The Study of Sectarian Relations

This chapter aims to demystify sectarian identity by critically examining some of the key debates and false binaries that dominate discussions of ‘sectarianism’. These include several impractical dichotomies: religion and politics; unity and division; primordialism and instrumentalism; top-down and bottom-up drivers; the role of foreign powers versus local agency. The chapter demonstrates the impossibility of these binaries and their incompatibility with the inherently multidimensional nature of sectarian dynamics. Firstly, the role of religious beliefs and doctrinal differences in sectarian dynamics will be examined. It will be argued that, like inter-group relations generally, sectarian relations are animated by a broad nexus of factors that cannot be reduced to doctrinal difference. The chapter then interrogates the dichotomization of sectarian conflict and sectarian coexistence – a binary that obscures the more common reality of sectarian irrelevance. This highlights the importance of context and of having a sufficiently broad historical scope when considering sectarian dynamics. Acontextual and ahistoric accounts routinely exaggerate the relevance/irrelevance of sectarian identity. Finally, the chapter turns to the dichotomization of top-down and bottom-up drivers and the role of foreign powers versus local agency. It will be argued that circularity not dichotomization is the better way of understanding such binaries.