Running head: ROUGH DRAFT REVIEW PROCESS EVALUATION : RELIGIOUS CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE
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ROUGH DRAFT REVIEW PROCESS EVALUATION : RELIGIOUS CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE
Rough Draft Review Process Evaluation : Religious Conflict And Violence
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Religion’s role in averting skirmishes and evoking violence among communities and world regions. Religious leaders worldwide have worked with national, regional, and international peacekeeping organizations in resolving conflicts associated with land and maritime boundary demarcations, election disputes, and resource allocations. These missions have underlined religions’ pivotal roles in resolving tense situations threatening to explode into full-blown battles. War and military-related confrontations have resulted in enormous destructions disrupting human life and subjecting vulnerable populations to untold suffering. As a result, religions’ roles in conflict and dispute intervention have been instrumental in preventing violence. However, despite religion’s impact in averting potential violence outbreaks worldwide, its contribution to violence is noticeable in promoting extremism, radical religious groups, and terror organizations. Beliefs and religious prejudices trigger feelings of anger and hatred in followers resulting in feuding relationships with other religions. Thus, their role in historical and contemporary animosity, violence, and conflicts are apparent.
Followers’ mindsets reorient and obtain new devotions and standpoints. The internalization of religious texts and teachings elicits revenge and rage, molding violence-prone and fanatical groupings. When religious issues are significant, they hold power for changing conflict dynamics (Silvestri & Mayall, 2015). Religion influences international interventions in ethnic conflicts, while religious institutions within the state dictate conflict dynamics. When demands and grievances in a conflict have religious inclinations, religious institutions within the state facilitate reactions. Conversely, religious institutions inhibit protests and reactions to issues insignificant to religion in a particular country (Silvestri & Mayall, 2015). Ethno-religious conflicts within a particular country involving persecution to minorities force the involvement and intervention of foreign states having dominant minority grouping as the oppressed groups. Studies on international interventionism to states’ conflict indicate Islamic states’ tendency to intervene where Islamic minorities engage in religious disputes. Islamic minorities benefit in countries where religious disputes exist.
Nationalism and self-determinism remain the primary causes of current and historical ethnic-related conflicts. However, religion acts as a factor influencing the dynamics of conflicts sparked through nationalism and self-determinism, increasing intensity. Violence and forms of lawlessness hinge on religion in conjunction with other factors (Silvestri & Mayall, 2015). The Middle East provides a relevant study case where religion played critical roles in triggering and perpetuating violence and aggression towards at-risk and minority groups. Ethno-religious conflicts in the Middle East have relied immensely on religion. Middle East states have Muslims as dominant religious groupings, with several jurisdictions adopting aristocratic leadership styles. Ethno-religious conflicts in the Middle East reminisce other ethnic-based conflicts worldwide, although the occurrence of Middle East conflicts draws origin and prevalence from autocratic leadership and Islamic religion (Silvestri & Mayall, 2015). This Islam-fueled violence is similar to other ethnic violence in magnitude, although religious-based violence is more contagious than non-religious conflict. Non-violent conflicts last short periods and distances, while violent conflicts cross borders and generations.
The links between religion and conflict led to violence accelerated after the terrorist attacks of September 11th in the US’s Twin Towers. According to study findings, Islam’s Quran forms an ideological source of conflict and violence. Quran instigates conflict and violence in Muslims by promoting totalitarianism and terrorism (Owen & King, 2019). Jihadist groups extract motivation and zeal from the Quran to perpetrate suicide attacks. Secular and religious groups contribute to an equal number of suicide actions worldwide. Religion affiliations are critical in imparting followers’ martyrdom perspectives. Martyrdom teachings and texts to followers of Islam religions are responsible for modern-day Islam-motivated suicide mindsets and actions worldwide (Owen & King, 2019). An escalated violence and terrorism actions attributed to Islam depend on other factors such as opportunity structures in environments, followers’ psychologies and other contextual variables. A religion’s roles in fueling conflict and inducing violence are apparent when visualized through processes rather than individual actors and ideas. Islam, for instance, bears a critical role in terrorism challenges facing the international community.
Jihadist groupings and Islamic state members legitimatize themselves using Islam religion attributes. These groups utilize a repertoire of ideas resonating with Muslim majorities. The radical jihadist groups’ association and resorting to Islam do not justify Islam as an inherently violent denomination (Owen & King, 2019). However, jihadist groups associate and infer their activities on Islam as a tactical approach to hiding in Islam. The practice underlines Islam’s inability to delink and impose constraints limiting violence and warfare. This situation resulted in the emergence of radical and moderate Muslim classless, where the moderate category preaches and teaches tolerance and delinking with the religion with violence and war (Owen & King, 2019). Therefore, the fight against suicide-based attacks requires examination of factors involved other than exposing inconsistencies of religion alone.
According to the world’s peace advocates, NGOs, and Western governments, religious problems can have religious-based remedies. Solving religious-based conflicts and violence require constructive engagement with religious actors and groups. Western actors and peacekeepers attribute incorporating religious actors in counter-radicalization, counter-terrorism and foreign diplomatic missions (Shannahan & Payne, 2016)). This approach works by understanding religion’s role in triggering violence and offering conflict resolution instruments. Religions attribute peace but are inherently violent through their sacred texts involving God. Thus, solutions to the government entail utilizing moderate and liberal religious versions to contextualize violence as time-specific and secure a country’s national interests of security and peaceful coexistence. Religion’s pivotal role in policymaking permits its inclusion of public discourses contrary to the previous exclusionism approach for religious actors from public sphere arguments. Secure proponents tended to condemn and confine religious actors’ beliefs into private spheres citing religious irrationality (Marsden, 2015). However, respecting and including people of faith in secular discussions and rational arguments is critical in solving religious-funneled conflicts. Expanded religious literacy is essential among law enforcement and defense agencies, military experts, personnel, and diplomats when fostering foreign peace missions.
Counter-radicalization policies are another solution to religious-sponsored conflicts and violence besides religious actors’ inclusion in secular and public sphere discourses. Counter-radicalization aims to stem religious, political violence in countries where minority religious groups fight the government authorities (Marsden, 2015). Counter-radicalization is achievable through government funding and planning for religious-based scholars, analysts and advisors. Furthermore, the government funds community representatives harboring knowledge on psychological and theological radicalization processes. These representatives propose and advise authorities on suitable intervention mechanisms to tame extremism. A Prevent Strategy in Britain is a typical government-led program for combating religious-based violent extremism (Marsden, 2015). The British government utilizes the program to front a policy challenging and opposing terrorism ideology and merchants. The counter-radicalization approach supports institutions and sectors susceptible to radicalization while cushioning vulnerable populations from encountering violent groups.
Ultimately, religious attributes preach peace but are inherently violent in teachings, texts and missions invoking God’s name. Religious intolerance of other religious groups and hostility is rampant worldwide and continues to escalate. The intolerance and hostility permeate government circles and elicit social hostility encompassing people of faith and no-faith. Religious intolerances have resulted in social hostilities reaching a fever pitch in some world regions. Modern solutions to religious hostilities and violence include engaging religious actors in public and secular discussions and stemming radicalization. Further research is necessary for finding specific solutions to the religious violence debacle. Further research should establish the efficacy of religious-based solutions to faith-motivated hostilities and violence.
References
Silvestri, S., & Mayall, J. (2015). The role of religion in conflict and peacebuilding. British Academy.
Owen, M., & King, A. (2019). Enhancing the efficacy of religious peacebuilding practice: An exploratory evidence-based framework for assessing dominant risks in religious peacebuilding. Religions, 10(12), 641.
Shannahan, C., & Payne, L. (2016). Faith-Based Interventions in Peace, Conflict and Violence: A Scoping Study. Coventry, UK: Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities.
Marsden, L. (2015). What’s God got to do with it? Violence, hostility and religion today. In Nations under God: The Geopolitics of Faith in the Twenty-First Century (pp. 144-152). E-International Relations Publishing.