Violence and Non-violence
Violence as a Tool: Changing Nature of Religious Violence in North-Western Maghrib in the 20th Century
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lenka Hrabalová
This contribution explores the changing nature of the relationship between religion and violence in Morocco, Mali, and Mauritania between 1899 and 2003. These three countries share many cultural, social and religious similarities, while one of them is a long tradition of jihadi movements and Islamic resistance. The main question of the research is if that the nature of violence perpetrated by religiously motivated groups or individuals changed during the past hundred years. Analysis of historical sources, such as reports, newspapers and books and comparative approach in the study of rhetorics of different jihadi leaders resulted in the identification of motivations of different actors and observation of a radical shift in perpetrators of the violence. While at the beginning of the century violent jihad was a mere attempt to unite populations of the region in a common cause and therefore religion was a tool of violent movements, at the end of the century, violence became a tool of anti-system religious groups. The paper will conclude that the relation of violence and Islam has a profoundly changing nature, and is always influenced by external conditions and implications and cannot be associated with one Islamic stream while excluding others. The changing nature of violent religious behavior in the region will be presented in the broader context of regional and international development.
Religion as a Source of Both Tolerance and Intolerance in Society
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Quinn Galbraith, Adam Callister
Given society’s ever-changing beliefs about religion’s proper role in the public sphere, this study seeks to analyze the dichotomy of religion as both a source of tolerance and intolerance in society. In order to address this topic of interest, researchers conducted interviews with 172 religious individuals living in Ireland and the United Kingdom in June and July of 2016. Interview participants came from a variety of different faith backgrounds including Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, and Baha’i. In regards to religious tolerance, researchers identified a number of themes from the data which suggest that religion’s role in promoting interfaith interaction as well as teaching inclusion leads religious adherents to be more tolerant of different religious groups. In contrast, researchers identified themes related to religious intolerance which suggest that religious differences have the potential to engender intolerance between religious adherents of the same faith, between religious adherents of different faiths, and within families and communities in general. Additionally, many participants expressed their belief that the increasing secularization of society has led people to become less tolerant of religion in the public sphere. The implications of these findings with regards to prior research on the topic are discussed and suggestions for further research are offered.
A Feeble Folk to Whom No Concern is Accorded: “Apocalyptic Responses” to ISIS and Their Contextualization
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bronislav Ostransky
This paper provides the listener with a quite different perspective on the apocalyptic visions of ISIS than usual. “A Feeble Folk to whom no Concern is Accorded” (this enigmatic title is a borrowed quotation from an apocalyptic prophecy recorded by sheikh Nuʽaym ibn Hammad al-Marwazi in his famous Kitāb al-Fitan / the Book of Apocalyptic Tribulations) discusses, above all, how the activities of ISIS are placed into an apocalyptic context by their Muslim opponents. This paper elaborates pivotal Sunni patterns as well as particular examples of such a fighting against the ISIS propaganda “in eschatological terms.”
