Sectarian Identity Research Articles

Sectarianism and Constitutional Identity

Constitution-making can face major issues in a country prone to sectarian uprisings or in countries in which one sect overly dominates others. This paper argues that while a constitution is needed to define the powers, rights, and duties of the institutions, and protect the people it represents, it also serves a crucial role in creating a shared sense of belonging and begins the necessary steps towards crafting a country’s identity. Using a moment of crisis as an opportunity to draft a new constitution is therefore an opportunity to confront sectarianism and create a constitution that is not just paper but is made substantive by a clear and legitimate identity. This paper explores how MENA regions can constructively tackle the transitional agenda that occurs during times of upheaval by analyzing the role of constitutions in countries that were built upon a sectarian structure and identity. This paper suggests that the process and steps which lead to a properly drafted constitutional document can play a key role in preventing sectarianism and can instead begin creating a shared identity that is able to promote and protect both majority and minority rights.

Mom, are we Shi’a? Neg(oti)ating Sectarian Identity in Everyday Life in Post-2011 Bahrain

Based on ethnographic fieldwork experiences in Bahrain in 2017 and 2018, but also drawing on long-term work with this country since 2003, I suggest in this article that questions of sectarianization and de-sectarianization are important, but cannot be definitely answered. While many Bahrainis identify strongly as either Sunni or Shi’a Muslims, at the same time they highlight that this should not be all that defines them, and that de-, cross- or non-sectarian relations are both possible and important, also and not least in the wake of the ill-fated uprising in 2011.

From Existential Struggle to Political Banality: The Politics of Sect in Post-2003 Iraq

This article focuses on the case of post-2003 Iraq to chart the evolution of the politics of sect between 2003 and 2018 particularly with reference to Sunni and Shi’a identity categories. More specifically it examines the shifts in the social divisiveness, political utility, and perceived depth of the Sunni-Shi’a cleavage. What emerges is a gradually altered enabling environment with a changing set of incentive structures that have diminished the political salience of sectarian identity between 2003 and 2018. This is chiefly evidenced in the transformation of the parameters of political contestation, the parameters of populism and, by extension, the parameters of electoral politics.

Coğrafya-Din İlişkisi; Kentlileşme, Muhafazakârlık ve Mezhep Demografisi Bağlamında Doğu ve Batı Karşılaştırması

In this study, we focus on how the conservatism is manifested by revealing the differences between the urbanization and urbanization, and the differences between the East and the West. In this context, the concept of conservatism be broadly defined and then the concept of urban conservatism be emphasized. Finally, the aim of the study is to make a comparison and try to understand the historical change of the urbanization process of the Islamic world. In order to achieve this aim, the study be prepared by using primary and secondary data obtained from domestic and foreign sources. As a result, it is seen that there is a mutual relationship between cities and civilizations and Muslim conservatism is closely related to the changing urbanization phenomenon. It has been determined that the West completed the phenomenon of urbanization long ago and parallel to this, the conservative attitudes developed differently. On the other hand, with the degeneration of the phenomenon of migration, distorted construction and civilization, it was concluded that Muslims remained in the village-urban dilemma, which in a way led to the conflict between tradition and modernism. In addition, social reflex, imitation (acceptance of the sect ready in the family), the influence of the scholar in that geography and the spread of emigration, migration, emergence of a number of crises and breaks in the historical process, and as mentioned in the last analysis, the status of adopting sectarian identity as a general city It is closely related to the perception and attitude of sect in life.

Sectarian identity and national identity in the Middle East

AbstractThis article looks at modern sectarian (here referring to Sunni/Shi'a) identities and their interaction with nationalism in the Middle East. In doing so I make three interrelated claims: 1) the term ‘sectarianism’ is distortive and analytically counterproductive. A better understanding of modern sectarian identity requires us to jettison the term. 2) Once discarded, our focus can then shift to sectarian identity: how it is constructed, perceived, utilized and so forth. A holistic understanding of sectarian identity must recognize the multiple fields upon which it is constructed and contested. The model adopted here frames sectarian identity as simultaneously operating on four fields: doctrinal, subnational, transnational and, crucially for our purposes, the national dimension. 3) Thirdly, this article challenges the assumptions regarding national and sectarian identities in the modern Middle East. Contrary to conventional wisdom, modern sectarian identities are deeply embedded in the prism of the nation‐state and are inextricably linked to nationalism and national identity. The article will rely primarily on the example of modern Iraq but, as will be seen, the Iraqi example is significantly echoed in the cases of Bahrain, Syria and Lebanon.

Introduction: BetweenWataniyyaandTa'ifia; understanding the relationship between state‐based nationalism and sectarian identity in the Middle East

AbstractThis introduction to the four papers that make up the themed section locates them in the wider theoretical, comparative, and historical perspectives from which they originate. First, it places the study of communalist or sectarian identities in the Middle East in broader comparative debates about the study of ethnic and nationalist identities. It then examines the causalities underpinning the shifting relationship between these different identities in the Middle East. Taking modernity as a starting point, it looks at the integration of the region into a global capitalist market from the mid‐19th century and the consequences of this transformation. It then examines the external imposition and growth in coherence and capacity of geographically delineated states. It details the influence that neo‐liberal policy prescriptions have had on those states and their relationship to society. Finally, it examines the role that a series of extended wars played in the forging of and competition between different sets of identities, trans‐state Arab nationalism, state‐based nationalism, and religious and ethnic identities.

Beyond structure and agency: Rethinking political identities in Iraq after 2003

AbstractThis paper examines ethno‐symbolic and instrumental explanations of ethnic and sectarian identities placed within the constructivist turn in the study of political identity, both in the abstract and how they have been deployed to explain the increasing contemporary influence of ethnosectarian mobilisation in Iraq and the wider Middle East. The paper identifies explanatory value in these approaches but finds their focus on either ideational structures or individual rationality too narrow to provide a comprehensive explanation of what happened to political identities in Iraq after 2003. Instead, the paper deploys what can be termed a ‘Bourdieusian method’, in an attempt to get beyond the polarities of structure and agency. It uses Bourdieu's conceptions of political field, principles of vision and division and symbolic violence to understand the influence that de‐Ba'athification, the creation of the Muhasasa Ta'ifia or sectarian apportionment system and national elections had on political identities in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

Rural Waterscape and Emotional Sectarianism in Accounts of Lough Derg, County Donegal

The story of Lough Derg in Ireland’s County Donegal is arranged around clusters of sectarian narratives in juxtaposition, synthesis and conflict. The Sanctuary of Saint Patrick sits on Station Island, a small rocky islet set within the waters of the lake. The site became well known in the early Middle Ages as the place of Saint Patrick’s delving of a cave that led to purgatory, allowing the sinner to experience a glimpse of the torments of hell while still in this life. The island then attracted pilgrims from all over Europe and became embedded into the Catholic literary and spiritual imagination. After the Protestant Ascendency and the Plantation of Ulster began in the seventeenth century, the place became a site of tension and narrative clashes between differing visions of rural place, each with its own spectrum of affect, emotions and ideals. This essay unpacks the resonances of Lough Derg as a site of sectarian narrative by 1) situating the discussion within a distinctly rural context; 2) adding the unique properties of spiritual waterscape to the discussion; and 3) discussing the Irish sectarian narratives and identities arising from the lake and its purgatorial isle. It focuses on a case study of Protestant and establishment accounts of the lake during the nineteenth century, depicting them as internally diverse as well as part of a larger ecology of sectarian contestations. It explores waterscape and its role in influencing community responses to and shaping of place, the manner in which sectarian responses to space are internally diverse, and the manner in which Catholic and Protestant narratives of place have intertwined to shape the lake in the twenty-first century.

Beyond Sectarian Identity Politics in the Middle East: The Case of Iran-Saudi Arabia’s Rivalry

Iran – Saudi Arabia’s rivalry has been behind conflicts and instabilities in the region. However, the political nature of this rivalry is often over-simplified by mainstream media outlets. Similarly, a major part of literature on identity politics in Iran – Saudi Arabia’s rivalry has mainly provided a comprehensive and descriptive account of their history as well as current conditions with ethnic and sectarian identities as roots and origins of regional instabilities; or focused mainly on the politicization and manipulation of Sunni and Shia Islam by actors in their struggles for power. Synthesizing the theories on identity politics already in existence, namely Primordialism, instrumentalism, and social constructivism, this research constructed an integrated theoretical model. In this model, sectarian identity - one essence intrinsic to Middle Eastern societies and constructed alongside regional history – is not only measured by its tremendous influences on political processes; but also compared in the usage of political actors of all levels in political practices.

In Search of the Iraqi Other: Iraqi Fiction in Diaspora and the Discursive Reenactment of Ethno-Religious Identities

In Iraqi fiction, the prerogative to narrate the experience of marginal identities, particularly ethno-religious ones, appeared only in the post-occupation era. Traditionally, secular Iraqi discourse struggled to openly address “sectarianism” due to the prevalent notion that sectarian identities are mutually exclusive and oppositional to national identity. It is distinctly in post-2003 Iraq—more precisely, since the sectarian violence of 2006–2007 began to cut across class, civil society, and urban identities—that works which consciously refuse to depict normative Iraqi identities with their mainstream formulations became noticeable. We witness this development first in the Western diaspora, where Iraqi novels exhibit a fascination with the ethno-religious culture of the Iraqi margins or subalterns and impart a message of pluralistic secularism. This paper investigates the origins of the taboo that proscribed articulations of ethno-religious subjectivities in 20th-century Iraqi fiction, and then culls examples of recent diasporic Iraqi novels in which these subjectivities are encoded and amplified in distinct ways. In the diasporic novel, I argue, modern Iraqi intellectuals attain the conceptual and political distance necessary for contending retrospectively with their formative socialization experiences in Iraq. Through a new medium of marginalization—the diasporic experience of the authors themselves—they are equipped with a newfound desire to unmask subcultures in Iraq and to write more effectively about marginal aspects of Iraqi identity inside and outside the country. These new diasporic writings showcase processes of ethnic and religious socialization in the Iraqi public sphere. The result is the deconstruction of mainstream Iraqi identity narratives and the instrumentalization of marginal identities in a nonviolent struggle against sectarian violence.

The Bahraini Uprising of 2011 and the Regime’s Securitisation of Sectarianism as a Survival Mechanism

This paper focuses on the Bahraini regime’s usage of sectarianism as a survival mechanism. The argument herein has adopted a modernist approach, where sectarian identities are not viewed as fixed and as causes of an ancient hatred struggle, but are instead viewed as a modern construction that are securitised and de-securitised. It examines how this particular struggle was framed in a sectarian context through the analysis of three pivotal stages of the 2011 uprising and its aftermath. These stages are broken down as follows: (1) the first stage of the uprising, which includes the first month of the uprising and the period prior to the regional military intervention, a period which was characterised by negotiations and dialogue; (2) the period of fragmentation within Bahraini society in which this paper explores the various reasons behind the failed reforms and the failure/ending of dialogue between the regime and the oppositions; and (3) the period of military intervention and the uprising’s aftermath, which reflected a time of securitisation and de-securitisation of the uprising’s space, image and language. These three stages showcase overriding factors such as fear, lack of inclusion of alternatives, divided opposition, and limited regime reform which contributed to the Bahraini regime’s brutal reaction to protesters in 2011 and the Qatar-Gulf crisis which emerged in 2017. The three stages reflect the regime’s pragmatism in dealing with the clashes, and its security narrative adjustment to the regional alliance shifts. The Bahraini regime was able to survive the challenges posed by the uprising in the short-term, but its short-term solutions such as the naturalisation process, would have damaging effects on society in the long-run.

Allow me this one time to speak as a Shi’i: The sectarian taboo, music videos and the securitization of sectarian identity politics in Hezbollah’s legitimation of its military involvement in Syria

ABSTRACT The rise of sectarianism in the Middle East has predominantly been explained by realist or soft constructivist approaches. This article offers an alternative poststructuralist reading, analysing sectarianism as a specific, yet ambiguous ethno-religious discourse in which the ‘sectarian taboo’ continues to restrain aggressive forms of sectarian enunciations. Drawing on rare first-hand material and interviews, it is shown how sectarian referents both are securitized, deferred and invoked in Hezbollah’s political discourse legitimizing its warfare in Syria. However, it also suggests that we need to look beyond official discourses, and into the world of popular culture, where religious mythology and music diffuse the boundary between the real and the simulated. In the end, sectarianism may reveal a common post-modern condition of longing for authenticity and solid ground.

Frictional encounters in postwar human rights: an analysis of LGBTQI movement activism in Lebanon

ABSTRACTThe advancement of LGBTQI rights is now a significant component of many international aid programmes. The successful diffusion of LGBTQI rights is supposed to rest on a successful interaction between international agencies that foster global rights and social movement actors that embed these processes at the local level. Yet, these encounters between global human rights ideas and local practices may not always generate positive dynamics. Drawing on the concept of ‘friction’ – the unstable qualities of interaction between global and local forces – this paper explores the relationship between international actors promoting LGBTQI rights and local social movement activists in post-conflict societies. I argue that the notion of global rights is particularly problematic in the context of post-conflict societies where rights are allocated on the basis of sectarian identity. To empirically illustrate these issues, I look at LGBTQI social movement activism in the divided society of Lebanon. In particular, I examine the emergence and development of Helem – the first recognised LGBTQI rights group in the Middle East and North Africa – which quickly became the poster child for international development and aid agencies in the Global North.

Tripartheid: How Sectarianism Became Internal to Being in Anbar, Iraq

AbstractHow do aspects of identities previously marginal to everyday life become crystallized as the basis for sorting out who lives, who dies, and the degree to which diverse coexistence is possible or even desirable? As a result of divide‐and‐rule policies introduced by the United States after 2003, Iraq saw rapid segmentation of its population into three geographic parts: a Sunni west, a Shi'a south, and a Kurdish north. Ethnographic fieldwork with families in and from Anbar demonstrates how sectarian identities were crystalized in the vision of the global war on terror, as certain places and the people from there were tagged with political meaning. In spite of historical oppression of minorities and Shi'a, it was not until the forced repetition of particular policies that the political categorization of people by sect became a social fact among Sunni communities in Anbar Province. Thus, difference became internal to being in subtle ways that demonstrate a more complex picture of what sectarianism actually means in Iraq and beyond.

The Nature and Origins of Sectarian Animosity

What drives the sectarian antipathy underlying so much conflict across the Middle East? We argue that sectarian animosity stems from a national politicization of sectarian identities. We offer the first systematic, large-scale evaluation of prominent hypotheses about the nature, origins, and content of sectarian antipathy at the individual level. This analysis is based on a broad and geographically representative survey of over 4,000 devout Shi'a from Iraq and Iran, integrated with numerous additional data sources. Our findings suggest tempting parallels between sectarian animosity and ethnonationalism, disillusionment, and lack of out-group contact foster antipathy, nuanced by the uniquely religious aspects of sectarianism. While religious adherence can strongly inflame doctrinal schisms in some social contexts, it moderates tensions in others. We argue that this variation stems from religious socialization, or belief transmission within a religious context to individuals who would otherwise be excluded from the social sphere-a concept that undoubtedly in influences not only sectarianism but broader beliefs.

Lebanon’s Power-Sharing System and the Rise of Sectarianism

Power-sharing settlements intended to prevent recurring conflicts in divided societies have produced mixed outcomes. For decades, Lebanon’s power-sharing political system has been blamed for political instability, sectarian division, recurring conflicts, and foreign intervention. Lebanon today is an example of a confessional divided state where growing sectarian identity has triggered inter-community mistrust. The increasing sectarian division and conflicts since Lebanon gained its independence from France in 1943 has been attributed to the power-sharing political system.This essay, however, demonstrates that the root of the conflicts is the manipulation of that system by the political elites, by virtue of their strategic positions in the government, and political sectarian organizations and movements are capable of influencing political processes considerably. Through manipulative schemes of the power-sharing system, political elites were successful in transferring the power from the state to the religious sects and their political representatives, and thus reinforced sectarian division, weakened the state, and delayed the transition to full democracy. This essay takes Lebanon as a case study to show that although a power-sharing agreement has the power to reduce the risk of recurring conflicts, it has the tendency to reinforce sectarian division leading to deterioration of national unity.

Fighting for “Justice”, Engaging the Other: Shi’a Muslim Activism on the British University Campus

While Shi’a Muslims remain in the minority in Europe, including within universities, the past decade has witnessed the growing profile of Shi’ism on university campuses, especially in Britain. In particular, there has been an emphasis on campaigns that prioritise notions of justice, equality, and human rights. Drawing on interviews and ethnographic fieldwork conducted amongst Twelver Shi’a students in Britain between 2013–2018, this paper examines the forms of Shi’a activism currently being articulated on university campuses, especially those that explicitly seek to engage non-Muslims and spread awareness about Shi’a Islam. On the one hand, such practices constitute a form of self-representation for Shi’a students who would otherwise feel marginalised within the university space; while on the other, they promote a particular version of Shi’a Islam that both frames it within the European context and that also contributes to the sectarianisation of the contemporary Shi’a subject. While the forms and resonance of Shi’a student activism arguably only have meaning within the context of contemporary Europe, we argue that the discursive contours underpinning such activism ultimately transcend such national and cultural boundaries and contribute to a reinterpretation and reimagining of Shi’a sectarian identity for the modern age.

Between Utopia and Dystopia: Sectarianization through Revolution and War in Syrian Refugee Narratives

Whereas much recent research has tried to understand the role of sectarianism in the Syrian conflict, few studies address the issue from a bottom-up viewpoint as seen from people’s everyday and lived experiences. This article seeks to access trajectories of sectarian identity formations through Syrian refugee narratives, articulated in stories that evolve around the revolution and the emerging civil war. It questions how the sectarian debate is experienced and reflected upon from refugees’ micro-narrative perspectives and the ways in which these experiences correspond to politicized frames operating on a macro-level. By taking the concept of ‘sectarianism’ as a theoretical vantage point, the study argues for a dynamic identity approach when attempting to understand complex processes of contested and contesting identities. Moreover, it suggests that by replacing the concept of sectarianism with ‘sectarianization’, we may provide a more nuanced understanding of processes in which religious identities are discursively constructed and mobilized in conflicts such as the Syrian one. The qualitative analysis of this study is based on in-depth narrative interviews with a multi-religious Syrian refugee population residing in Norway. Divided into four narrative clusters, their stories deal with hope, fear, victimization as well as hate and distrust. Through the extremities of revolution and war, each of these clusters reveal particular memories, moments and experiences that in various ways have informed and shaped issues of identity and perceptions of the ‘religious other’. Taken together, their stories expose a valuable juncture through which the complexities surrounding religion, identity and conflict can be further studied.

Religion, Sectarianism, and Democracy: Theory and Evidence from Lebanon

Why does religion sometimes increase support for democracy and sometimes do just the opposite? Using data from an original survey conducted in Lebanon, I present and test a theory of religion, group interest, and democracy. Focusing on communal religion, I demonstrate that the effect of communal prayer on support for democracy depends on the interests of the religious group. For groups who would benefit from democracy, communal prayer increases support for democratic institutions; for citizens whose groups would lose privileges in the event of democratic reforms, the opposite effect is present. I test these claims both observationally and experimentally, using a religious priming experiment aiming to mimic the effect of communal prayer. I find that communal religion, either through attendance at religious services or through the communal primes increases the salience of sectarian identity, and therefore pushes respondents’ regime attitudes into closer alignment with the interests of their sect.

Is Shia-Sunni Violence on the Rise? Exploring New Data on Intra-Muslim Organised Violence 1989-2017

ABSTRACTThis data study provides the first comprehensive empirical overview of organised violence across the Shia and Sunni Muslim divide, 1989–2017. We present a conceptual framework of sectarian dimensions of armed conflicts: sectarian identities; sectarian ideologies; and sectarian alliances. Our analysis demonstrates the extent to which organised violence has been fought across the Shia-Sunni divide. We also explore the sectarian identity dimension in non-state armed conflicts and one-sided violence. Overall, our study shows that most of the organised violence across the Shia-Sunni divide is driven by states, rebel groups, and militias, rather than communities.