Tensions, conflict, laterite, violence. Our current age seems to be afflicted by all of these, and increasingly, these differences leading to discord are justified, motivated, and promoted in the name of religious difference. Far too many analysts looking at the Middle East and beyond the point to Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and much more as an explosion of age-old sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia communities that characterizes the conflict. But sectarianism is not an explanation. Nor is religion a simple solution. Much like forms of ethnopolitical conflict in the current world, we can look at how sectarianization is a shaping political process in the struggle for power, position, and scarce resources.
In this presentation, I will examine this process of sectarianization in line with existing modern theories of political action and suggest how we can unite various accounts within a unified theory that does not reduce the difference to conflict nor seek a futile solution in religious and ethnic analysis.
Speaker
Sajjad Hayder Rizvi
Date
7 January 2018
10 – 12 pm
Venue
International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
Al-Tabari Meeting Room
Organizers
International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
Asia West East Centre (ASIAWE)
