Sectarian violence or sectarian strife is a form of religious violence which is inspired by sectarianism, that is, discrimination, hatred or prejudice between different sects of a particular mode of an ideology or different sects of a religion within a nation or community. Religious segregation often plays a role in sectarian violence. The concept can be applied to both inter- as well as intra-group violence and is context dependent for instance considering political, social, and cultural factors. Strategies for ending violence include the inter-group contact theory and the democratic peace theory.
Conceptual dynamics of sectarian violence A sect, in one of its oldest definitions by Max Weber, is a form of social-religious grouping that co-exists along religious institutions. Sectarianism therefore is the adherence to one of such groups based on the religious values that one ascribes to them. This therefore constitutes religious sectarianism. However, sectarianism does not need to be attached to religion per se. It can also be connected to a moralised identification with a political group which would thereby transform it into political sectarianism. Both definitions therefore entail the creation of an in- and out-group perspective that hinges upon identity.
Furthermore, such groups are not necessarily homogenous in their internal opinions or characteristics. The differences within and among these groups makes then susceptible to conflict both across and within groups. For instance, as according to Raymond Hinnebusch, a patrimonial regime within a multi-sectarian society may favour elites which in turn may exploit sectarian dynamics to foster inter-sectarian conflict which in turn would lead to inter-sectarian violence. On the other hand, exploiting the differences within one such group could thereby insist internal divide and intra-sectarian violence. This difference can therefore also influence how and why violence emerges and can shape the character of resulting conflict.
More generally, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute:Traditionally, sectarian violence implies a symmetrical confrontation between two or more non-state actors representing different population groups.Sectarian violence differs from the concept of race riot. It may involve the dynamics of social polarization, the balkanization of a geographic area along the lines of self-identifying groups, and protracted social conflict.
The occurrence of sectarian violence is not solely based on inert characteristics of sectarianism but is further catalysed by enabling environmental factors of political, economic, social, and cultural nature. Political factors can include reforms which may favour or disadvantage certain groups compared to others, increasing sectarian divide and creating increased potential for sectarian violence such as in the example of Pakistan and its political reforms of the 1970s and 1980s. Socio-economic factors can encompass economic trends favouring sectarian divide such as the policies created by the French Colonial Government of Mandate Syria of the 1920s.Hof, F., & Simon, A. (2013). Sectarian Violence in Syria’s Civil War: Causes, Consequences, and Recommendations for Mitigation. The Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/20130325-syria-report.pdf Lastly, cultural factors such as the movement of unarmed european jesuit priests within Lebanon in the late 19th century created a cultural climate in which local sectarian elites were favoured and thereby could exacerbate sectarian divide and the potential for violence among them.
For further examples see: Economic conflict: capitalist versus socialist Political conflict: internationalist versus nationalist Interreligious conflict: Buddhist Christian Jewish Muslim Christian conflict: Catholic versus Protestant Islamic conflict: Shia versus Sunni
Historic examples
Among Buddhists
In Japan In the Japanese Middle Ages, different Buddhist sects had warrior monks and private armies that frequently clashed.Kamien Keown, A Dictionary of Buddhism: Sōhei, A Dictionary of Buddhism 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004 See Buddhism and violence.
Among Christians
Catholic-Eastern Orthodox
Although the First Crusade was initially launched in response to an appeal from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos for help in repelling the invading Seljuq Turks from Anatolia, one of the lasting legacies of the Crusades was to "further separate the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity from each other."
European wars of religion
Following the onset of the Protestant Reformation, a series of wars were waged in Europe starting circa 1524 and continuing intermittently until 1648. Although sometimes unconnected, all of these wars were strongly influenced by the religious change of the period, and the conflict and rivalry that it produced. According to Miroslav Volf, the European wars of religion were a major factor behind the "emergence of secularizing modernity".
In the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre followers of the Roman Catholic Church killed up to 30,000 Huguenots (French Protestants) in mob violence. The massacres were carried out on the national day celebrating Bartholomew the Apostle. Pope Gregory XIII sent the leader of the massacres a Golden Rose, and said that the massacres "gave him more pleasure than fifty Battles of Lepanto, and he commissioned Giorgio Vasari to paint frescoes of it in the Vatican". The killings have been called "the worst of the century's religious massacres", and led to the start of the fourth war of the French Wars of Religion.
Northern Ireland
Since the 16th century there has been sectarian conflict of varying intensity between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. This religious sectarianism is connected to a degree with nationalism. Northern Ireland has seen inter-communal conflict for more than four centuries and there are records of religious ministers or clerics, the agents for absentee landlords, aspiring politicians, and members of the landed gentry stirring up and capitalizing on sectarian hatred and violence as far back as the late 18th century.
William E.H. Lecky, an Irish historian, wrote in 1892 that, "If the characteristic mark of a healthy Christianity be to unite its members by a bond of fraternity and love, then there is no country where Christianity has more completely failed than Ireland".
Steve Bruce, a sociologist, wrote;
John Hickey wrote;
The period from 1969 to 1998 is known as "The Troubles", a period of frequent violence and tense relations between Northern Ireland's communities. About one in eight females and one in five males in Northern Ireland identified themselves as belonging to no religion.NI Life & Times Survey, 2015 results on religion, ark.ac.uk; accessed 31 January 2018. However, people of no religion are still generally attributed a Catholic or Protestant identity based on their ancestry and upbringing, both by the community in general and the state. Government advice recommends that in situations where an individual chooses not to identify as a member of the Catholic or Protestant community, individuals responsible for Equal Opportunities monitoring should determine communal affiliation on the basis of information such as name, address, schools attended or hobbies. People of no religion are less likely to support the main, constitution-oriented main political parties, or more likely to support a more neutral political party such as the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland.NI Life & Times Survey, 2015 results on political party support, ark.ac.uk; accessed 31 January 2018.
About two-thirds of people with no religion tend to think of themselves as neither unionist or nationalist, although a much higher percentage of those with no religion tend to think of themselves as unionist than nationalist.NI Life & Times Survey, 2015 results on political identity, ark.ac.uk; accessed 31 January 2018.
For people who describe themselves as Protestant or Roman Catholic, a small majority of them appear to favour one of the two main political parties on either side: the Democratic Unionist Party or the Ulster Unionist Party for Protestants; and Sinn Féin or the Social Democratic and Labour Party for Roman Catholics. In each case, the percentage in the Northern Irish Life & Times Survey in 2015 was 57%. Roman Catholics are more likely to reject the label British (59%) than Protestants are to reject the label Irish (48%).NI Life & Times Survey, 2015 results on identity, ark.ac.uk; accessed 31 January 2018.
67% of Protestants are more likely to consider the British identity as the 'best' single way to describe themselves, whereas 63% of Roman Catholics consider the best single way to describe themselves as Irish. There is an equal level of support for the more neutral Northern Irish identity, with 25% of people from each religion likely to choose that label as the best description. Over a third of people with no religion prefer to be described as Northern Irish.NI Life & Times Survey, 2015 results on best identity, ark.ac.uk; accessed 31 January 2018.
There are organizations dedicated to the reduction of sectarianism in Northern Ireland. The Corrymeela Community (in Ballycastle, County Antrim), operates a retreat centre on the northern coast of Northern Ireland to bring Catholics and Protestants together to discuss their differences and similarities. The Ulster Project works with teenagers from Northern Ireland and the United States to provide safe, non-denominational environments to discuss sectarianism in Northern Ireland. These organizations are attempting to bridge the gap of historical prejudice between the two religious communities.
Although state schools in Northern Ireland are non-denominational, most Catholic parents still send their children to specifically Catholic schools or Irish-language medium schools, thus ensuring that state school students are almost wholly Protestant. There are some integrated schools and the Society of Friends (Quakers) have long been an advocate of co-education in terms of religion, operating the Friends' School in Lisburn (first established in 1774).
Yugoslav wars
Howard Goeringer criticizes both the "Catholic Pope and the Orthodox Patriarch" for failing to condemn the "deliberate massacre of men, women and children in the name of 'ethnic cleansing' as incompatible with Jesus' life and teaching."
Rwandan genocide
The majority of Rwandans and in particular, the majority of Tutsis, are Catholic, so a shared religion did not prevent genocide. Miroslav Volf cites a Roman Catholic bishop from Rwanda as saying, "The best cathechists, those who filled our churches on Sundays, were the first to go with machetes in their hands". Ian Linden asserts that "there is absolutely no doubt that significant numbers of prominent Christians were involved in sometimes slaughtering their own church leaders."Linden, I. (1997). The Church and Genocide. Lessons from the Rwandan Tragedy. In G. Baum (Ed.), The Reconciliation of Peoples. Challenge to the Churches (pp. 43–55). Geneva: WCC Publications. According to Volf, "what is particularly disturbing about the complicity of the church is that Rwanda is without doubt one of Africa’s most evangelized nations. Eight out of ten of its people claimed to be Christians."