في مفهوم النزاعات الدينية

Abstract

 Along with political, economic and social factors, what we refer to as “religion” has become an important factor of many local and international conflicts. On what basis is a conflict classified as a “religious conflict”? What exactly defines a conflict as a “religious one” and following what logic are conflicts considered as "religious"? This is the essential question that this paper seeks to answer by surveying some conflicts literature which adopts the term “religious conflict”. This paper assumes that the characterization of a conflict as religious is based on the assumed correlation between religion and violence which was established under the bilateral division (religious / secular). While that secularism was accompanied by a spirit of tolerance and non-violence, religion was associated with exclusion, extremism, aggression, conflicts and wars. Accordingly, once the religion is present in a conflict, either as an identity of the warring parties; as a conflict issue, or as a normative dimension that makes religious elements the most critical ones in the conflict. This is, though, such conflicts literature do not deny their inability to separate the religious factor from the historical, political, economic and social ones. And also not to mention their overlooking of the meaning of “religion” and its scope.