Role of religious identity in violence

occurrence in human societies.”⁴⁶⁸ Oommen emphasizes on the fact that the historicity of the link between religion and violence clearly demonstrates in saying that, in different parts of the world at different historical periods, all religions have seen to be sources of violence.⁴⁶⁹

From the middle age on it seems that behind many wars, there is a religion implication.

Historically, if we consider some major known periods of war, and killings, their religious side is visible.

- 7^th Century, Islamic expansion begins - 11^th Century, Crusades start

- 16^th Century, Reformation wars begins

- 20^th Century, Israel-Arab wars from 1948 up to present days, seen as war over religion.⁴⁷⁰

The confrontation between Christianity and Islam in history remains a non-solved challenge for the Church. “Reflection on the encounter of the Church and Islam should take seriously account of 14 centuries of cohabitation marked by presuppositions, misunderstandings and quarrels.” ⁴⁷¹ Arab Christian theologian Chawkat Moucarry approved this in saying that “there is a serious historical tension between Christians and Muslims, since Crusade till recent colonialism.” ⁴⁷²

3.2.1. Role of religious identity in violence

467 Anand Nayak, Ibid, p.5.

468 Sanusi Aliyou, Religious - based violence and national security in Nigeria, a thesis presented to the Faculty of the US Army command and General staff college, FortLeavenworth, Kansas, 2009, p.21.

469 T.K. Oommen, Religion as source of violence: a sociological perspective in The ecumenical review, 53 No 2 April 2001, pp.168-179, p. 177.

470 BBC world service, Tuesday, 24th February 2004, 09:46 GMT

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/wtwtgod/3513709.stm>, 24th July 2012 471 Sublime N. Mabiala, Dialogue with Islam: Mission or Omission, <http://www.30- days.net/shop/download/DIALOGUE_WITH_ISLAM.pdf>, 16th August 2012.

472 Chawkat Moucarry, Christian perspective on Islam, <http://thinkingmatters.org.nz/wp-

content/uploads/2011/07/A- CHRISTIAN-PERSPECTIVE-ON-ISLAM.pdf>, 30th March 2016.

Heather Gregg contends that:

Religion often plays a key role in forming group identity in educating, informing, mobilizing, and organizing people. Each religion has material resources such as schools, buildings, hospitals, land and money. In each society we find six broads elements of religion: resources, beliefs, texts, religion authority, and practitioners.

Independently, these elements are typical causes of violence because religion as a combination of all these elements in one entity which is uniquely situated for inspiring and mobilizing the mass including for belligerent end.⁴⁷³

When religious identity is “more critical than ethnic identity and in fact serves to activate ethnic violence,”⁴⁷⁴ it has been seen that religion plays a critical role in the mobilization of ethnic conflicts.⁴⁷⁵ Religious identity and cultural identity are interconnected and it is difficult to separate them. For example in “Muslim states, daily lives are circumscribed by religious doctrine; their schooling, their clothing, even what they eat and how they play are strongly influenced by their religion.” ⁴⁷⁶ It is not only in Muslim states but in many parts of the world,

“religious identity is a strong part of cultural, family, and individual identity.”⁴⁷⁷

In this sense, the anthropologist Clifford James Geertz recognizes that religion is a powerful motivator of human behavior which means that it is an important and powerful force in human history for mobilization and possesses the ability to establish a general order of human

473 Heather Selma Gregg, The causes of religions wars: Holy nations, Sacred spaces, and religious revolutions, p. 34.,< http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/16639/56191324.pdf>, 20th August 2012.

474 Eghosa F. Osaghae, A History of identities, violence, and stability in Nigeria, <http://www.dfid.gov.uk/r4d/PDF/Outputs/Inequality/wp6.pdf>, 24th July 2012.

475 Saira Yamin, Understanding religious identity and the causes of religion violence, <http://www.wiscomp.org/pp-vi/saira_yamin.pdf>, 26 July 2012.

476 Is religion an important part of cultural identity?

<http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_religion_an_important_part_of_cultural_identity>, 21st August 2012.

477 Ibid.

existence.⁴⁷⁸ In the human history, the first type of wars and violent conflicts are ones in which religion contribute to violent campaigns that have secular or non-religion goals.⁴⁷⁹

Among causes of interreligious violence are a multitude of factors including identity. Anand Nayak observes that “Muslim identity is always in conflict with Christian identity.”⁴⁸⁰In comparison with ethnicity, religious identity is more critical than ethnic identity and in fact it serves to activate ethnicity like in Nigeria where killings between Christians and Muslims are beyond understanding.⁴⁸¹ We have seen also that “religious identity was at the heart of Balkan war.”⁴⁸² In the case of the genocide in Rwanda, ethnic identity took place over the religious identity because Hutu Catholics killed Tutsi Catholics, and Hutu Protestants killed Tutsi Protestants. According to Timothy Longman,

An analysis of the historical role of Christianity in Rwanda reveals that, far simply adapting to and reflecting Rwandan society, the churches actively shaped the ethnic and political realities that made genocide possible by acting to define and politicize ethnicity, legitimizing authoritarian regimes, and encouraging public obedience to political authorities.⁴⁸³

One of the factors which singles out religion as source of violence is “when religion is seen as independent of states, nations and ethnicities.”⁴⁸⁴ But “when religion is connected with citizenship (state), nationality (nations) or ethnicity, it invariably becomes a source of inter religious violence.”⁴⁸⁵ Also differences in doctrines and beliefs often foment intra- religious violence.

478 Heather Selma Gregg, The causes of religions wars: Holy nations, Sacred spaces, and religious revolutions, p. 31.< http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/16639/56191324.pdf>, 20th August 2012.

479 Ibid, p. 35.

480 Anand Nayak,Ibid, p.35.

481 Eghosa F. Osaghae, A history of identities, violence, and stability in Nigeria, <http://www.dfid.gov.uk/r4d/PDF/Outputs/Inequality/wp6.pdf>, 24th July 2012.

482 Los Angeles Times, 18th April 1999, http://articles.latimes.com/1999/apr/18/news/mn-28714, 24th July 2012.

483 Timothy Longman, Christianity and Genocide in Rwanda, Cambridge University press, 2010, p.10.

484 T.K. Oommen, Religion as source of violence: a sociological perspective in The ecumenical review, 53 No 2 April 2001, pp.168-179, p. 168.

485 Ibid, p. 175.

This is the case with:

- Catholics and Protestants among Christians - Shias and Sunnis among Muslims

- Hinayana and Mahayana among Buddhists - Swetambara and Digambara among Jains.⁴⁸⁶

With technological innovations in the world, religious identity is no longer static, it moves. “As a complex system of beliefs and rituals, Max Weber observed that the religion tend to change and develop in complexity overtime.”⁴⁸⁷ With the challenging proliferation of religious identities, Professor Jean Claude Basset, argues that “faith could no longer be considered as an inherited or an imposed set of values.”⁴⁸⁸

The identity evolution is already becoming part of our daily lives,⁴⁸⁹but even if technological, political, and economical factors are influencing new form of identities,

Religion identity is still present in policies for war and violent conflict. One example which can be given is when the former President of United States, Georges Bush, described the war against Osama Ben Laden and his followers as a crusade. This term of crusade, harkened back to the Christian offense against Muslims. For Muslims it brings up the memory of violent wars with Christians.

The tension shows that the separation of Church and state in many Western constitutions does not mean that religion no longer plays a role in the policies of state.⁴⁹⁰

486 Ibid, p. 175.

487 Heather Selma Gregg, The causes of religions wars: Holy nations, Sacred spaces, and religious

revolutions, p. 31., <http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/16639/56191324.pdf>, 20th August 2012.

488 Consejo Mundial de Iglesias, <http://www2.wcc-coe.org/pressreleasessp.nsf/index/pu-05-31.html>, 16th August 2012.

489 Identity R/Evolution, <http://www.fidis.net/resources/identity-revolution/>, 21st August 2012.

490 Heather Selma Gregg, The causes of religions wars: Holy nations, Sacred spaces, and religious

revolutions, p. 46.,< http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/16639/56191324.pdf>, 20th August 2012.

Michael Emerson, Senior research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), observes that:

Tensions and violence involving people from minority groups of Muslim culture are the greatest source of societal tensions and violent conflict in contemporary Europe. People have been affected by the growing influence of radical Islam in recent decades, intensified by the aftershocks of the 9/11 terror attacks in the US.⁴⁹¹