RELIGION IN GLOBAL

CONFLICT

MARK JUERGENSMEYER
• Scholars have predicted that the secularization of the societies in the world would result
to the withering of religion in the modern period.
• To their surprise, religion has publicly appeared in the 20th and 21st century, taking a role
in global conflicts.
• “The conflicts have been about identity and economics, about privilege and power – the
things that most social conflicts are about.”
• “When these conflicts are religionized – when they are justified in religious terms and
pre-sented with the aura of sacred combat – they often become more intractable, less
susceptible to negotiated settlement.
FIVE STAGES OF THE GLOBAL RELIGIOUS
REBELLION AGAINST SECULAR POLITICS
• Isolated Religious Outbursts
• Internationalization of Religious Rebellion in the 1980s
• Anti-American and Anti-European Sentiments in the 1990s
• The Global War in the 2000s
• Non-violent Uprisings
ISOLATED RELIGIOUS OUTBURSTS

• The “Total Revolution in 1974” (Non-violent Hindu revolution against corruption in the government)
• Revolt led by Ayatollah Khomeini against the secular regime of the Shah of Iran in 1979
• The reign of violence unleashed by the Khalistani movement of Sikh separatism against the north Indian
state of Punjab throughout the 1980s, killing tens of thousands.
• Violent resistance of Buddhist activists against the attempt of the Sri Lankan government to appease
Tamil separatism movement
• The consolidation of power by Muslim Extremists which led to the assassination of President Mohammad
Anwar al Sadat in 1981.
• Common denominator of outbursts: moral critique of secular politics
INTERNATIONALIZATION OF RELIGIOUS REBELLION IN THE 1980S

• Development of international coalition of radical Muslim Jihadis during the Afghan war
(Afghanistan v. Soviet regime) in the 1980s. (Jihadi soldiers came from Muslim
countries like Pakistan, Northern Africa, and Egypt. )
• Development of Muslim movements in Israeli controlled Palestine in the 1980s
• Development of Hezbollah Shi’ite movement against the westernization of Lebanon by
Israel in 1982
• Formation of Hamas in the Palestine resistance movement
ANTI-AMERICAN AND ANTI-EUROPEAN SENTIMENTS IN THE 1990S

• Attacks shifted from local regimes to international centers of power

• The economic and political powers of America and Europe were perceived to be a problem locally and
globally.
• Religious violence (Muslim initiated) in Algeria against French colonial regime
• Religious social dissent against the American-led secular new-world-order
• Buddhist violent protests in Japan (by Aum Shinrikyo), predicting the apocalyptic and catastrophic world
war of America against Japan.
• Muslim activists calling USA as a global bully, exposing its economic interests in oil reserve in the
Middle East.
• “A whole new outburst of Christian cultural nationalism occurred in Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union in the 1990s.
• “In the early 1990s, Buddhist nationalism emerged in Mongolia and Muslim nationalism gained
strength in areas far from the Middle East: in Afghanistan, in Tajikistan, and in other Central Asian
countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.”
• Reason: “Secular ideologies often lead to frustration because their material promises usually
cannot be fulfilled in one’s own lifetime; the expectations of religious ideologies do not disappoint
in the same way because they are not fulfilled on the worldly plane. Religious nationalism raised
new hopes, and it also came along in time to res- cue the idea of the nation-state.”
THE GLOBAL WAR IN THE 2000S

• The Attack of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by Al Qaeda Network led by Osama bin
Laden on September 11, 2001
• “the goal of bin Laden’s and the other jihadi activists was not just to get American influence out of
Saudi Arabia but out of the whole Muslim world. This meant a confrontation of global proportions on
multiple fronts.”
• The global jihadi terrorist attacks “were aimed at bringing to public consciousness the notion that the
world was at war.”
• America’s response: Global War on Terror (bombardment of Afghanistan; Invasion of Iraq in 2003)
•
• “throughout the Muslim world the Iraq invasion was widely perceived as an attempt to
control Middle East politics and its economic resources. Many saw it as part of America’s
war on Islam. Those who perceived it this way were apt to accept the al Qaeda vision of a
global war and to morally justify what was regarded as a defence of the Muslim faith – if
necessary through violence.”
• Global terrorist attacks associated with Muslim Jihadis increased dramatically
• Bombings of Bali resorts in 2002 and Jakarta hotels in 2003
• Madrid train bombings in 2004
• London subway and bus bombings in 2005
• Mumbai train blasts in 2006.

• “In the twenty-first century, the Internet provided a whole new arena for radical religious
activism.”
NON-VIOLENT UPRISINGS

• Uprising in Tahrir Square in Egypt which toppled the Mubarak regime in 2011
• Uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria
• “What brought down the tyrants in Egypt and Tunisia, as it turned out, was about as far
from jihad as one could imagine. It was a series of massive nonviolent movements of
largely middle class and relatively young professionals who organized their protests
through Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of electronic social networking.”
• “as Tahrir Square showed, God does not always have to fight, at least not in the terrorist
ways that the jihadi warriors imagined. In a couple of weeks of protests, the peaceful
resis- tors demonstrated the moral and strategic legitimacy of nonviolent struggle.”
• “Tahrir Square has challenged both the strategic value and the moral legitimacy of the
jihadi stance”
•
SYMBOLIC EMPOWERMENT

• Religion provides empowerment both in violent and non-violent protests

• “‘To die in this way’ – through suicide bombings – the political head of the Hamas movement told me, ‘is better
than to die daily in frustration and humiliation’ (Rantisi, 1989). He went on to say that, in his view, the very nature
of Islam is to defend ‘dignity, land, and honor’.”
• “dishonouring someone is the worst act that one can do, and the only thing that can counter it is dignity – the hon-
our provided by religion and the courage of being a defender of the faith. In a curious way, then, both religion and
violence are seen as antidotes to humiliation. “
• “success consisted simply in waging the struggle – the heady confidence they received by being soldiers for a
great cause, even if the battles were not won, or even winnable, in ordinary military terms.”
•
• “Hence, acts of religious violence are about religion as much as they are about violence.
They are about religion because religion provides a way of thinking about the world that
provides a sense of ultimate order. It takes the messy uncertainties of life, the dangers and
the nagging sense of chaos, and gives them meaning. It locates disorder within a
triumphant pattern of order. It does this especially effectively in thinking about the most
difficult moment of chaos in one’s personal life – in thinking about death."
RELIGIOUS RESURGENCE IN THE ERA OF
GLOBALIZATION
• “Because religious ideas, values, symbols and rites relate to the deep issues of existence,
it should not be surprising when religion enters the picture in times of crisis.
• “The era of globalization is certainly one of those moments of social crisis, although in
this case one experienced on a global scale. This is why the response has been virtually
global as well."
THREE PROBLEMS BROUGHT ABOUT BY
GLOBALIZATION
• “The first was identity, how societies could maintain a sense of homogeneity when ethnic,
cultural, and linguistic communities were spread across borders, in many cases spread across
the world.
• “The second problem was accountability, how the new transnational economic, ideological,
political and communication systems could be controlled, regulated, and brought to jus- tice.
• “The third problem was one of security, how people buffeted by forces seemingly beyond
anyone’s control could feel safe in a world increasingly without cultural borders or moral
standards.”
RELIGION PROVIDES ANSWERS FOR THE THREE
PROBLEMS
• “Traditional definitions of religious community provide a sense of identity, a feeling of
belonging to those who accept that fellowship as primary in their lives.
• “Traditional religious leadership provides a sense of accountability, a certainty that there
are moral and legal standards inscribed in code and enforced by present- day leaders who
are accorded an unassailable authority.
• “And for these reasons, religion also offers a sense of security, the notion that within the
community of the faithful and uplifted by the hands of God, one has found safe harbor
and is truly secure.”
• Juergensmeyer, Mark (2014). Religion in Global Conflict. In The Sage Handbook of
Globalization edited by Manfred Steger, Paul Battersby, and Joseph Siracusa. London:
Sage Publications Ltd. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=nlebk&AN=839692&site=edslive&cu stid=s6273593