British Academy //
The Role of Religion in Conflict and Peacebuilding
31
suffering and poverty’. It can thus be argued that Islam is well suited
to fighting against structural violence. Islamic values, he explains, are
based on universal dignity of humanity, the equality of all races, ethnic
groups, and the sacredness of human life and forgiveness are values
that underpin any form of positive conflict resolution and help to build
peaceful societies (Abu-Nimer 2003).
On a similar note, Sachedina (2000, 20) highlighted the ‘centrality of
Koranic teachings about religious and cultural pluralism as a divinely
ordained principle of peaceful coexistence among human societies’.
His work is a
classic detailing of the human, non-violent values in Islam.
Said et al. (2001) presented a valuable collection of essays exploring
both Islamic teachings and practice on peaceful conflict resolution.
They argued that Islam promotes, in theory and in practice, the values
of justice, harmony and absence of war. Said et al also made a case
for Islamic approaches to peacebuilding (Said et al 2002), and Kalin
(2005) examined the concept of peace in the Islamic tradition to
provide a contrast to the focus in the literature on the legal aspects of
declaring jihad. He identified four contexts: the metaphysical-spiritual in
which ‘salam’
,
as one of the names of God, is assigned a substantive
value; the philosophical-theological context in which the question of
evil
is addressed; the political-legal context, which is the locus of the
legal discussions of war; and the socio-cultural context, which looks
at the Muslim experiences of diversity with other faiths. Kalin (2005)
concludes that Muslim communities must start addressing a ‘proper
ethics of peace’ to assist in resolving of ethnic or sectarian conflicts
in Muslim societies.
Galtung and MacQueen (2008) analyse in detail the contribution
to peacemaking by Asian religions such as Buddhism or Taoism,
with reference to Galtung’s general theory of mentioned above.
By presenting the ideas of 18 eminent Buddhist leaders, Chappell
(1999) enlarged the understanding of Buddhist peacemaking traditions.
Starting from and underlining the central role of achieving inner peace,
he emphasises that Buddhism has a strong track record of providing
peaceful answers to
social and political violence, in particular through
its worldwide grassroots work, and points to the responsibility
that Buddhists have for promoting peace. However, others critique
Buddhism for being too much of an individualistic tradition that does
not really stress the importance of being at peace with the others, and
note that it has missed opportunities to achieve peaceful solutions,
in Sri Lanka and Tibet for example (Neumaier 2004).
32
The Role of Religion in Conflict and Peacebuilding
// British Academy
According to Berling (2004), Confucianism has the potential to work for
the common good, thanks to its notion of harmony and its stress on
moral values and rituals. The works of Johnston (2003) and Little (2007)
also contain case studies on Asia as well as other regions.
In
their collection of essays, Polner and Goodman (1994) provide
a first-hand account of the traditions of non-violent conflict resolution
in Judaism. Similarly, Steinberg (2000) argued that there are specific
Jewish approaches to conflict prevention and mediation, a theme also
developed comprehensively by Marc Gopin, a prominent author and
practitioner in the field of conflict resolution, who specialises on the
Middle East. Gopin’s (2000) central argument is that while the world’s
major religions, in this case the three monotheistic ones,
have histori-
cally and until today contributed significantly to violence, they can also
be a key source of peace and conflict resolution, and their commit-
ment towards peace can be identified in both classical theology and in
modern interpretations. He notes, for example, that in Judaism there
is the biblical concept of God fighting battles for the Children of Israel
and Rabbinic analyses of
milhemet hova
(obligatory war) and
milhemet
mitzvah
(war as fulfilment of a positive deed before God), but alongside
those are the Rabbinic belief in ‘shalom’
(peace) and ‘pikuach nefesh’
(preservation of life). In Islam, the Qur’an
identifies jihad (holy war), but
later interpretations
split this into state jihad
and religious jihad. There
are also both peaceful and violent interpretations of the Mahdi tradition
of a prophesied redeemer in Islam. Gopin highlights the complexities
within all these religions in the way they conceive war, violence, peace
and nonviolence.
Gopin (2000) bases his critique of Western diplomacy on its ignorance
of religious values and practices. He argues that religion and religious
values need to be merged with traditional Western conflict resolution
policies and practices, and that religious values, such as empathy,
nonviolence and sanctity of human life,
should be used to frame the
language of conflict resolution. To achieve this, there is a need for a com-
prehensive understanding of religious values, institutions and practices,
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