Abstract
This chapter explains religious and political conflicts in the Middle East. It focuses on two major themes, namely, (1) Christianity versus Islam and (2) Muslims against Muslims (Sunni versus Shiite). After a review of theories of religious conflicts, this chapter puts forward a new theory of religious conflict by arguing that religious conflict is a knowledge conflict which originates from differences in everyday life experiences between two groups of people as a result of socialization. This new concept is illustrated by three cases of religious and political conflicts in the Middle East, namely, (1) the conflict between the United States and Iran, (2) the Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict and (3) the Syrian War.
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Notes
- 1.
See Chap. 5 on terrorist issues.
- 2.
ISIL was rooted in Iraq. In 2004, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) emerged as an al-Qaeda sect against the Iraqi government and foreign occupation forces in Iraq. During the Syrian Civil War in 2011, ISI joined with the Islamic militants (the Islamic Front) and al-Qaeda affiliated group (al-Nusra Front) in Syria. It declared itself as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
- 3.
In the midst of violence in Syria, Afghanistan and Africa, nuclear program of Iran and the rise of extremism, Ban Ki-moon, the former General Secretary of the United Nations, raised the issues of “widespread insecurity and injustice, inequality and intolerance”. For full text of the opening address in the 67th United Nations General Assembly, see http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocus/sgspeeches/statments_full.asp?statID=1660, retrieved on 26 September 2012.
- 4.
Thomas R. Malthus initiated scarce resource theory in An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798. In his view, in a perfect condition, the means of subsistence is more or less equal to the number of inhabitants in a region. However, in reality, population growth exceeds the means of subsistence. Scarce resources and the growth of population result poverty and famine. The competition for scarce resources causes conflict.
- 5.
The intersubjective reality experience can be mapped in four ways, namely space-time, symbolic patterns, values and communication (Holzner 1968: 6–9).
- 6.
For a full elaboration of this theory, see Chap. 7.
- 7.
Religious violence is categorized as hierocratic domination, interreligious competition, state hegemony and martyrdom under the conditions of apocalyptic war (Hall 2003).
- 8.
For the Christians, “Do not have any other gods before me” is the first commandment (Exodus 20: 3). The Muslims believe that “He is God, the One. God, to Whom the creatures turn for their needs. He begets not, nor was He begotten, and there is none like Him” (Quran 112: 1–4).
- 9.
The former US President George W. Bush was a conservative evangelical. He proclaimed the United States as the world superpower. He developed a faith-based American policy (Smith 2006). During his presidency between 2001 and 2009, Bush intended to exemplify Christian values at home and aboard and divide the world into good and evil. He anticipated “Holy War” with War on Terrorism, 9 days after the September 11 attack in 2001. The United States joined with the Western allies to defeat and destroy Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations around the world. As al-Qaeda was believed to set a base in Afghanistan, the United States led the war in Afghanistan in 2001. In 2002, Bush declared preemptive attack on “axis of evil”, namely, Iraq, Iran and North Korea. These countries were alleged with possessing weapons of mass destruction. The conflicts between the United States and other countries, specifically the Arab world, are the struggle between Christianity and Islam for global hegemony.
- 10.
In a message written by President Harry Truman in 1947, he claimed that “[t]his is a Christian Nation” (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=12746, retrieved on 30 August 2012). Later, President Woodrow Wilson spoke to the public that “America was born a Christian nation” (quoted in DeMar 2008: 3).
- 11.
Salmon P. Chase, the former Secretary of the Treasury, said, “No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.” For history of “In God we trust”, see http://www.treasury.gov/about/education/Pages/in-god-we-trust.aspx, retrieved on 30 August 2012.
- 12.
http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/singlehtml.htm, retrieved on 19 July 2012.
- 13.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/bdsdcc:@field(DOCID+@lit(bdsdcc021 01)), retrieved on 30 August 2012.
- 14.
Under the influence of Manifest Destiny in the nineteenth century, the Americans believed that the United States was destined by God to expand across North America. In early twentieth century, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson expanded the ideology as “America’s mission” to support American hegemony. The United States has an obligation to make world peaceful and safe for democracy, equality and liberty.
- 15.
From Salmon Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses published in 1988 to anti-Islamic video Innocence of Muslims of 2012, Muslims condemn the West of blaspheming Allah and corrupting Islamic communities.
- 16.
Osama bin Laden founded al-Qaeda in 1989. He was the 17th son in a building contractor family. He believed that sharia’s law and caliphate should be (re-)established and all Muslims had a sacred duty to establish sharia rule in the world by jihad. He accused the United States for subverting Islamic doctrine and institutions around the globe. He issued two fatwas in 1996 and 1998 and declared a holy war against the infidels in the West. On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda launched four suicide attacks in the United States. The event marked the confrontation of the West and the Muslim countries.
- 17.
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi studied in Switzerland and graduated in a Tehran military school in 1938.
- 18.
Ayatollah Khomeini (in a talk to the Representatives from Tabriz and Qom, 19 Sept. 1979), http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/government-article2.htm, retrieved on 10 October 2012.
- 19.
https://www.crisisgroup.org/global/10-conflicts-watch-2018, retrieved on 7 February 2018.
- 20.
Syria claims to be a secular state but, under the Syrian Constitution, the religion of the President has to be Islam and Islamic jurisprudence is the source of legislation.
- 21.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-dilemma-of-syrias-alawites, retrieved on 18 April 2018.
- 22.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/08/middle-east-full-blown-religious-war, retrieved on 23 January 2018.
- 23.
- 24.
ISIS recruited Sunni jihadists. It claimed that Alawites were heretics who prepared to destroy Muslims. ISIS had seized control of northern part of Syria and established the Islamic State. After the demolition of the Islamic State in 2017, some ISIS fighters joined the Free Syrian Army and Turkish army. ISIS began to attack in northern and eastern Syria again.
- 25.
Yu (2014) classifies leadership into two types, namely transformative and adaptive. With the contributions of Joseph Schumpeter, the two modes of leadership are associated with “creative response” and “adaptive response” in history. Transformative leaders create new ideologies, bring about breakthrough and transform traditional religion into a brand-new society. Adaptive leaders enhance a better coordination among religious and sectarian leaders, thus entailing peace in concord with different religions.
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Kwan, D.S., Yu, FL.T. (2019). Religious Conflicts in the Middle East: Christianity Versus Islam and Sunni Versus Shiite. In: Yu, FL.T., Kwan, D.S. (eds) Contemporary Issues in International Political Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6462-4_1
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