Between Terror and Tolerance: Religious Leaders, Conflict, and Peacemaking

CONCLUSION: From Terror to Tolerance to Coexistence in Deeply Divided Societies

227 Conclusion l From Terror to Tolerance to Coexistence in Deeply Divided Societies TimoThy D. SiSk Conflict emanating from “internal”wars—conflicts within states—remains the principal,immediate threat to international peace and security into the opening decades of the twenty-first century. Today’s most violent crises most occur in countries riven by a volatile mix of factors that give rise to violence,often including religious drivers or manifestations of deep social divisions. Indeed, most countryspecific conflict assessment instruments in use in the policy arena today are driven by the reality of analyzing intersections between “need, greed, and creed”(Arnson and Zartman 2005). Thus, as this volume shows, religion cannot be fully isolated as a singular “root cause” of violence because the interactions among belief, social, economic, and political processes are deeply complex and case-contingent. At the same time, the history of the twentieth century would also suggest that there is no reason for complacency in the prevention of mass atrocities and genocide, often justified or loosely inspired by systems of belief and (typically extremist) interpretation of religious doctrine. The study of “ethnic conflict” that burgeoned in the immediate post–Cold War era has been eclipsed—as several authors in this volume refer—by a narrow set of factors focusing on economic drivers of conflict (Collier et al. 2003). The research presented in this book shows that focusing solely, or even primarily, on the material causes of conflict in divided societies mistakenly discounts the role of religion in the organization,justification,and manifestation of grievances grounded in the material and social aspects of conflict. There is fallacy in reducing conflict to TimoThy D. SiSk 228 the material; religious leaders directly influence conflict causes, trajectories, and outcomes in deeply divided societies. This volume contributes to our understanding by exploring in comparative analysis how religious belief has affected the trajectory of recent conflicts in wartorn countries such as Iraq, Lebanon, Nigeria, and of conflicts that were putatively settled but still show deep divisions,such as Northern Ireland,and situations where intercommunal strife has escalated in recent years (for example, Kyrgyzstan or Egypt). Religious belief and religious behavior continue to matter in the oscillation of these conflict-riven countries between war and peace.And they affect the extent to which there is doctrinal justification of terror—either by insurgents, as in the case of the terror of insurgents (e.g., mass bombings, as in Iraq today) or by the state thorough other forms of mass violence, such as genocide. Religious leaders are in many ways reflective of the broader social forces in which they are embedded, and they are rarely able to mobilize with hateful motives or advance the causes of peace when these underlying social conditions are prohibitive. The case of Francois Bazaramba, an ex-Baptist pastor accused of organizing killings in the Rwanda genocide of 1994, illustrates and reinforces the essential finding that in some circumstances, indeed, religious leaders may well provide the underlying moral or ideological justification or “hateful motive” for mass killing. Bazaramba’s trial began in Finland in September 2009, where he is accused of planning, leading, and carrying out the 1994 genocide that killed eight hundred thousand or more in one hundred days.1 According to journalist Bob Allen’s account. [In Rwanda], both groups lived in totally integrated communities, until a propaganda campaign incited local citizens to root the Tutsis out as part of their civic duty. Churches were not immune from the tensions . . . South African Missiological Society, missiologist J. J. Kritzinger said that while most Hutu and Tutsi Christians fellowshipped warmly on the personal level, most accepted the prevailing wisdom that Hutus were not as capable as Tutsis to govern the country and thus divided themselves between “us” and “them.” Churches did not challenge those stereotypes, Kritzinger said, until it was too late. (Allen 2009) This anecdote and the cases in this book underscore that religious roles in conflict are essentially instrumental and not directly causal in terms of mass social violence. Thus, greater clarity is needed in both the analysis and understanding of the role of clergy and nonclerical leaders in fanning the flames of violence. At the same time, there is the need for better appreciation of the roles that religious leaders play in defending tolerance and promoting peace when social conditions for these more 229 Conclusion positive roles are present. As these chapters show, across the Abrahamic traditions...