Some general observations on religion and violence

Is Islam more conflict prone than other religions? A cross‐sectional study of ethnoreligious conflict

“…32 The potential causes of ethnic conflict contained in the MAR3 dataset include, but are by no means limited to: discrimination (economic, political and social); grievances formed due to Downloaded by [University of Regina] at 02:54 18 November 2014 8 NATIONALISM & ETHNIC POLITICS that discrimination; repression; the desire for autonomy; ecological and demographic stress; mobilization; international support; the international spread of ethnic conflict across borders; democratization; identity and regime type. However, the dataset contains little information on religion.…”

“…In fact, fundamentalists can exploit the violent potential a religion contains even when that religion is rarely perceived as having violent potential. 8 For example, Buddhists in Tibet have, despite a tradition of pacifism, on occasion, violently opposed the Chinese occupation. Guerilla groups known, among other things, as 'defenders of the faith' were formed in the 1950s in response to the Chinese occupation.…”

Is Ethnoreligious Conflict a Contagious Disease?

“…Juergensmeyer (1991) and Rapoport (1991) similarly argue that religion has an intrinsic connection with violence.…”

Religion and Sectarianism in Ulster: Interpreting the Northern Ireland Troubles

“…This has understandably led Northern Ireland to be a case study for the wider debate over whether religion encourages or discourages violence. David Rapoport, for example, convincingly argues that religion is both violence‐reducing and violence‐producing; his observation that religion often forces unquestioning loyalty and may be used to both tame and justify violence against outside communities fits the Northern Ireland model well (Rapoport 1991), especially when one considers the instrumental role that the church hierarchies play in many other aspects of Northern Irish social and political life.…”