our faiths
killing innocents in the name of God is a desecration of His Holy Name,

and defames religion in the world (cited in Landau 2003, 19).
While the Israeli peace movement is said to be made up mainly of secu-

lar, middle-class Ashkenazi Jews (Hermann 2009), there are anumber
of peace organisations in Israel that are explicitly religious. OzVShalom/
Netivot Shalom (Strength and Peace/ Peace) was a religious group that
was set up in 1975 to counter the teachings of Gush Shalom. It argued
that occupation and control of another people goes against Jewish val-
ues such as sanctity of the soul, or pikuach (Hermann 2009), and that
there is in fact Jewish precedent for giving away territory in the Bible
(Jones 1999). Rabbis for Human Rights, a human rights organisation
made up of Reform and Conservative rabbis, is based on the belief that,
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created
him (Genesis 1:2627). Eretz Shalom (Land of Peace) is a group of reli-
gious Jewish settlers who engage in peacebuilding with Palestinians in
the West Bank, based on the leadership of Rabbi Froman who believes
that the land does not belong to anyone and coexistence and sharing
should be the paradigm for peace.
Among the Palestinian non-violent resistance groups there are some

key religious actors. One is the Mosque Protection Committee led by
Shiek Raed Salah, who promotes a discourse of non-violent resistance
that is rooted in the Quran and the Hadith (Abu-Nimer 2011). There are
also some interreligious dialogue groups that bring together leading
religious figures to discuss how they can promote peace (Kaufman,
Salem and Verhoeven 2006). Jerusalem Peacemakers is one example
of the interfaith groups working in the region. They believe that all three
monotheistic religions should live together as the children of Abraham.
The pioneering work of Archbishop Elias Chacour to promote tangible
reconciliation between Jews and Palestinians in Israel is remarkable.
APalestinian Catholic priest, of the Melkite church, he is the founder
and president of Mar Elias Educational Institutions in Ibillin, Israel. He
has devoted his life to facilitating mutual understanding between youths
of different religions and ethnic backgrounds through the kindergarten,
elementary, junior and high schools of Mar Elias College. There, stu-
dents from the three Abrahamic traditions live and study together, speak
each others languages and learn about their reciprocal faith traditions.
5.6. Women in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Both Israelis and Palestinians have used the concept of motherhood

to define the role of women in the conflict. Israeli prime ministers have
referred to womens fertility as a national priority (Sharoni 1995), partly
to produce future soldiers and also to win the demographic war. In the
1993 Hamas Charter, a similar role is assigned to Palestinian women,
whereby they have, the most important role in taking care of the
home and raising children of ethical character and understanding that
comes from Islam and training her children to perform the religious
obligations in preparation for the Jihadic role that awaits them (cited in
Jacoby 1999, 518). Beyond their role as mothers, women in both Israeli
and Palestinian societies have taken an active role in aspects of the
conflict, most clearly through the emergence of independent womens
or feminist movements. Religion does not seem to have an explicit role
for women in the Israeli side, whereas either rejection of or promotion
of Islamic teachings have played a role in the Palestinian womens
movement, which was particularly prominent in the First Intifada.
Women have played a significant role in Israeli peace activism, initially

inthe formation of the Four Mothers movement, in which women
voiced their objection to the first Lebanon war because of their role as
mothers protecting their sons (Lemish and Barzel 2000). The womens
movement became more explicitly feminist during the First Intifada,
with the founding of Women in Black that sought to find legitimacy for
their anti-occupation stance through their role as citizens, not as moth-
ers (Sharoni 1995). They sought to highlight the connection between
womens issues and the occupation. Since the Second Intifada, as wom-
en took up more combat roles in the Israeli Defence Forces, anewanti-
war voice emerged from their experiences where they served alongside
men in the Occupied Territories. They criticised the immaturity of their
male counterparts, while showing empathy for the Palestinians (Sasson-
Levy, Levy and Lomsky-Feder 2011). Since the Second Intifada, there
has been a shift in Israeli peace activism from Israeli towns to the West
Bank, in solidarity with Palestinian activists. This has meant that Israeli
activists, particularly women, have had to be conscious of the cultural
differences in the West Bank villages, and dress appropriately for the
demonstrations, which has sometimes conflicted with the feminist
ideologies of the Israeli activists (Fleischmann n.d.).
Religion has played a greater role in mobilising Palestinian women.

Themobilisation of Palestinian women to the nationalist cause was
most prominent in the First Intifada, which is generally seen as a non-

violent uprising. The emergence of a Palestinian womens movement
dealt not only with the nationalist struggle but also simultaneously
focused on womens issues. Jacoby (1999) identifies three strands
of the womens movement. One is an explicitly secular movement
formed from the communist and Marxist factions, another an Islamic
womens movement promoting sharia law, and third is a Muslim
womens movement that sought to rearticulate Sharia to accommodate
indigenous feminism (Jacoby 1999, 521). According to Hasso (1998),
the Palestinian Federation of Womens Action Committees, an affiliate
of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, with its anti-
religious Marxist roots, was the largest and most influential womens
organisation during the First Intifada. However, in recruiting women,
they had to de-emphasise their anti-religious beliefs. The rise of Hamas
in the second year of the First Intifada and their imposition of the hijab
on women in Gaza then created difficulties for the progressive womens
movement (Berkovitch and Moghadam 1999). This created a space
for the Islamist womens groups to provide an authentic space for
women to organise without having to worry about violating social
norms (Berkovitch and Moghadam 1999, 650). Jacoby (1999) notes
thecomplexity between feminism, nationalism and religion in Palestine,
suggesting that the motivations for joining the womens nationalist
struggle in the First Intifada came from a spectrum of religious beliefs
that highlighted different roles for women in the conflict.
While religion may not be a shared driving force for Israeli and
Palestinian women seeking to change the status quo and work towards
peace, it has been argued that their identity as women has enabled
them to transcend the Israeli-Palestinian/Jewish-Muslim-Christian
divides and connect more easily than men. Their shared experience of
gender oppression has helped them to cross the national and religious
boundaries (Sharoni 1995). According to Kaufman, Salem and Verhoeven
(2006), during the Second Intifada, joint Israeli-Palestinian activities in
general declined but this decline was not as significant for joint activities
of womens organisations.
6. Case study II: Mali
6.1. Background
Mali has experienced a long history of conflict between the centre and
its periphery. Tuareg rebellions in northern Mali, which pitted parts of the
population in the north of the country against the central government
in the capital Bamako and the population in the south have shaken this
West African country for decades. There have been numerous attempts
at conflict resolution, including some by the international community.
None of those has led to sustainable peacebuilding. In 2012, another
Tuareg rebellion brought to the fore the rising influence of the Tuareg
national liberation movement (MNLA: Mouvement national pour la
libration de lAzawad). Benefitting from a power vacuum of the central
government due to a coup dtat, these non-state armed actors took
control of major population centres in northern Mali, including Timbuktu,
Gao and Kidal. This essentially secular Tuareg movement saw its
power rapidly decline due to the advent and rise of Islamic extremist
movements aiming to take control over large parts of North and West
Africa and create an Islamic state. These were: Ansar Dine (Defenders
of the Faith), a Malian Tuareg movement; the Movement for Oneness
and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA), and; Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb
(AQIM). These movements rapidly established their terrorist rule in
northern Mali until they were dislodged by French and African military
intervention in January 2013, although cells and attacks continue to
date. Peace negotiations between the Tuareg groups (and other groups
from northern Mali) and the Government of Mali, with mediation by
the international community, are ongoing at the time ofthis writing
(August2015).
6.2. Concepts
Three main concepts are used by the relevant actors in Mali to denote
their relationship with religion.
1. The Malian state and society apparently embraced the French ideal
of state secularism or laicity (lacit in French), with an evident
separation of religion and the state.
2. A moderate version of Islam, mixed with cultural traditions,
isprevalent among the Muslim population in Mali.
3. Extremist and fundamentalist interpretations of Islam are apparent
among Ansar Dine, MOJWA and AQIM. Although local religious
groups do not use fundamentalist and radical interpretations of
Islam, the media often frame this conflict as being connected to
religious extremism and fundamentalism, even with regard to laic
Tuareg groups.
6.3. Actors
The Malian government and Malian civil society show a strong attach-
ment to laicity and the need to define governmentsociety relations,
as well as inner-Malian social relations, in secular terms. Most Malians
90per cent of its population are Muslim (predominantly Sunni),
while approximately nine per cent practise indigenous faiths, and about
one per cent is Christian (Coleman 2014, 175). Christian, indigenous or
traditional religious minorities lived peacefully and were tolerated in the
country until the recent conflict in 2012 (Jeffrey 2013). Religious free-
doms are guaranteed by the Constitution and are again being respected
in practice after the terrorist occupation of northern Mali ended.
The national self-determination movement MNLA publicly states its

adherence to secular values and spoke out against the attempts by
Ansar Dine, MOJWA and AQIM to install sharia law in northern Mali in
20122013. However, although it is an essentially secular movement,
the MNLA created alliances with Islamist movements, in particular in
2012, as it hoped to be able to use those movements to increase its
power and influence.
AQIM and Ansar Dine propagated an extremist and radical interpretation

of Islam and proclaimed the institution of sharia law in northern Mali.
There were widespread human rights violations in 2012 and 2013, as
well as the destruction of ancient Islamic monuments, seen by Ansar

Dine, MOJWA and AQIM as un-Islamic. Both groups are militant rather
than religious organisations and both were established by prominent
leaders and militia fighters of the failed Tuareg rebellions in the 1990s.
These two factors combined, the role of the Tuareg militiamen and the
frustration of the attempted rebellions, may explain the radical turn
to Islam. AQIM adopted its current name only in 2007; before that its
name was Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). Although
the GSPC claimed to be religiously motivated, prior to2007 it engaged
primarily in local and transnational criminality, mainly the kidnapping of
international tourists. Inspired by AQIM, Ansar Dine has also sought to
impose radical sharia law across Mali.
6.4. The role of religion in conflict and peace
Before the conflict escalated in 20122013, religion did not appear

toplay a particular role in the conflicts and in peacebuilding in Mali.
Withthe rise of Islamic extremist movements in northern Mali,
however, religion came to shape the dynamics of conflict and of
peace processes. The implementation of sharia law in northern Mali
from March/April 2013 to January 2014, on ascale not previously
experienced in the country, led to a massive and rapid deterioration
of the human rights situation. Despite the laic nature of the country,
the violence exercised meant that the population had limited chances
and opportunities to resist. Very quickly, the tolerant model of Islam
practised by the populations was undermined by imposing strict rule
based on sharia law(Primo 2013; Lecocq et al. 2013).
Nevertheless, Malian society is marked by a strong resilience to extrem-

ist Islamist thinking. Its long history of laicity and Sufism, in a society
marked by the peaceful co-existence of different religious groups and
by fundamental human rights and freedoms, has made it difficult for
Islamists to gain a strong foothold. AQIM relied on some marabouts, or
local religious teachers, to preach their interpretation of Islam, but many
marabouts would not support AQIM. Thus, it relied on a pre-existing
traditional structure of cultural importance; to obtain their allegiance,
AQIM paid marabouts money and provided them with cars and weap-
ons (Bs and Torheim 2013a). In addition, AQIM applied a strategy of
integration into local communities with the aim of overcoming its image
as an external actor, using a combination of military, political, religious,
economic and humanitarian means (Bs and Torheim 2013b, 1287).
For all this, AQIM quickly realised that they could not win the hearts
and minds of the population of northern Mali by imposing an extremist
version of sharia law. In a letter found in Timbuktu the leader of AQIM
cautions his supporters not to impose sharia too rapidly, given the
resistance from the population (Callimachi 2013; Associated Press
2013). Public opinion in the south of the country and also in northern
Mali after January 2013 clearly exposed the incompatibility of such
thinking with a Malian understanding of Islam. Malians also realised that
the jihadists persecuted everyone, not just Christians and the followers
of traditional beliefs. Rather than viewing the jihadists as ardent
practitioners of Islam, the local population in northern Mali saw them
as an organised crime syndicate, using their religious profile as a cover
for criminal activities, particularly drug and human trafficking (Jeffrey
2013). For instance, a local citizen of Timbuktu said, The jihadists are
not Muslims, they are terrorists. They came here just to destroy and to
steal. In Timbuktu we know Islam and we teach Islam, and what they
think is something completely different (Jeffrey2013, 32).
Scholars have also pointed to the fact that religion has played only a
secondary role in the conflict in Mali, and that Ansar Dine, MOJWA and
AQIM instrumentalised religion to justify their violence and criminal
activities and promote their power struggle. These movements also are
characterised by the absence of religious leaders within their ranks and
of a sound theological basis for their actions. Yet, they claim to be driven
by Islamic values. Wise (2013) claims that conflict and intervention in
northern Mali are rooted in a profound history, both Arab and Western,
of self-interest and racism. He maintains that northern Mali has been
invaded to further Arab interests in a black African region, and not to
spread the Islam. Jeffrey (2013) emphasises that the current conflict
builds on the foundations of prolonged ethnic and tribal rivalries over
land, which have plagued the Sahel region, including northern Mali,
for centuries. He argues that desertification, climate changes and the
shortage of resources exacerbate these troubles. LeMeur and Hochet
(2010) claim that previous conflicts and rebellions in Mali were, in
principle, about access to and control of resources; yet these conflicts
were also strongly linked to identity and social tensions.
The peacebuilding power of religion has created important elements

of resilience within the Malian population and has contributed to
peacebuilding efforts, although additional efforts could be made to fully
exploit its beneficial capacities to create sustainable peace. There is still
a need to tell in detail the many stories of the widespread individual
cases of bravery and opposition to Ansar Dine, MOJWA and AQIM in

northern Mali. Some examples of these, such as the acts of individual
citizens of Timbuktu, among them religious leaders (Kim 2013), to save
their cultural heritage (their historic manuscripts, for example) are
already in the public sphere. Reconciliation efforts, inspired by traditional
Islamic conflict resolution models, have played a major role in Mali,
particularly in the north of the country, to overcome ethnic divisions and
build sustainable peace. Broad-based national and local debates, within
all strands of the Malian society and including religious civil society
and religious leaders, have helped to start reuniting Malian society.
Traditional mediation efforts have also made an important contribution to
peacebuilding in Mali (Konat 1999), although more efforts are needed
to further promote long-term and effective reconciliation.
Given the claim of the terrorists that they are promoting Islam, the
importance of moderate religious leaders and moderate religious civil
society organisations in Malian politics to counter this has increased.
Ina blog for the New York Times, Armstrong (2013) argues that the High
Council of Islam (HCI) has gradually emerged as the countrys strongest
political force. The High Council, in essence a civil society organisation,
promotes a republican form of Islam. The HCI is remarkable insofar as it
unites a whole range of people with different beliefs, from more liberal
to the more conservative Muslims. The crisis has allowed religious
leaders to demand a stronger role in Malian politics. At a rally for peace
in Bamako in August 2012, the HCI was able to gather over 50,000
people. The Malian prime minister felt obliged to attend and to show the
backing he enjoys from the HCI. Religious civil society movements have
played a crucial role in mitigating violence. The HCI was key in mediating
agreements with Ansar Dine and secured the release of prisoners
of war (Armstrong 2013). Inaddition, they mobilised public support,
including financial assistance, to help the Malian army in its fight against
the terrorist occupation of thenorth of the country.
Moreover, individual religious leaders in Mali have also played apositive

role in conflict resolution in Mali. Although there has been strong
criticism of the early positioning of Mahmoud Dicko, president of the
HCI, during the arrival of Ansar Dine, MOJWA and AQIM in northern
Mali, he later publicly welcomed military intervention by Western
countries, in particular France, but also the US, and did not label it as
yet another example of the alleged US war on Islam, as US foreign
interventions elsewhere have been called. He also argued strongly
in favour of moderate interpretations of Islam throughout the crisis
(Soares 2013). The international community has clearly acknowledged

the positive role played by Malis traditional religious organisations
and leaders in promoting resilience to conflict and contributing to
peacebuilding. The current draft of a peace agreement between the
Government of Mali and non-state armed actors in northern Mali
emphasises the need to include traditional justice mechanisms to
promote reconciliation, while specifically recognising the laic nature
of the Malian state (Draft Peace Agreement for Mali 2014, chapters
14and1). The UN Security Council also affirmed that terrorist, extremist
and armed groups in the north of Mali cannot legitimately claim to speak
in the name of any religion (United Nations 2013, preamble).
Nevertheless, the growing role played by Muslim civil society

organisations in southern Mali during and in the aftermath of the most
recent crisis also led to a strengthening of extraneous conservative
forces of Islam, with potentially negative effects on the social fabric of
the country. This had its origins in an earlier period, particularly in that
following political liberalisation in 1991. Attempts to liberalise family law
in Mali have failed largely because of the strong role played by the HCI.
Instead, in 2012, a law was passed that the international community
and womens groups view as compromising the rights of women.
In addition, 2012 also saw the creation of a Ministry of Religious
Affairs and Worship, although it is yet to find its exact place in Malian
society. Soares (2006) observed that since September 2001, Islamic
fundamentalism and conservative attitudes have been on the rise in
Mali, even if only to a limited degree. Still, religious leaders, newspapers
and radio stations did begin to raise their voices while opposing the
influences of neoliberal, modern and secular lifestyles and politics
(Soares 2006). However, more research is needed to fully understand
the slow and limited, but discernible rise of radical religious views over
the last two decades in Mali, including in the south of the country,
as well as the long-term effects of public views of Islam among the
populations occupied by Ansar Dine, MOJWA, AQIM in the countrys
north. The international community needs to support measures
to prevent radicalisation by building upon the existing resilience
factorsinMali.
Gender issues related to religion have also played an important role in

the conflict in Mali. Because of the rather liberal interpretation of Islam
in the country, women can participate to a great extent in its social,
economic and political life, and they thus have a crucial role to play in
the use of sustainable peacebuilding strategies. Not only have their
livelihoods been affected by the conflict, but they were also the first
to start reconciliation processes at the local level. Also, women were
disproportionately affected by the violence in northern Mali, as armed
groups committed widespread violations of womens human rights due
to their rigid interpretation of the Quran (Amnesty International 2012).
7. Case study III: Bosnia
andHerzegovina
7.1. Background
From April 1992 to December 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina was the
setting for an armed conflict involving several parties, essentially the
military forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and those
of Republika Srpska and Herzeg-Bosnia, self-proclaimed entities within
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Following the break-up of the Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia and after a referendum, Bosnia and Herzegovina
declared independence, which was rejected both by the political leaders
of ex-Yugoslavia and the Bosnian Serbs. Bosnia and Herzegovina was
amulti-ethnic political entity, the population of which comprised Muslim
Bosnians (or Bosniaks, 44 per cent), Orthodox Serbs (31 per cent)
and Catholic Croatians (17 per cent). War soon broke out, opposing, at
different times, the three main ethno-religious groups. The conflict was
marked by massive and indiscriminate war crimes, perpetuated by all
sides, but mainly by Orthodox Serbs. International intervention by NATO
forces eventually led to an end of the war and allowed the parties to sign
the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995. The Dayton Agreement divided
the country into two political entities the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska. It also made some rearrange-
ments of the cantons and provided constitutional recognition for all
three of the recognised ethnic groups. To date, Bosnia and Herzegovina
is marked by a fragile state of peace, with strong divides between the
different ethno-religious groups.
7.2. Concepts
Ethno-religious conflict and ethno-religious warfare are the main

terms scholars and politicians use to denote the religious dimension of
the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The countries of ex-Yugoslavia
are characterised by the fact that the various communities are marked
by their affiliations with specific religions. Their ethnic and religious
identities overlap. Academics, in particular ethnologists, differ in their
assessment of which identity the religious or the ethnic is predomi-
nant. Most people in Bosnia and Herzegovina tend to identify with their
religion rather than with the state. Political and religious leaders of the
three groups also emphasise the long-standing historic oppression of
their respective religions or religious persecution. Ethno-nationalism is
also prevalent in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the members belong-
ing to a nation are defined in terms of ethnicity rather than citizenship.
Citizenship-based mentality exists in a state where the members of
the state identify themselves as members simply because they are citi-
zens, regardless of ethnic or religious affiliation. This term was used by
scholars to describe the pre-war phase until 1992, at least with regard to
the official state policy (Kivimki, Kramer and Pasch 2012, 12). Holy war
and religious war were concepts that all conflict parties used to justify
the warfare and their use of violence, although to differing degrees.
7.3. Actors
The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a multi-dimensional conflict,

involving a multitude of actors. In the name of simplicity, for this case
study the actors with different perspectives but who were nonetheless
on the same side, have not been differentiated, but include:
Muslim Bosnians;
Orthodox Serbs;
Catholic Croatians;
local religious leaders;
international religious leaders;
religious relief organisations;
Croatia;
Serbia;
international community (in particular NATO).
7.4. The role of religion in conflict and peace
Religion played a negative role in the conflict in Bosnia and

Herzegovina,with regard to the role of local religious leaders and of
religious identities. Peace-promoting voices either did not exist or were
not heard sufficiently. Whereas the conflict was mainly about power
and territorial issues, ethno-religious identity played a crucial role, both
fuelling and maintaining it. The centrality of identity-based conflict
motives was amajor factor in the conflict, which was exploited by
both religious and political leaders (Kivimki, Kramer and Pasch 2012,
15). In the aftermath of and during the war, and even until now, the
peacebuilding potential of religion has been underutilised and has come
to the fore only through dissident voices. Substantial efforts could have
been made to use the capacities of religion to the benefit of creating
sustainable peace. The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a prominent
example of what some have called a new war, in which identity instead
of ideology (as during the Cold War) underlies the politics of the conflict
and where group identity is the cornerstone for mobilising popular
support for it (Kaldor 2012). Three dimensions of the conflict in Bosnia
and Herzegovina need to be addressed for sustainable peacebuilding,
namely identity, grievance, and power sharing (Kivimki, Kramer
andPasch 2012).
Long-standing historic conflicts that are centred on the questions

of religious identity, as well as their exploitation by political leaders,
have exacerbated the perceived cleavages among the different ethno-
religious groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The geopolitical location
of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Christian and Muslim spheres of
influence have made it a battleground for centuries for both Christian
and Muslim forces. Historical developments were perceived as unjust
and impacted directly on the conflict dynamics (Kivimki, Kramer and
Pasch 2012). Before Yugoslavia fell apart, politics under its president,
Josip Broz Tito, did not contribute to reducing religious and ethnic
differences among its citizens, but simply obscured them (Patterson
2013). Past injustices figured prominently in the public discourse and
made it difficult to disconnect ethnicity from religion. This created
a situation that could be easily exploited by political leaders. Most
importantly, state-building efforts in Yugoslavia utterly failed, as Serb
leaders ruled along ethno-religious lines instead of creating an all-
inclusive society, respectful of the multiple identities of its citizens.
As aresult, the citizens of ex-Yugoslavia continued to identify primarily
along ethnic and religious lines.
Religion has played a pivotal part in the ethnic identity of the three
groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Kivimki, Kramer and Pasch 2012,
17). This amalgam between religion and ethnicity does not in itself
lead to conflict, but when the religious and political discourse takes
an out-group/in-group approach rather than one with a universalist
message of humanity, this amalgam exacerbates conflicts. Political
leaders instrumentalised religion to help them achieve their own ethno-
nationalist objectives, justify war and also massive war crimes, including
ethnic cleansing (Kivimki, Kramer and Pasch 2012), although the official
state policy was to promote citizenship-based identities. A strong
argument can be made that it was not religion that was at the origin
of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but rather politics and power
struggles and that the political parties, by involving religion in their
politics, did nothing else but create tension and hatred between the
people (Stefanov 2012). The ethno-religious identities of Bosnian Serbs
and Croats were strengthened and exploited for political objectives by
their homelands, namely the former Yugoslavia and Republic of Croatia
(Kivimki, Kramer and Pasch 2012, 16).
However, some argue that religion itself was the cause of the conflict.
They use Huntingtons model (1993; 1997) of the clash of civilisations
and argue that the Balkan countries constituted a series of intercon-
nected fault lines between the Western Christian, the Eastern Orthodox
and the Islamic civilisations (Cline n.d.). Yet, these writers also admit
that the presumed clash of civilisations in the Balkans could only happen
because all three groups laid claim to the same territory, thus basically
accepting that the main underlying conflict factor was a struggle about
territory and power. Other scholars use a slightly modified argument.
For example, Robinson (2007) saw the conflict as largely a religious
one. And Rubin (1999) claimed that religious identity has been present
constantly in the antagonisms that have fragmented the Balkans for
centuries setting neighbour against neighbour, Muslims against Or-
thodox Christians, and Orthodox Christians against Western Christians.
Current opinion polls show that today, the Croats in particular blame the
Bosnian Serbs for excessive influence of religiousness on public life
(Skoko 2010). Such a perception is fuel for potential conflict.
Local and national religious leaders and groups played a negative role
in exacerbating the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina by contributing
to a radicalisation of the ethno-religious groups. For instance, Bosnian
Serb religious leaders mobilised popular support for the punishment
of secular leaders (Kivimki, Kramer and Pasch 2012). Non-Orthodox
Christian groups did not sufficiently use their potential to promote peace
either. International religious leaders played a prominent but at times
negative role in the conflict. Eastern Orthodox churches fostered the
kind of negative and destructive nationalism that fuelled and sustained
the war; they indirectly supported war crimes by providing cover
for war criminals such as Karadzic. The Catholic Church, in particular
the Vatican, did not fully exercise its potential influence over Croat
leaders to mitigate tensions and find peaceful solutions to the conflict.
Foreign Muslim fighters, mostly from Afghanistan, provided military
assistance to Bosniak forces (Patterson 2013). Religious leaders of all
denominations failed to take advantage of the opportunities provided
by the positive, peace-promoting messages of their religions, which:
had neglected to engage in mourning, honestly confess the
crimes which had been committed by all sides in the course of the
centuries, and ask one another for mutual forgiveness there can
be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions!
(Kngand Kuschel 1993, 4344). Reverend Professor Adrian Hastings
of the University of Leeds, a leading Catholic historian, goes further,
accusing the European religious community of having closed its eyes
tothe tragedy unfolding in Bosnia (cited in Patterson 2013, 7).
On the positive side, international religious organisations, in particular

in the field of humanitarian relief, have provided important assistance
to war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina in the aftermath of the war,
among them Islamic Relief, the United Methodist Committee On
Relief (UMCOR), Catholic Social Services, Caritas and Benevoilencia
(Patterson 2013, 7). Eurodiaconia, the Council of European Churches
and the World Council of Churches have actively engaged in and
promoted conflict resolution and peacebuilding in different forms at
international, national and local levels. Youth organisations such as the
Ecumenical Council of Europe and the Forum of European Muslim
Youth and Student Organisations have launched their own and even joint
initiatives, including training courses and seminars on conflict resolution
and peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina (as well as in other Balkan
countries). Numerous independent Western, and particularly North
American denominational organisations, have also engaged in conflict
resolution and peacebuilding initiatives in the region with the use of
interreligious dialogue as a main tool (Merdjanova and Brodeur 2010).
A number of local religious leaders and communities have only

gradually started to talk and to work together on building sustainable
peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For example, the edited volume
on peacemakers by Little (2007) contains a story of Ivo Markovic,

aCroatian Franciscan friar, who was engaged in conflict resolution and
peacebuilding initiatives. Young people with religious devotion were
found to be more likely than older generations to participate in conflict
resolution and peacebuilding activities. In addition, womens groups
were more concerned with peacebuilding activities than were mens.
A few independent religious councils have also been established to
help with conflict resolution between the religious communities and to
facilitate interdenominational cooperation in peacebuilding (Merdjanova
and Brodeur 2010). Based on an opinion survey, Wilkes et al (2013) argue
that the commitment to a process of reconciliation directly correlates
with the religiosity of the individual concerned. He notes that religious
people prefer to focus more on dealing with issues relating to the
past in the reconciliation process (such as creating public spaces of
commemoration) than do less religious or non-religious individuals,
who, in general, are more sceptical about reconciliation initiatives.
Respondents in the survey also accorded greater importance to the
involvement of women than men in the reconciliation process. No
significant differences, however, could be identified with regard to the
importance of trust-building initiatives among all citizens of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, or of focusing on the future and the younger generations.
On the role of gender in the conflict, women were disproportionately

affected by the war. The most notorious example was the prevalence of
rape, which was employed deliberately as a weapon of war. Importantly
though, women have played a crucial role in peacebuilding initiatives.
Scholars such as Zilka Spahic-iljak (2010, 2012, 2014) and Ina Merd-
janova (2013; with Brodeur 2010) discussed and observed the distinctive
role of women in peacebuilding and conflict resolution.
8. Conclusions
The vast body of literature and evidence on links between religion,

conflict and peace does not point to the possibility of establishing
a clear-cut model or theory for the relationship between these
phenomena, nor does it provide simple recipes for promoting peace
or avoiding war. However, this should not lead to the disillusioning
conclusion that all is relative and contextual, nothing matters and
nothing can be done.
What does emerge clearly from the literature is that religion does
matter in both preventing and resolving conflict, and in making and
building peace, but it needs time to analyse the complex interplay and
specific articulations of religion in each individual context. This means
taking a critical approach to the notion of religion that considers which
aspects of the constellations of meanings associated with it are at
play in each case. Shaped by history and context-dependent, religion is
also culturally loaded, with shifting meanings that can include anything
from sacred scriptures, to rituals, communal identity, norm-setting
institutions, a focus on a deity or on the inner self.
There is no evidence to indicate that particular religious traditions are,

by virtue of their theology, more prone to violence or more likely to lead
to conflict or peace than others. However, attention can and should be
paid to the underlying and enabling factors that make it possible for
individuals, religious or political leaders, or communities to embrace
a religious discourse, symbolism or institution to carry out or justify
violence. Simultaneously, it is necessary to remain intellectually flexible
and cognisant of the fact that religion is not always relevant in conflict
orpeace dynamics.
The relationship between religion and conflict or peacebuilding is neither

static nor one-dimensional. It is crucial not to impose secular Western
parameters when evaluating situations of potential or actual conflict, and
developing policy responses for them. Contextual variables (historical,

socio-economic, cultural) affect outcomes and thus no situation is identi-
cal to another, so even a most successful group or leader that was able
to negotiate peace in one country may be unable to alleviate a conflict in
a different country or in a different historical moment.
Religion matters in contemporary international affairs in essentially

fourways.
1. It offers powerful views of cosmic order that often also generate

political articulations. This is particularly evident in the monotheistic
religions where there is an urge to connect transcendent beliefs to
transform human life (in Gods ways) in the immanent world.
2. Religious beliefs, scriptures, rituals and symbols can easily become
the foundation of ethnic or nationalist projects because they provide
powerful narratives. But they can equally generate narratives of
human dignity and reconciliation.
3. Religious actors comprise a variegated spectrum of ordinary
individuals, leaders, grassroots movements, NGOs, transnational
networks, and organised institutions. Hence the potential to engage
with religion should not be limited to narrow hierarchical (Western-
centred) understandings of which people and groups constitute
legitimate interlocutors.
4. Most religions are constructed around patriarchy and male
leadership; this feature has not only had the effect of institutionally
marginalising women and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) community, but has also enabled the justification or even
perpetration of violence against these groups and to exaggerate
masculine narratives of war and martyrdom. Contemporary Western
emphasis on equality for women and LGBT rights can be contrasted
with supposedly immutable traditional religious values (for whatever
religious tradition) and thus rally sympathy for a cause from
traditionally minded people who might otherwise be repelled by
programmes of militant action in the name of religion.
The literature and the case studies presented here have addressed
specific features and dynamics involving religion in conflict and peace.
The following conclusions can be drawn.
Research on the causes of conflict, on faith-based terrorism and Islamic

radicalisation is inconclusive in its attempts to identify patterns or
variables such as poverty, personality traits, inequality or others that
can determine the degree to which one religious identity or another

is prone to violent actions. Although it has been shown that religion
can contribute to the escalation of conflicts, there is no fixed recipe
for establishing which combination of actors, claims, external factors
and religious features can ignite tensions and violence, where religious
dimensions are central.
Recognising the role of religion and engaging with its multiple facets
do not replace the other work required to address the other interlocking
issues (e.g. deprivation, marginalisation, institutional malfunctioning,
state failure, global dynamics of dependency, etc.) related to conflict
and peace. Even in those conflicts where religion appears to be a strong
causal element, research shows that political manipulation of it rather
than bodies of doctrine are what matters most. Quests for power and
authority by opportunistic religious and political leaders are often behind
their strategic mobilisation of community identities to aid them achieve
their aims.
In diplomacy and peacemaking, emphasis has often been put on the

potential of religion to promote transformation, rather than on delivering
immediate solutions to conflicts. We have also learnt that involving faith
in conflict resolution is not about converting the parties to a particular
religion or abandoning secular international human rights standards that
underpin peace processes. Rather, it is about reinforcing the path to
peace and reconciliation with a religious grammar that is familiar to the
actors involved and that enables them to fully engage in a process that
also requires a degree of self-transformation.
9. Recommendations
for policymakers and
futureresearch
The growing interest of the international community in the role of

religion in conflict and peace is most welcome, but for it to proceed in
concrete terms needed to understand and apply this perspective, the
subject must be tackled with great sensitivity and nuance. The following
recommendations for policymakers provide some general guidelines of
how that might be accomplished successfully.
Religion is not a tangible and self-contained object and it would be

reductive to try to understand it exclusively as a body of doctrines,
aspecific institution, a particular person or group. Rather, it should
be understood as a system of interlocking variables with a role that
changes, shrinks and expands depending on a number of specific
circumstances, historical trajectories, and external factors.
Secular and Western presuppositions and philosophies are still he-
gemonic ideas hindering a nuanced and full appreciation of religion,
and in fact these can limit the definitions that we use andtheap-
proaches that we take when encountering religion.
Caution should be taken not to overestimate the role of religion in
conflict or peacemaking situations to the exclusion of other factors
anddynamics involved.
Similarly, it should be remembered that engagement with religion
cannot be a substitute for other approaches to finding solutions
toproblems.
Governments and diplomats should avoid taking a purely instrumen-
tal approach to religious communities, leaders and NGOs to ensure
that the legitimacy of faith-based actors remains intact.
Academically, there is no best or ideal methodology or discipline for
acquiring a full understanding of what religion is and how it works.
Hence debates about the scientificity of quantitative versus qualita-

tive approaches for the study of religion are inappropriate.
Instead, it is crucial that holistic approaches be encouraged and that
a variety of disciplines continue to address the multiple aspects of
this subject from different perspectives.
Seeking to identify a cause and effect relationship between religion
and violence, and between religion and peace, seems both use-
less and inappropriate. Although many studies have addressed how
these factors interact in a multiplicity of contexts, no researcher has
come up with a scientific formula to predict when radicalisation hap-
pens or whether or how the outcomes of a war depend on religion.
Recognising that religion can play a role in conflict and peace does
not mean just searching for or consulting with faith-based NGOs or
religious leaders because:
There are many less visible ways in which religion can be
woven into a particular context, for instance when it takes the
shape of symbols or moral guidelines and decisions.
There is a risk that the burden of solving crises would then
be shifted onto their shoulders, while governments and
the international community remain focused on finding
solutions rather than accept their own responsibilities
towardshumanity.
Because of the patriarchal imprint of most religions, their
leaders tend to be men; thus, engaging with them exclusively
would exclude by default other important segments of society.
At the policy level, there is a need for great discernment to
appreciate the ways in which different components of the
broad phenomenon of religion come into play in conflicts,
and to recognisethose situations when religion is actually not
aprimaryfactor in them.
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The role of religion in conflict and peacebuilding has all too
oftenbeen depicted in binary terms: it is seen as a source either
of violence or of reconciliation. This simplification obscures the
complexity of the subject and shows that there is no common
understanding of the central terms of the debate. Religion is never
a static or isolated entity but should rather be understood as a fluid
system of variables, contingent upon a large number of contextual
and historical factors. By observing how religion operates and
interacts with other aspects of the human experience at the global,
institutional, group and individual levels, this report aims to gain
amore nuanced understanding of its role (or potential role) in
bothconflict and peacebuilding.
ISBN 978-0-85672-618-7
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THE ROLE

The Academy supports innovative research and outstanding people,

The Academy represents the UKs research excellence worldwide

Registered Charity: Number 233176

Published September 2015

Designed by Soapbox, www.soapbox.co.uk

The authors are grateful to Leonie Fleischmann and Vladimir Kmec

The report has been peer-reviewed to ensure its academic quality.

The report was commissioned and funded by the Department for

AQIM Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb

DFID Department for International Development (UK)

GSPC Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat

HCI High Council of Islam (Mali)

LBGT Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender

MNLA Mouvement national pour la libration de lAzawad (Mali)

MOJWA Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa

NGO Non-governmental organisation

UIC Union of Islamic Courts (Somalia)

UMCOR United Methodist Committee On Relief

DR SARA SILVESTRI is a Senior Lecturer in International Politics at City

PROFESSOR JAMES MAYALL FBA is a Fellow of the British Academy

Three conflicts that have shown some religious dimension are

This report puts forward several recommendations for policymakers,

This project does not attempt to provide a definitive answer to the

We seek to examine and analyse the relationships between faith and

In this endeavour, however, caution is needed not to exaggerate religion

2.1. Religion: part of the problem

Terms such as religiosity, spirituality, faith, belief, transcendence,

In reality, religion is not static, but is constantly being reconfigured

asingle cohesive notion of religion, though, each of these two

It is therefore not surprising that in the current debate in the humanities

Most commonly, religion is understood to be a system of beliefs

Increased awareness of the Western origins of the concept of religion

It is important to resist the temptation to try to understand faith through

An initial attempt to empirically distil the essence of religion in

This kind of analysis of religion is further complemented by the quali-

(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful,

Yet, he also provides another definition that is perhaps more pertinent

The desire to attain this cosmic order is what engenders political

Some, such as Juergensmeyer (2003), contend that the very idea of

While there is not room in this report to elaborate on theories of conflict,

of clarity. For Ramsbotham, Woodhouse and Miall (2005, 13), conflict

Attitudes are, of course, intertwined with perceptions, which are identi-

Given the fluid and kaleidoscopic nature of conflict, it is difficult to disen-

One of the foremost thinkers on peace is again Johan Galtung.

on the implications of favouring one set of terminology over another

In our analysis of all of these sources, we have devised a methodol-

An exhaustive literature review is beyond the scope of this study, so for

considered to be a powerful force promoting violence or peace. The

a. the type of concepts (religious or not) that emerge in a conflict

This division into these three sections is important as a means of

At the level of actors we can distinguish what kinds of people or

The case studies provide snapshots of conflicts in three different

[C]onflict and violence often have a religious dimension, whether

For a long time, mainstream publications on conflict and peace studies,

4.1. Religion as a driver of conflict

Religion is often seen as a key cause of conflict, both in individual

viewpoint are numerous, one scholarly figure ought to be remembered

As powerful and representative of the current status of international