Sectarianism
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Sectarianism refers (usually pejoratively) to a rigid adherence to a particular sect or party or denomination. It often implies discrimination, denunciation, or violence against those outside the sect. The term is most often used to refer to religious sectarianism, involving conflict between members of different religions or denominations of the same religion. It is also frequently used to refer to political sectarianism, generally on the part of a tight-knit political faction or party.
Sectarianism may, in the abstract, be characterized by dogmatism and inflexibility; sentimental or axiomatic adherence to an idea, belief or tradition; and idealism that provides a sense of continuity, orientation, and certainty. As a pejorative term, accusations of sectarianism may sometimes be used to demonize an opposing group.
The ideological underpinnings of attitudes and behaviours labelled as sectarian are extraordinarily varied. Members of a religious group may feel that their own salvation requires aggressively seeking converts from other groups; adherents of a given faction may believe that for the achievement of their own political or religious project their opponents must be purged. Sometimes a group feeling itself to be under economic or political pressure will attack members of another group thought to be responsible for its own decline. At other times, sectarianism may be the expression of a group's nationalistic or cultural ambitions, or cynically exploited to serve an individual demagogue's ambition.
In all cases, there is a real or felt opposition between 'Us' and 'Them', between insiders and outsiders. Sectarianism may take the form of hatred and fear of an outside sect or group. In such cases, sectarianism does not require a strong sense of religious belief, as much as a sense of group belonging.
A sectarian conflict usually refers to violent conflict along religious and political lines such as the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. It may also refer to general philosophical or political conflict between different schools of thought such as that between Shia and Sunni Muslims. Non-sectarians espouse that free association and tolerance of different beliefs are the cornerstone to successful peaceful human interaction.
Religious sectarianism
Religious sectarianism may be found, in varying forms and degrees, wherever religious sects (or their members) are in competition. In many regions, Roman Catholics and Protestants have been in fierce conflict – one contemporary example of this is in Ireland and its diaspora. Within Islam, there has been conflict at various periods between Sunnis and Shias; contrary to the majority Muslim opinion, certain Sunni sects inspired by Wahhabism and other ideologies have declared Shias (and sometimes mainstream Sunnis) to be heretics and/or apostates.
Ireland
Since the 17th century, there has been sectarian conflict of varying intensity in Ireland. Since the Irish Free State became independent in 1922, this has been particularly intense in Northern Ireland. Irish emigration has taken this conflict to other lands, including western Scotland (see religious rivalry in Glasgow), Newfoundland, Canada's Maritime provinces, New York State, Ontario, Liverpool, and elsewhere. See also Know-Nothings for anti-Catholic sentiment in the United States.
Persecution of Protestants by Catholics
In Catholic countries, Protestants have historically been persecuted as heretics. For example, the substantial Protestant population of France (the Huguenots) was expelled from the kingdom in the 1680s following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In Spain, the Inquisition sought to root out not only Protestantism but also crypto-Jews and crypto-Muslims (moriscos); elsewhere the Papal Inquisition held similar goals.
Persecution of Catholics by Protestants
In places where Protestantism is the majority or 'official' religion, there have been examples of Catholics being persecuted. In countries where The Reformation was successful, this often lay in the perception that Catholics retained allegiance to a 'foreign' power (the Papacy), causing them to be regarded with suspicion. Sometimes this mistrust manifested itself in Catholics being subjected to restrictions and discrimination, which itself led to further conflict. For example, before Catholic Emancipation in 1829, Catholics were forbidden from voting, running for office or buying land in Ireland.
Nowadays, bigotry and discrimination in employment usually only remains in a few places where extreme forms of Protestantism are the norm, or in poor areas with a long history of sectarian violence and tension, such as Northern Ireland. In places where more 'moderate' forms (such as Anglicanism / Episcopalianism) prevail, the two traditions do not become polarized against each other, and usually co-exist peacefully. However, in western Scotland, where many people have some Irish ancestry, sectarianism can frequently be found between Catholics and Protestants.
South Asian communalism
- Main article: Communalism (South Asia)
In India, sectarianism is known as communalism, which refers particularly to conflict between the Hindu and Muslim communities. It can also refer to Hindu/Sikh conflict and Hindu/Christian conflicts.
Violence in Sri Lanka between the Tamil, Sinhalese, and Muslim communities often has heavy sectarian overtones.
Sectarianism in Pakistan
In Pakistan, there has been a brutal history of sectarian violence and unrest since the 1970's. In early years, the Sunni focus was the eradication of Ahmadis. Today, though the majority of violence exists between Sunnis and Shias, there has also been example of ethnic violence that has played a major role in the development of the 60 year old nation. For example in 1986, Sunni Afghans raped, killed, and pillaged Sunni Muhajir Urdu in the Aligarh, Orangi, and Qasba colonies in Karachi.
Under the rule of Zia-ul-Haq, sectarianism in Pakistan, especially in Karachi came to an explosive point. This sparked a whole new era of sectarian violence whose legacy came to a near end when a Sunni suicide bombing of a Shia mosque in 2003 took place. Many have attributed this to Zia's practice of Wahhabism, which gained noteriety in mainstream Sunnism after the destruction of the Shia holy shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq in 1800. The plan for Islamicization of Pakistan led to further violence between the two main sects.
In the early part of the new millenium, Shia doctors and lawyers were put on anonymously paid for newspaper ads that published assassination hitlists. Then, those people were systematically assassinated by extremist Salafist and Deobandi groups as part of an effort to ethnically cleanse the nation of its Shia notables. Most of these attacks have been referred to as "Bearded Motorcycle Assassins" by the media.
Sectarianism in Iraq
- Main article: Sectarian violence in Iraq
Iraq's Shia population was persecuted during the presidency of Saddam Hussein, and certain elements of the Iraqi insurgency have made a point of targeting Shias in sectarian attacks. In turn, the Sunnis have complained of discrimination and human rights abuses by Iraq's Shia majority government, which is bolstered by the fact that Sunni detainees were allegedly discovered to have been tortured in a compound used by government forces on November 15. [1]
Ethnic conflict in the Balkans
The civil wars in the Balkans which followed the breakup of Yugoslavia have been heavily tinged with sectarianism. Croats and Slovenes have traditionally been Catholic, Serbs and Macedonians Eastern Orthodox, and Bosniaks and (for the most part) Albanians Muslim. Religious affiliation served as a marker of group identity in this conflict, despite relatively low rates of religious practice and belief among these various groups after decades of communism.
Christian/Muslim conflict in West Africa
In certain West African countries, particularly Nigeria, competition between Muslims and Christians has exploded into severe violence.
Sectarianism within Judaism
Sectarianism also exists between Orthodox and Reform Jews, with orthodox Jews often characterising reform Jews as being non-religious, disobeying the Torah, rarely attending shul and adopting semi-Christian styles of worship. Reform Jews, on the other hand, often view the orthodox as being intolerant of them and other religions, placing legalistic rules such as the observance of the Sabbath above ethical obligations, being cult-like and hostile to change.
Anti-Semitism
- Main article: Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism has traditionally been the most widespread variety of sectarianism in Europe. However, this form of prejudice is not wholly religious in nature, as can be seen by the racial policies of the Nazis, who could be said to be more concerned with the "contamination" of Aryan blood than with the Jewish religion itself, and the experiences of Marranos who were treated with suspicion several generations after their families had converted to Christianity.
Political sectarianism
Political sectarianism differs from religious sectarianism in that political affinity is usually more likely to be elective, as opposed to hereditary, than is religious affinity. In the political realm, the term sectarian is generally used to refer to the tendency of political movements to splinter into mutually antagonistic factions. Various Trotskyist formations, for example, may accuse each other of sectarianism and/or be perceived by outsiders to be sectarian. The same phenomenon may be observed across the political spectrum, to varying degrees, wherever a strong priority is placed on party loyalty and party discipline.
Political sectarianism among Judaean nationalists was parodied by Monty Python in The Life of Brian.