SOURCE/ DIMENSION OF CONFLICT – SOCIO-CULTURAL: RELIGION

Introduction
* During the Cold War, not much attention was paid to the phenomenon of nationalism and
religion. Marxists, Liberals, nation-builders and integration specialists treated it as a marginal
variable.
* In the Western political systems, a frontier has been drawn between man's inner life and his
public actions, between religion and politics. The West is characterized by a de-secularisation
of politics and a de-politization of religion.
* Since the end of Cold War, the attention is now paid to the militant forms of religious
fundamentalism as a threat to peace.
* There has been increased engagement of churches or church communities in the search for
détente or constructive management of conflicts. For example, voice of the American bishops
in the nuclear debate in the eighties; the role of churches in the democratic emancipation of
Central and Eastern Europe; or the impact of church leaders on the conflict dynamics in several
African conflicts.
* Still today most violent conflicts contain religious elements linked up with ethno-national,
inter-state, economic, territorial, cultural and other issues. Threatening the meaning of life,
conflicts based on religion tend to become dogged, tenacious and brutal types of wars. When
conflicts are couched in religious terms, they become transformed in value conflicts.
* Value conflicts have a tendency to become mutually conclusive or zero-sum issues. They
entail strong judgments of what is right and wrong, and parties believe that there cannot be a
common ground to resolve their differences.
* It was Huntington who recently provided the intellectual framework to pay more attention to
the coming clash of civilizations. Civilizations are differentiated from each other by history,
language, culture, tradition and, most importantly, religion. He expects more conflicts along
the cultural-religious fault lines because
1. those differences have always generated the most prolonged and the most violent
conflicts;
2. because the world is becoming a smaller place, and the increasing interactions will
intensify the civilization;
3. because of the weakening of the nation-state as a source of identity and the de-
secularisation of the world with the revival of religion as basis of identity and
commitment that transcends national boundaries and unites civilizations;
4. because of the dual role of the West. On the one hand, the West is at the peak of its
power. At the same time, it is confronted with an increasing desire by elites in other
parts of the world to shape the world in non-Western ways;
5. because cultural characteristics and differences are less mutable and hence less easily
compromised and resolved than political and economic ones;
6. finally, because increasing economic regionalism will reinforce civilization-
consciousness.

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* To further their interests, religious organizations make also use of low-scale violence,
political repression and terrorism.
* Religious fundamentalism = "we" are right, and all civil and aggressive intentions are
projected to "them". "Because 'they' are evil and aggressive forces of chaos in the world, 'we'
then have to be strongly armed, but do not perceive ourselves as aggressive even when
attacking other countries".
* Several religious organizations also support structural violence by endorsing a centralized
and authoritarian decision-making structure and the repression of egalitarian forces. Churches
have sympathized with authoritarian government.
* Cultural violence declares certain wars as just and others as unjust, as holy or unholy wars.
* Religious actors should abstain from any cultural and structural violence within their
respective organizations and handle inter-religious or denominational conflict in a non-violent
and constructive way. This would imply several practical steps, such as
1. a verifiable agreement not to use or threaten with violence to settle religious disputes.
2. 'de-politisation' of religion.
3. creation of an environment where a genuine debate is possible.

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Pakistan
* Pakistan is a largely Sunni Muslim country, with significant religious and sectarian minority
populations, including Shia Muslims, Christians and Hindus. Ahmedis, who are declared non-
Muslim by the state, are perhaps the worst targets of persecution.
* In Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, Shias are often targets of violence, while the Ahmedi
community is treated as heretics. Hindus and Christians, especially from the lower-ranked
castes, face extreme violence as well.
* Young rural girls of the Hindu community from Pakistan’s southwestern province of Sindh
have reportedly been abducted and forced into religious conversion and marriage. In the rare
instance of such cases making their way into the media spotlight and land before the courts,
judges usually rule that the conversion was out of choice and voluntary. The women are forced
to live with their abusers for the rest of their lives.
* Lately, there have been instance of attacks against the Christian community in Jaranwala in
Punjab province which include looting and setting ablaze their houses, churches and
businesses.
* According to a 2021 United States Commission on International Religious Freedom report,
instances of mob violence and criminal charges over religious issues are more common in
Pakistan than anywhere else.
* One of the reasons is that the country’s law and order system has a poor record of protecting
citizens, especially those from minority communities.
* Pakistani society underwent a process of Islamization beginning in the 1980s, when General
Zia used religion to legitimize his military coup. It resulted in the Islamization of Pakistani
society and its institutions.
* The origin of Pakistan’s blasphemy law is often traced back to the British colonial era, but it
was hardly used until the 1970s. The law was strengthened during the Islamization of the state
during Zia’s regime.
* According to Pakistan’s penal code, “derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet
[Muhammad] either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation,
innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly shall be punished with death, or imprisonment
for life, and shall also be liable to fine.” People have often misused this to settle personal
disputes. In such cases, even before any investigation begins, vigilantes take the law into their
hands and go on a rampage.
* Although laws in Pakistan also prohibit discrimination on account of religion, these are rarely
implemented. What is more, police and other law enforcement agencies are not trained to
handle vigilante mobs.

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Myanmar – Rohingya Crisis
* For decades, Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority group, in Myanmar, a predominantly
Buddhist country, have faced institutionalized discrimination, such as exclusionary citizenship
laws.
* Discriminatory policies of Myanmar’s government since the late 1970s have compelled
hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya to flee their homes in the predominantly Buddhist
country. Most have crossed by land into Bangladesh, while others have taken to the sea to reach
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
* The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority who practice a Sufi-inflected variation of Sunni
Islam. There are an estimated 3.5 million Rohingya dispersed worldwide. Before August 2017,
the majority of the estimated one million Rohingya in Myanmar resided in Rakhine State,
where they accounted for nearly a third of the population. They differ from Myanmar’s
dominant Buddhist groups ethnically, linguistically, and religiously.
* Since independence in 1948, successive governments in Burma, renamed Myanmar in 1989,
have refuted the Rohingya’s historical claims and denied the group recognition as one of the
country’s 135 official ethnic groups. The Rohingya are considered illegal immigrants from
Bangladesh, even though many trace their roots in Myanmar back centuries.
* Neither the central government nor Rakhine’s dominant ethnic Buddhist group, known as the
Rakhine, recognize the label “Rohingya,” a self-identifying term that surfaced in the 1950s,
which experts say provides the group with a collective political identity.
* The government refuses to grant the Rohingya citizenship, and as a result most of the group’s
members have no legal documentation, effectively making them stateless. Myanmar’s 1948
citizenship law was already exclusionary, and the military junta, which seized power in 1962,
introduced another law twenty years later that stripped the Rohingya of access to full
citizenship.
* In 2014 the government held a UN-backed national census, its first in thirty years. The
Muslim minority group was initially permitted to identify as Rohingya, but after Buddhist
nationalists threatened to boycott the census, the government decided Rohingya could only
register if they identified as Bengali instead.
* Similarly, under pressure from Buddhist nationalists protesting the Rohingya’s right to vote
in a 2015 constitutional referendum, President Thein Sein cancelled the temporary identity
cards in February 2015, effectively revoking their newly gained right to vote.
* In recent years, the government has forced Rohingya to start carrying national verification
cards that effectively identify them as foreigners and do not grant them citizenship.
* The Myanmar government has effectively institutionalized discrimination against the ethnic
group through restrictions on marriage, family planning, employment, education, religious
choice, and freedom of movement.
* Moreover, Rakhine State is Myanmar’s least developed state, with a poverty rate of 78
percent, compared to the 37.5 percent national average, according to World Bank estimates.
Widespread poverty, poor infrastructure, and a lack of employment opportunities in Rakhine

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have exacerbated the cleavage between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya. This tension is
deepened by religious differences that have at times erupted into conflict.
* Clashes in Rakhine broke out in August 2017, after a militant group known as the Arakan
Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) claimed responsibility for attacks on police and army posts.
The government declared ARSA a terrorist organization and the military mounted a brutal
campaign that destroyed hundreds of Rohingya villages and forced nearly seven hundred
thousand Rohingya to leave Myanmar. The renewed violence, including reported rape, murder,
and arson, triggered an exodus of Rohingya, as Myanmar’s security forces claimed they were
carrying out a campaign to reinstate stability in the country’s western region.