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Peace Building
& DC
EU
& Peace
Building
Security
Prevention
Spoilers
Transitional
Justice
Land Conflicts
DC, Religion
& Conflict
Methods
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For some years now, more attention has been devoted to religious
aspects when looking at conflicts in developing countries. The
crises in the Middle East have, for example, drawn our attention
to "Islam" and the re-evaluation of cultural traditions
and religious values in processes of social change. Religious
components are visible, too, in many long-lasting conflicts (e.g.
the Balkans, Kashmir, Sri Lanka and Sudan) or in local and
short-term violent conflicts (e.g. India and Nigeria): opposing
economic or political differences have often escalated when the
conflicting parties have mobilised the population along religious
lines.
A closer look at the respective situations shows that it is not
religious differences per se that trigger the conflicts. Only when
religious adherence is used as a means in the struggle for
influence, power or access to public services, deeply entrenched
polarisation and violence can occur.
However, as well as conflicts being intensified by religion we can
also find examples of religious groups contributing to
peace-building. Thus religion can have a "dual role"
both as an opportunity for and as an impediment to the
constructive management of development blockades and peaceful
conflict transformation.
The close - and at the same time complex - connection between
social unrest, cultural change and religious and cultural
identities often raises crucial questions for peace and
development work:
- What is our understanding of the socio-cultural dimension of
development and what significance should be ascribed to religion
in conflicts?
- What are the consequences for selecting partners and fields of
activity of governmental and non-governmental organisations?
- What experience have we been able to gather when it comes to
conflicts related to different understandings of faith?
FriEnt Activities
Against this backdrop FriEnt's activities have focussed on
identifying the connections between the fields of action in
development cooperation and the significance of religion(s) in
conflicts.
To date activities have included:
- Expert discussion: "Development cooperation, religion(s)
and conflicts in Subsahara Africa" (7 June 2005),
- FriEnt expert discussion: "Continuity or change of
direction in cooperation with the Islamic world?" (17
February 2004)
FriEnt-Publications
Development Co-operation, Religion and Conflict
FriEnt-Briefing 1/2005 - English version
Wolfgang Kaiser | FriEnt | 2006
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