Publication

This paper teaches us how to examine the role(s) that religion plays in conflicts, peacebuilding and conflict transformation. More specifically, the paper’s authors look at how conflict transformation practitioners perceived the role(s) that religion played in five cases of widespread violence. By analyzing these cases, the authors ultimately identify five useful ways to identify the function(s) religion plays in conflicts. (Note: The case studies focus on particular periods in the history of 1) the Iraqi Inter-Religious Congress, 2) the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy’s faith-based reconciliation efforts in Kashmir, 3) the Ansifûna Initiative of Salafi prisoners in Morocco, 4) the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone, and 5) secular-Islamist confrontations in Tajikistan.)