Freedom of Religion and Conflict Resolution
Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Define conflict, religion, and interreligious dialogue
- Explain why religious conflict resolution and peacebuilding are important
- Establish examples of interreligious dialogue for conflict resolution
Introduction
Religion is frequently considered as a factor in international conflicts (Kimball, 2011). In this chapter we will discuss conflict resolution and religion, which includes methods for resolving religious-related conflicts, particularly inter-religious dialogue.
Guiding Principle
“Religion can be an invaluable source in promoting understanding and reconciliation, and it can provide a foundation for peacebuilding efforts” - Abu-Nimer, 2001
Sources of Governing Law
There are several international instruments or texts that may be legally binding in nature for those that sign them or that in any case provide international influence to the signers. The signers are often member-states of the international organization that brings them together for the creation of said instruments.
For the purposes of conflict resolution and religion, as well as interreligious dialogue as a method for conflict resolution and peacebuilding, it is appropriate to cite some of the main articles in key international texts that expressly mention these rights and freedoms. The United Nations Framework for Communications - II 1 on discrimination on the basis of religion, belief/inter-religious, discrimination/tolerance, dialogue, and interreligious dialogue, states the following:
- Commission on Human Rights resolution 2005/40
- 8: The Commission on Human Rights urges States to step up their efforts to eliminate intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief, notably by:
- Promoting and encouraging, through education and other means, understanding, tolerance and respect in all matters relating to freedom of religion or belief;
- 9: The Commission on Human Rights, "… invites Governments, religious bodies and civil society to continue to undertake dialogue at all levels to promote greater tolerance, respect and understanding;".
- 10: The Commission on Human Rights, "Emphasizes the importance of a continued and strengthened dialogue among and within religions or beliefs, encompassed by the dialogue among civilizations, to promote greater tolerance, respect and mutual understanding;"
- 8: The Commission on Human Rights urges States to step up their efforts to eliminate intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief, notably by:
Topics
| Conflict within the Framework of Religion | Resolving Religios-Related Conflicts: Interreligious Dialogue | |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Competitive or opposing action of incompatibles | People of different individual and institutional religious traditions, faiths and beliefs coming together to hold a positive and cooperative interaction |
| Examples |
Africa: Killing in Nigeria Central America: Guatemala's Armed Conflict |
Africa: Killing in Nigeria Central America: Guatemala's Armed Conflict |
Conflict Within the Framework of Religion
There are several definitions of the word conflict. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines conflict as: “competitive or opposing action of incompatibles: antagonistic state or action (as of divergent ideas, interests, or persons).” Another example of the meaning of conflict – in a more academic definition – is given by Conrad G. Brunk, a professor of Philosophy:
"What results from the existence, real or imagined, of incompatible interests, goals, beliefs, or activities. It is a situation in which one party’s interest cannot be fully realized without their impinging upon the realization of some other party’s interests – or a situation in which one of them thinks that the interests are incompatible.”
Conflict itself can lead to misunderstanding. However, it can also lead to the development of new ways of communication between people, institutions, organizations, and governments, thus fostering bridges of understanding. This latter, positive outcome can be attributed to the chosen response to conflict. In other words, when conflict occurs, how do we choose to deal with it? This is what truly determines the positive or negative outcome of conflict.
Conflict can occur in many settings and on a wide range of issues such as conflict in religion. Religion can be more neutrally and broadly described as the online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it: “a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices.”
Because religion involves the internal belief systems of people, it is a sensitive subject in nature and is therefore susceptible to different levels and contexts of conflicts. Religion can be used to either push conflict or to encourage peacebuilding and conflict resolution, whether at the individual or collective levels within and among religions, communities, countries, governments and leadership.
It is true that religion has been used as a justification to initiate or strengthen political conflicts. Such combination of religion in political conflicts are often thought to occur in world regions such as the Middle East. Yet, they have happened or can happen in other regions like Africa, the Americas, and Europe. In summary, religion used in political and economic disputes can take place anywhere and escalate to any level of severity.
Resolving Religious-Related Conflicts: Interreligious Dialogue
Interreligious dialogue can be defined as people of different individual and institutional religious traditions, faiths, and beliefs coming together to hold a positive and cooperative interaction. This includes efforts to reach mutual understanding while respecting and strengthening each other’s faith, traditions, and beliefs.
In the framework of conflict-resolution and peacebuilding, interreligious dialogue seeks to enable a shift from negative attitudes such as prejudice and narrow-mindedness to a more tolerant and open-minded attitude. As a result, interreligious dialogue cultivates or reconstructs trust, understanding, ideas, knowledge, and clarification and can lead people to recognize and value human dignity.
Communication in dialogue is key, particularly interreligious dialogue. Religious vocabulary is an important and present characteristic in this type of dialogue. There needs to be a positive focus on the vocabulary that accentuates commonalities, harmony, tolerance, trust, and understanding. Vocabulary or jargon that highlights a concept that corresponds to a faith, though important and respectable, should not be misused as it can weaken the value and success of the interreligious dialogue.
It is important to note that the interreligious dialogue method for conflict resolution and peacebuilding includes a lot more topics and elements such as levels, conditions, limits, and challenges of interreligious dialogue. Each of these elements contain more subtopics that are also important to learn about.
Practice Example Analysis
To illustrate both negative and positive conflict resolution and religion, as well as interreligious dialogue as a method for conflict resolution and peacebuilding, the following examples show different approaches made to build intra- and interreligious bridges of trust and understanding.
Africa: Killing in Nigeria
The Conflict
Nigeria’s Plateau State is the most affected. In Yelwa-Nshar, in the Shendam local government area, almost 1,000 individuals were killed in one month alone, provoking reprisals in both Kano State and Southeastern State. Many factors are important in this conflict, including ethnicity, economic differentials, land ownership, migratory patterns and political power. At the same time, substantial tension between Muslim and Christian faith communities has contributed to the violence, and the conflict has often been characterized as a religious one.
Interfaith Dialogue
Faith communities have also made substantial contributions to peace. For well over a decade, a local evangelical pastor, James Wuye, and a local imam, Mohammed Ashafa, have contributed to peacebuilding efforts throughout Nigeria. In 2004, they brought together for the first-time key leaders from the Muslim and Christian communities in Yelwa-Nshar. In intense, emotional meetings, they used a combination of interfaith dialogue and conflict resolution techniques to promote reconciliation. Their work resulted in a peace agreement between the two communities that has been supported by the governor of Plateau State and celebrated by several thousand people throughout the region. With a tentative peace holding, Wuye and Ashafa turned their peacemaking attention to the city of Jos, capital of Plateau State, where a similar peace accord was reached and signed. Their work continues to this day.
Central America: Guatemala's Armed Conflict
The Conflict
During its decades-long conflict with guerrilla movements, the government of Guatemala conducted a bloody campaign against a leftist, mostly Mayan insurgency. There were widespread human rights violations, thousands of forced disappearances, tens of thousands of internally displaced persons, and approximately 200,000 deaths. Later commissions determined that most of the victims were Mayans, and the majority of the blame was assigned to the military government ‘s counter-insurgency operations. This Central American country, home to one of the first advanced civilizations in the Western Hemisphere, had become a society of painfully sharp racial and economic divisions, with the Church, as it had been for centuries, for the most part clearly on the side of the powerful.
Religious Leaders as Third Parties
Yet though religious prejudice can be counted among the long-term causes of violence in Guatemala, modern religious leaders played a significant role in the breakthroughs that led to peace. With the dedicated assistance of a joint Lutheran-Roman Catholic delegation, leaders of the Guatemalan government and an alliance of rebels signed the Basic Agreement on the Search for Peace by Political Means, which began a six-year process culminating in the Peace Accords signed in 1996. The first breakthrough occurred late one night in Oslo, in a series of emotional apologies by leaders from both sides. These unprecedented and extraordinary testimonials occurred in an environment of apology and forgiveness created by religious peacemakers.
Conclusion
Efforts for interreligious dialogue for conflict resolution and peacebuilding also face limitations and challenges. However, it is better to continue to cultivate and implement those efforts learning from what works and what does not work in a specific conflict, its context and characteristics.
There are communities and world regions where religious conflict resolution or resolution of conflicts for other reasons but with some degree of religious elements, has been partially or entirely successful. However, there are other places where the dialogue and other related efforts continues as some conflicts are more complex than others.
It is crucial to think globally and act locally. People and institutions can only do so much within the scope of their authority, resources, and skills. Thinking globally is important because the world seems to be smaller each day. Technology and travel, growth of societies and countries open the window of opportunity to pay attention to the international scene, and apply what seems proper at the more accessible, local stage.
As author and researcher Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana said: “With its focus on relationships and spirituality, inter-religious dialogue also helps participants connect at a deeper level than secular approaches to conflict resolution and offers powerful tools for rehumanizing the "other." Those secular approaches being some of the traditional Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods do help bring technical and professional skills to an interreligious dialogue method, but deeper connection of this latter highlights and builds up human dignity and peacebuilding.
Moving Forward
Faith-based communities and religious actors can play an important part in conflict resolution and peacebuilding in their areas of reach. The following examples can help us develop a better sense of what to do and how to build trust, understanding, and effective results to move forward by thinking globally and acting locally:
- A mosque in Virginia, USA has been spray-painted with hate-inspired slogans such as "terrorists" and "Islam is evil." The imam gathers the congregation for Friday prayers. A local newspaper carries the story on the front page.
- How might the community respond to this, especially Christian and Jewish religious groups?
- Following the Israeli-Arab war in 1948 and the establishment of the State of Israel, Palestinians living in towns around Haifa and Tel Aviv were forced to move to refugee camps on the West Bank and Gaza. Their homes were either destroyed or taken over by Jewish immigrants who had fled the Holocaust and persecution in other countries.
- How might the intense, lasting bitterness between Israeli Jews and both Muslim and Christian Palestinians be overcome?
- In Mozambique an extremely brutal civil war was waged for decades between the ruling FRELIMO party and the rebel RENAMO. The conflict resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and severe casualties.
- In the face of this history can there be any chance for peace, reconciliation, and the building of a single unified country? Is there a role for faith-based groups to play in achieving this reconciliation?
- In Iraq following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the rise of insurgency movements, long-standing rivalries between Sunni and Shi'a sects have spawned a bloody struggle for power and influence. There is a heavy toll in civilian casualties in Baghdad and throughout the country.
- How can the vicious circle of violence be broken? What might be the role of religious communities inside and outside the country?
Ideas for Future Learning
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