The Problem of Ethno-Religious Nationalism in Georgia

This research aims to demonstrate the range of Georgian Orthodox Church constructing the Georgian ethnoreligious nationalism. How ethnoreligious identity affects the functioning of a modern state? The pre-modern tradition of identity was based on religion and dynasty. Religious identity, under the church (mostly in eastern Christianity), could be associated with some ethnos. For example, Kartvelian”, in the middle ages, is determiner not for ethnos but faith. From this derived the term – Kartvelian (Georgian) by faith. Ethnoreligious nationalism and liberal nationalism are different. According to the tradition of state nationalism, religion is not a determinative factor for nationalism. Even non-Christian can be Georgian. The ethnoreligious nationalism is a non-modern project created during the modernity. In the period of nationalism religious identity, in some cases, was transformed into an ethnoreligious identity that contradicts a liberal understanding of the modern nation by which the idea of nation is not limited by religion or ethnos. Georgian Orthodox Church is an important factor forming Georgian ethnoreligious nationalism. Based on this, we can claim that the church’s anti-western trends, often, hinder the functioning of the modern state. This trend was formed in the period of the Russian empire and the Soviet Union. This point of view is dramatically different from the 1918-1921 years’ church’s aspiration for which western and liberal values were natural and vital setting.

Children’s Peritraumatic Responses During Sexual Abuse Incidents: Exploring the Narratives of Children From Different Ethnoreligious Groups in Israel

The peritraumatic response of children during incidents of child sexual abuse (CSA) is a neglected construct in the literature. Despite the widespread use of the fight-flight-freeze model, recent studies have shown that in the unique context of child abuse, additional peritraumatic responses could be relevant. The current mixed-methods study examined children’s peritraumatic responses to CSA. The sample consisted of 249 forensic interviews with children aged from 4 to 13 years. An initial qualitative analysis resulted in identifying various ways in which the children responded to the abuse, the children’s decision-making around these responses, as well their perceptions of their response. This analysis was followed by quantitative analyses, which explored the frequency of these peritraumatic responses and their correlation with the characteristics of the children and abuse. Six peritraumatic response categories were identified, the most common being fight, flight, and fear. Only ethnoreligious identity was significantly correlated with the fight-or-flight response, with a significantly lower frequency among Muslim and ultra-Orthodox Jewish children. Frequency of abuse and perpetrator familiarity were correlated with the frequency of the fight-or-flight response, indicating that the latter was less relevant in reoccurring incidents of abuse and with perpetrators who were family members. The findings promote the conceptualization of children’s peritraumatic responses during incidents of abuse and the realization of the crucial role of children’s ecological systems in their peritraumatic responses to incidents of abuse.

Cultural Bereavement and Resilience in Refugee Resettlement: A Photovoice Study With Yazidi Women in the Midwest United States

This study explored how ethnic Yazidi refugee women overcome adversity to promote psychosocial health and well-being within the context of U.S. resettlement. Nine Yazidi women participated in two small photovoice groups, each group lasting eight sessions (16 sessions total). Women discussed premigration and resettlement challenges, cultural strengths and resources, and strategies to overcome adversity. Yazidi women identified trauma and perceived loss of culture as primary stressors. Participants’ resilience processes included using naan (as sustenance and symbol) to survive and thrive as well as by preserving an ethnoreligious identity. Findings suggest that women’s health priorities and resilience-promoting strategies center on fostering a collective cultural, religious, and ethnic identity postmigration. Importantly, women used naan (bread) as a metaphor to index cultural values, experiences of distress, and coping strategies. We discuss implications for this in promoting refugees’ mental and psychosocial health in U.S. resettlement.

Jews and Muslims in contemporary French newspaper discourse (2000–2017)

Jews and Muslims in France never formed singular communities and never solely or primarily interacted with each other as a function of ethnoreligious identity categories. Rather, their on-the-ground interactions often took place as a function of a variety of other identifications, solidarities, and experiences. Yet, media discourse commonly constructs Jews and Muslims as homogeneous, disparate, and separate communities and their relations as oppositional and troubled. This article examines how Jews and Muslims are relationally defined and constructed in media discourse, focusing on the national dailies Le Monde and Le Figaro. My analysis reveals the discursive patterns that emerge in articles on Jews and Muslims and how these representations implicitly construct ‘Jews’ and ‘Muslims’ and their ‘relations’. In doing so, I make two main arguments about newspaper reporting on Jewish–Muslim relations in France: (1) With some exceptions, Jews and Muslims are constructed as two separate, homogeneous communities and their relations presented as tense and problematic; (2) Jews tend to be presented as fully integrated and their representation is in general positive, while Muslims are more often presented as not fully integrated – or even as at odds with French society and its values – and their representation is, at best, ambiguous and, at worst, negative.

HISTORICAL MEMORY IN PRESERVING ETHNO-RELIGIOUS IDENTITY: FOREIGN EXPERIENCE IN MANAGING MIGRATION AND CULTURAL SECURITY

Purpose: The object of this paper is to develop the concept of historical memory as a resource for preserving the ethnoreligious identity and cultural security. Design/methodology/approach: The methodological apparatus of research is based on civilizational and constructivist approaches that allow us to understand the specifics and role of identity in the modern world, as well as the concept of civilizational confrontation in modern migration processes. As a part of the study, we used the concept of "cultural trauma" to understand the influence of historical events on modern relations between Muslims and Europeans. Result: It was found that the low level of Muslim migrants' integration into Western society is determined by social-psychological and cultural-historical factors. The social-psychological factor is associated with an individual's need for group identity, which creates a zone of comfort and security. Muslim migrants' integration into European society is difficult because their ethnoreligious identity is exacerbated in conditions of migration. The cultural-historical factor is associated with discrepancies in civilizational models (Islamic and Western), the relations between them being conflict-ridden for a long period of time. Application: This suggests that historical memory has a significant impact on the relations of modern Islamic and European cultures. Historical memory, preserving the plots of eternal rivalry and confrontation of Islamic and Western civilizations, affects the process of their rapprochement: firstly because the injuries of past are very difficult to get rid of; secondly, memory, as a collective past or as knowledge of this past, is the basis of social identity. Originality/value: The study proves that the negative stereotypes prevailing in people's historical memory determine their perception of the present and the future. Consolidation of the "image of the enemy" in historical memory promotes the spread of Islamophobia in European society and radical Islamism in the Muslim world. The anti-Western ideology of radical Islamism undermines the historically present process of cultural interaction in the development of Western and Islamic civilizations.