Do Now: Can secular society exist alongside traditional and fundamentalist religious sects and states?

Do Now:

• Can secular society exist alongside traditional and fundamentalist religious sects and states?

• We are quick to notice fundamentalism abroad (i.e. Salman Rushdie’s death sentence by Shia clerics) and not so quick to recognize it at home (abortion clinic bombings; Southern Baptist Convention’s calls for women to submit to their husbands’ authority).

• American evangelical Christianity and Islamic fundamentalism are the two most influential fundamentalist movements in the world.

• Fewer and fewer states are governed by an official church.

Aim: What role does religion play in political conflicts?

• Interfaith boundaries: boundaries between the world’s major faiths • Ex.: Christian-Muslim boundaries in

Africa • Intrafaith boundaries: boundaries within a

single major faith • Ex.: Christian Protestants and Catholics,

Muslim Sunni and Shi’ite

Conflicts along Religious Borders

Figure 7.36 The West Bank. Adapted with permission from: C. B. Williams and C. T. Elsworth, The NewYork Times, November 17, 1995, p. A6. © The New York Times.

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Israel and Palestine• WWII, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, West Bank,

Hamas

Nigeria• Muslim North/Christian South

The Former Yugoslavia• Balkan Peninsula separates the Roman Catholic

Chruch and the Eastern Orthodox Church

Northern Ireland • Catholics and Protestants in the North

Hot Spots of Conflict

Israel and Palestine

• End of WWI British control of Palestine; goal was to establish a Jewish homeland.

• After WWII UN voted to have separate states for Israel and Palestine.

• Palestinian lands of Gaza, Golan Heights, and West Bank were won in the 1976 war.

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Nigeria:

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Former Yugoslavia:

• Many different ethnic groups.• Intra-faith boundary between the

Christians became more complicated with the Turks bringing Islam to the area.

• Yugoslavia formed after WWI.• WWII Croats supported the Nazis.• Communism fell in the late ‘80s. Many

declared their independence.

The former Yugoslavia:

• Bosnian Muslims became the focus of ethnic cleansing.

• UN got involved and region broke up into the following:

- Slovenia

- Croatia

- Serbia and Montenegro (now separate)

- Macedonia

- Bosnia and Herzegovina

- Kosovo

Northern Ireland:• Catholic Ireland was taken over by British

Protestants who took political an economic control.

• Catholics had their land taken away, could not own property or participate in government.

• IRA began terrorist attacks in 1968.• Based on oprression, nationalism, civil rights,

and political influence.

Figure 7.39Religious Affiliation in Northern Ireland. Areas of Catholic and Protestant majorities are scattered throughout Northern Ireland. Adapted with permission from: D. G. Pringle,One Island, Two Nations? Letchworth: ResearchStudies Press/Wiley, 1985, p. 21.

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

• Religious fundamentalism• Beliefs are nonnegotiable and uncompromising

– Fundamentalists generally envision a return to a more perfect religion and ethics they imagine existed in the past.

– Common in the U.S. and in some Islamic nations.

Religious Fundamentalism

© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Religious Extremism:

• Religious extremism• Fundamentalism carried to the point of

violence • Fundamentalists can be extremists but this

does not mean that all fundamentalists (of any faith) are extremists

Christianity • Traditionalist Catholic Movement • Protestant fundamentalism

Judaism• Orthodox conservatives • Extremist groups Kach and Kahane Chai

Islam • Jihad: Taliban in Afghanistan Wahabbi in Saudi Arabia

Religious Fundamentalism and Extremism

Boal’s studies in Northern Ireland demonstrate that solving a religious conflict is typically not about theology; it is about identity. You are assigned the potentially Nobel Prize–winning task of “solving” the conflict either in Northern Ireland or in Israel and Palestine. Using Boal’s example, determine how you can alter activity spaces and change identities to create the conditions for long-lasting peace in this conflict zone.