Religious peacebuilders:The role of religion in peacebuilding in conflict-torn society in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Scholars and practitioners of International Relations and Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies tend to ignore religion in their analyses due to the considerable influence of the secularist paradigm within these fields. Religion tends to be perceived as a cause of violent conflict, and hence as a phenomenon that must be relegated to the private sphere. However, against these more conventional approaches, some scholars and practitioners have begun to approach religion as a factor that can potentially shape peace and security in positive ways. Within this context, the aim of this thesis is to investigate, as its core question, how Muslims and Christians use religious resources to contribute to peacebuilding in conflict-torn societies in Southeast Asia. To answer the research question, the notions of the ambivalence of the sacred (AoS) and the hermeneutics of peace (HoP) are employed as theoretical frames for moving beyond both the core assumptions of the secularist paradigm and analysing local dynamics in the field. These local dynamics are accessed through a qualitative case study methodology with particular reference to the conflicts in Maluku (Indonesia) and Mindanao (the Philippines). This thesis includes the argument that religion is a resource for peacebuilding through the complex process of the HoP: the process of rereading sacred texts, religious doctrines, and narratives in order to create new, inclusive, and peaceful religious meanings and practices to overcome violent conflicts. The evidence obtained through fieldwork amply demonstrated that religion played pivotal roles in peacebuilding in the two cases that were considered. The HoP process led religious peacebuilders in Maluku and Mindanao to perceive religiously grounded peacebuilding as more than simply another tactic to resolve conflict. Rather, peacebuilders in these conflicts became deeply committed to attain peace because for them peacebuilding was a religious conviction, a sacred duty, and a vocation that deserves reward and redemption. Furthermore, this thesis found that religion could not always be cast as violent, dogmatic, rigid, and inflexible, as the secular perspective has often prescribed. Religion, in fact, inspired and motivated religious adherents to contribute to peacebuilding fluidly, flexibly, and dynamically at local, national, and international levels. Religious peacebuilders worked through official and unofficial religious structures, but they also worked with and drew upon diverse and pluralistic resources of the society, including feminism, nationalism, customary tradition, and the approaches of contemporary civil society organisations. Thus, this thesis demonstrates how religion positively influences peacebuilding in conflict-torn societies in Southeast Asia.