Killing in the Name of God or Land? Religious Violence along Civilizational Faultlines

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Samuel Huntington warned of increasing violence along religious "faultlines", particularly those involving Islam.  He drew special attention to the Muslim-Christian divide in Africa. This project examines that concern empirically:  how does religious violence along the religious faultline in Africa compare to religious violence in, for example, the Middle East? If conflict patterns differ at the geographic cores and peripheries of religious civilizations, why is this so?

The project emphasizes associations between religion and land at the geographic cores of world religions, such as the Middle East, which do not exist along the peripheries of those civilizations. As a result, religious partisans in Africa actually have less incentive to engage in protracted conflict. The study relies on international armed conflict data to demonstrate this weaker tendency toward religious violence along the African faultline. To explain why that is the case, the speaker relies on individual- and community-level data from both Africa and the Middle East. The data suggest that religious doctrine is a powerful divider, but the union of religious doctrine and sacred land adds fuel to religious fires. 

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.