commbox Conflicts, Peace & Religion

Social Media and the Islamic State: Can Public Relations Succeed Where Conventional Diplomacy Failed?

Ella Minty

London; New York: Routledge (2020), xv, 98 pp.

"This book examines how social media has transformed extremist discourse. It looks at how ISIS by a sophisticated use of social media platforms and PR concepts was able to recruit, mobilize and spread fundamentalist propaganda in regions where it had little physical presence. The volume focuses on t ... more

Religion and Violence: The Potential for Conflict and Peace

Klaus Krämer, Klaus Vellguth (eds.)

Quezon City: Claretian Publications;Missio (2020), xvii, 258 pp.

Filmemacher des Terrors: Die Bildpropaganda des globalen Dschihad

Asiem El Difraoui

In: Diaspora: Netzwerke globaler Gemeinschaften

Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha (ed.)

Karlsruhe: KIT Scientific Publishing;Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) (2019), pp. 147-160

"Die Medien und die breite Öffentlichkeit zeigen sich oftmals verwundert über die Perfektion der IS-Propaganda. Dabei wird übersehen, dass der Medienkrieg des Pseudo-Islamischen Staats auf einer ‚Großen Erzählung', einer ‚Meistererzählung' basiert, an der dschihadistische Organisationen se ... more

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How Violence Shapes Religion: Belief and Conflict in the Middle East and Africa

Ziya Meral

Cambridge et al.: Cambridge University Press (2018), x, 217 pp.

"Is there an inevitable global violent clash unfolding between the world's largest religions: Islam and Christianity? Do religions cause violent conflicts, or are there other factors at play? How can we make sense of increasing reports of violence between Christian and Muslim ethnic communities acro ... more

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Putting Faith in Hate: When Religion is the Source or Target of Hate Speech

Richard Moon

Cambridge et al.: Cambridge University Press (2018), ix, 161 pp.

"Richard Moon examines the application of hate speech laws when religion is either the source or target of such speech. Moon describes the various legal restrictions on hate speech, religious insult, and blasphemy in Canada, Europe and elsewhere, and uses cases from different jurisdictions to illust ... more

The Way, the Truth and the Life: Asian Religious Communication in the Post-Truth Climate

Anthony Le Duc

Religion and Social Communication, volume 16, issue 1 (2018), pp. 19-40

"This paper proposes that Asian religions can address the challenges of the post-truth mindset by resorting to powerful images within their traditions to communicate within and across traditions in order to promote religious unity and harmony. It asserts that the images employed by Jesus to refer to ... more

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Was Frieden schafft: Religiöse Friedensarbeit. Akteure - Beispiele - Methoden

Markus A. Weingardt

Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb), Sonderausg. (2018), 230 pp.

"Markus A. Weingardt hat rund um den Globus Beispiele für religiöse Friedensarbeit zusammengetragen. Er beschreibt die politischen und sozialen Hintergründe schwelender, manifester oder auch überwundener Konflikte und ihre Auswirkungen, stellt die Akteure vor und beleuchtet, mit welcher Methodik ... more

Engagierte Spiritualität: Friedensverantwortung asiatischer religiöser Akteure am Beispiel des Buddhismus und Hinduismus

Martin Bauschke

Stuttgart: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) (2017), 187 pp.

"Die Studie diskutiert das Friedenspotential nicht-abrahamitischer Religionen am Beispiel des Buddhismus und Hinduismus und das konkrete Friedensengagement jeweiliger Akteure. Dabei werden die Entstehung und Aktivitäten zentraler friedensstiftender Personen, Organisationen und Netzwerke des Buddhis ... more

Faith Matters: A Guide for the Design, Monitoring & Evaluation of Inter-Religious Action for Peacebuilding

Peter Woodrow, Nick Oatley, Michelle Garred

CDA Collaborative Learning Projects;Alliance for Peacebuilding;Search for Common Ground;GHR Foundation (2017), 153 pp.

"This Guide aims to help practitioners make sense of monitoring and evaluation as applied to inter-religious action in peacebuilding. It aims to support good practice among people who are involved in commissioning or contributing to such efforts, whether they be religious, secular or a combination o ... more

A Summary of the Study “Religious Extremism in the Media”

Rrapo Zguri

Tirana: Albanian Media Institute (2017), 8 pp.

"The monitoring and the analysis carried out for the purpose of this study found out that the media and the institutional channels of mass communication of religious communities have behaved correctly while carrying out their duties, and have established a climate of communication that emits and fos ... more

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As Terrorism Evolves: Media, Religion, and Governance

Philip Seib

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2017), xi, 189 pp.

"Seib traces how terrorism has proliferated and increased significantly in menace in the relatively brief period between the rise of al-Qaeda and the creation of Islamic State. With close attention to the linkages between media, religion, and violence, the book offers incisive analysis of how organi ... more

Religionen als Partner für Frieden in der Welt: Potenziale für die Außenpolitik

Peter Bender

Stuttgart: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) (2017), 111 pp.

"Wie thematisieren Staaten und internationale Organisationen Religion in den internationalen Beziehungen? Wodurch bauen sie Religionskompetenz in ihren Außenbeziehungen auf und wo arbeiten sie mit Religionsgemeinschaften erfolgreich zusammen? Was folgt daraus für Deutschlands Außenpolitik? Diese ... more

Sunniten und Schiiten: Worum es in dem Konflikt wirklich geht

Candid Foundation (ed.)

Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb), Lizenzausg. (2017), 98 pp.

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Hate Spin: The Manufacture of Religious Offense and its Threat to Democracy

Cherian George

Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press (2016), xviii, 308 pp.

"Outbreaks of religious intolerance are usually assumed to be visceral and spontaneous. But in 'Hate Spin', Cherian George shows that they often involve sophisticated campaigns manufactured by political opportunists to mobilize supporters and marginalize opponents. Right-wing networks orchestrate th ... more

Gerechtigkeit für alle: Religiöser Sozialismus in Mission und Entwicklung

Karl Wilhelm Rennstich

Geneva: Globethics.net (2016), 502 pp.

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Religious NGOs in International Relations: The Construction of "the Religious" and "the Secular"

Karsten Lehmann

London; New York: Routledge (2016), x, 217 pp.

"This book focuses on the construction of the human rights discourse inside two religiously affiliated organizations: The Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) and Pax Romana (IMCS / ICMICA). These organizations have been formally accredited as NGOs by the UN, label themselves a ... more

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Community Information Flows to Reduce Inter-Comunal Violence in Burma

Emily Speers Mears

Search for Common Ground (2015), 71 pp.

Community Information Flows to Reduce Inter-Communal Violence in Burma

Emily Speers Mears et al.

Search for Common Ground (2015), 71 pp.

"The research presented in this report aims to contribute towards a better understanding of the way in which rumors, hate speech, and manipulated information contribute to inter-communal conflict and outbreaks of inter-communal violence in Myanmar. It focuses on Muslim-Buddhist inter-communal confli ... ct in one urban and one peri-urban area: Lashio, the largest town in Shan state, and Amarapura, a former capital on the outskirts of Mandalay [...] People in Lashio and Amarapura draw upon a wide range of sources for information and news. They mainly obtain information by word of mouth from friends, colleagues, people who travel for their work, and figures of authority. They share this information by phone and online messaging services, and in markets, teashops and pagodas, as well as other places where people gather such as bus stations. Certain individuals in the community are regarded as trustworthy sources of information including religious leaders, teachers, bosses, government officials, and community leaders. Many people also have access to news applications on Facebook, and/or read journals and newspapers, listen to the radio, and watch TV in order to find out about news that affects them. People report a high level of skepticism about the news that they hear, particularly from sources like Facebook and government newspapers. They analyze not only the information itself but also the source of that information, and check whether it is accurate with people who live in the affected area, or by going to see for themselves. Family members or trusted community members are also consulted to verify or analyze news and information. Respondents also claim to try to verify information by checking different news sources. The more they can cross-reference, the more confident they are that the information is accurate. [...] The causes of inter-religious inter-communal conflict in Myanmar are not well understood. There is a long history of Muslim settlement in Myanmar, and of peaceful relations between Muslims and Buddhists. This changed with the arrival of the British, whose colonial policies brought an influx of Indians, including Muslims, to Myanmar. Specifically anti-Muslim (rather than anti-Indian) tensions first came to a head in 1938; however an inquiry into the anti-Muslim riots of that time found that while the riots had religious anti-Muslim undertones, the real causes were political, economic and social. There have been irregular outbreaks of anti-Muslim violence in subsequent decades, but unfortunately few detailed investigations or analyses of their causes, due to the difficulty of conducting research under the socialist and military governments, and to the sensitivity of the issue. This difficulty persists to the present. [...] Both Muslims and Buddhists are worried about religious violence, and the impact that it might have on the economy. However, most people in Lashio are probably more immediately worried about the fighting between the Tatmadaw and the ethnic armed groups that is taking place outside of Lashio, which has negative effect on the economy, on their livelihoods, and on their feelings of security, due to the numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have sought safety in Lashio. Ethnic groups in Lashio are concerned that the religious conflict will also have an impact on ethnic relations, due to the different religions amongst the ethnic groups. In Lashio, there is also a high level of anti-Chinese sentiment on the part of the Bamar and other ethnic groups. [...] The large amount of rumors about Muslims and about Muslim-Buddhist conflict that we heard in Lashio and Amarapura suggest that people are concerned about this conflict. Negative rumors contribute to the background levels of hatred and distrust of Muslims and serve to manifest tensions between the two communities. This kind of background hatred and distrust may not in itself result in violence. But it means that Buddhists and Muslims in these areas do not mix, and fosters an environment of suspicion and hostility, creating an enabling environment for violence. However, on their own, rumors are not sufficient to trigger violence. For every example of a situation where (true or false) rumors have triggered violence, there is an example where rumors have not triggered violence. Other factors – harder to identify – contribute to outbreaks of violence, and to the underlying conflict. It is essential that these factors be understood if the root causes of inter-communal conflict are to be addressed. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS With this analysis in mind, the following recommendations are provided: recognize the important role that word-of-mouth communication plays in the ways that rumors are spread; recognize and understand the nuances in each local context, in order to develop a deeper understanding of why people feel insecure, as well as to identify root causes of the conflict; mitigate the background levels of anti-Muslim hate speech, by engaging with the genuine Buddhist concerns that are expressed through hate speech; and strengthen community resilience to potential ‘trigger’ rumors – and recognize and strengthen existing efforts to combat these rumors." (Executive summary, page 3-7) more

Religion, Hate Speech and Social Media in Myanmar: Analysing Methods of Intervention

Bethany Davis

University of Winchester, Master Thesis (2015), 77 pp.

"Myanmar is home to one of the longest running intrastate conflicts in the world, involving a series of ethnic and religious clashes that have caused harm to all parties involved. The ideology of a homogeneity based on Buddhism and the Bamar ethnicity has marginalized minority groups, which make up ... more