scholarly journals ROLE OF RELIGION IN PEACEBUILDING AND SOCIAL COHESION IN BORNO STATE, NIGERIA

Author(s):  
A. Abubakar

One basic component that represents a genuine danger to International Peace and Security was and is Ethno-Religious situated clashes in a profoundly divided society. Ethno-Religious clashes in Iraq, Syria, the Central African Republic, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Sudan and Ukraine among others pull in worldwide consideration and present horrible situations of mass abominations in the influenced state. This paper explores a critical question, what can religious actors do to help deeply divided societies rediscover a sense of living together and building long term peace in the wake of identity-based violence? The objective of this paper is to examine the role of religion in peacebuilding and social cohesion.  This paper employs the multidimensional approach of research which is in pursuit of truth, and also the paper relies mainly on research works such as thesis, dissertations, research journals, newspapers and magazines. The finding reveals that religious actors play a critical role as a stakeholder in peacebuilding in deeply divided societies to rediscover a sense of living together and building long term peace in the wake of identity-based violence and should be involved at all stages of the peace process. The study recommends that the Borno State Government should engage religious actors or faith-based organisations in formulating a policy program that is directed towards promoting social coexistence in a deeply divided society like ours to improve social well-being as well as critical drivers of sustainable development, peace and security.

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Craig

Abstract The precise form of internalization of the provisions of the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in domestic law is crucial in ensuring its long-term effectiveness. Experiences in the Western Balkans raise important questions about the role of minority (or community) rights legislation in deeply divided societies. This article uses the case-studies of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and the Republic of North Macedonia to highlight key themes and limitations that have emerged. Comparative analysis reveals a surprising divergence of approaches to internalization in the region. The article further demonstrates that the ‘nation-cum-state paradigm’ remains prevalent, despite the premise of universality. It argues that such legislation can play an important symbolic and practical role, but that legal internalization needs to be seen as an ongoing process. It concludes that attention needs to be given to ensuring the continued particularization and adaptation of such legislation in light of both the limitations and changing circumstances, providing a key lesson also for other divided societies.


Author(s):  
Mirjam Künkler

This article provides an overview of Böckenförde’s writings on issues of religion, ethos, and the Catholic Church in relation to law, democracy, and the state. It presents Böckenförde as an inner-Catholic critic, who attempted to persuade Catholicism that one’s own freedom can be defended only as part of the general freedom. This was finally achieved, at least dogmatically according to Böckenförde, with the Declaration of Religious Freedom at the end of the Second Vatican Council. The article lays out how Böckenförde sees the role of religion and natural law in secular democracy, namely as one informing the citizens’ ethos. Democracy cannot survive in the long term unless it is carried out by people who consider themselves part of the same demos and work towards a shared democratic culture. The article includes information on his intellectual biography, a periodization of his academic writings in seven phases from 1957 to 2012, a discussion of some of his core arguments as an inner-Catholic critic, a reflection on the cover images he chose for the two volumes, and closes with concluding remarks on Böckenförde’s view of religion in democracy compared to other theorists of democracy and secularism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 237802311984574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meir Yaish ◽  
Limor Gabay-Egozi

This study demonstrates that studying ethnic/racial inequality on the basis of cross-sectional data conceals how such inequality might unfold over the life course. Moving beyond a snapshot perspective, we ask, Do Israel’s Jewish ethnic groups differ in their long-term earnings trajectories? Analyzing nearly 20 years of registered earnings data, the authors find that for the same cohort (25- to 32-year-old Jews in 1995), the ethnic earnings gap has widened over these years. This trend, we demonstrate, is explained largely by increasing wage premiums for college degree, even when these premiums are ethnicity blind. That is, ethnic inequality in educational attainment is translated to increasing ethnic earnings inequality over the life course. This pattern cannot be detected in previous research in Israel, which relied on the snapshot perspective on the basis of cross-sectional data. The consequences of these findings for changes in inequality in divided societies are discussed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 590-612
Author(s):  
Luca Ozzano

AbstractThis article is part of a special issue on the five Muslim democracies. It aims at understanding the role played by religion, and particularly by religiously oriented actors, in Turkey's democratization processes. The first section analyzes the different theoretical approaches to the role of religion in democratization. The second section analyzes the different phases of Turkey's political history since the 1980 coup, taking into account both democratization processes and the role played by religious actors in the political system, and trying to understand the possible relations between the two phenomena.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Berry

This paper presents basic empirical research about the role of religion and religious actors in the global politics of sustainability. Drawing on insights from three overlapping fields of study—environmental politics, religious transnationalism, and religion and ecology—this study analyzes data gathered through ethnographic interviews with representatives of religious non-governmental organizations at the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20. These interviews asked respondents to discuss their understanding of the meaning, role, and position of religion within civil society efforts to address sustainability concerns. Content analysis of interview responses suggests that religious actors hold divergent views about the salience of religion to global sustainability politics. The central finding is that the boundary between religious and secular civil society groups is a permeable one.


1995 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronna Casar Harris ◽  
Mary Amanda Dew ◽  
Ann Lee ◽  
Michael Amaya ◽  
Laurie Buches ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Mohd Arip Kasmo ◽  
Bayu Taufiq Possumah ◽  
Zulkifli Mohamad ◽  
Wan Zulkifli Wan Hassan ◽  
Nasruddin Yunos

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Meuleman

AbstractThis article studies the process of nation-building in Indonesia. Using a historical approach for the analysis of what is portrayed as a nonlinear, long-term process, it discusses relevant developments during the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial eras, with particular attention to the New Order and most recent periods. The analysis focuses on the complex relations between unity and diversity and highlights the multiplicity of frame-works within which inhabitants of the present Republic of Indonesia have constituted their identities, including national, transnational and subnational ones. Two questions that receive particular attention are the role of religion and the relations between the centre and various parts of the country. The article argues that various factors, including religion and ethnicity, have contributed to nation-building in specific circumstances, but have had contrary effects under other conditions. It also shows that progress and regression in nation-building has partially been the voluntary or involuntary effect of the tactical use governments and other political actors have made of manifold communal differences. It adds that the identity of Indonesian citizens becomes increasingly complex and trans- as well as subnational components increasingly important, but that this does not automatically imply the end of the nation-building process.


2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Meagher

Abstract:This article examines processes of economic inclusion in divided societies, with a focus on both religious and formal–informal divides. Drawing on recent fieldwork in the northern Nigerian cities of Kano and Kaduna, the article challenges the assumption that identity-based informal organization intensifies violent social divisions, and that taxation and linkages with the state foster more stable and inclusive governance. A range of informal sector activities provides insights into escalating religious conflict and uneven patterns of formal inclusion in interreligious relations. Attention is focused on the relative role of informal institutions and formal interventions such as taxation in diffusing or exacerbating conflict at the grassroots level.


2015 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Hetmanczyk

AbstractIn recent years, religious policy in China has faced an increasingly dynamic panorama of religious actors. The implementation of particular policies has proven to be at times pragmatic, at times incoherent and arbitrary. This may be interpreted as an intentional strategy that allows for a certain flexibility arbitrarily to tolerate or to suppress religious activities. At the same time, it can just as well be a result of institutional incoherence and incompetence. As this incoherence has the potential of endangering the legitimacy of religious politics, authorities resort to ideology as a means to solve these contradictions by integrating religion as a growing social factor, while still leaving space for flexible and sometimes inconsistent administration. The present paper shows that religious policy is framed into two directions: on the one hand, the inherited United Front approach is modified by a gradual revaluation of religion. On the other hand, what used to be labeled “superstition” is transformed into a resource for propagating cultural nationalism and patriotism.


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