As communities feel they are being controlled and manipulated due to their ethnicity, culture, religious beliefs, or political views, these communities will begin to demand fair treatment, sometimes resorting to violence to stand up against their oppressors. Oppressors may use various discriminatory practices against groups or communities as a form of control and these practices can manifest in many different ways. For a specific example of a sectarian conflict, this guide goes on to provide a case study on The Troubles in Northern Ireland further down the article.
How sectarianism manifests
Sectarianism can manifest in various forms, through targeted violence, segregation (separation) of communities, armed rebellion against a larger authority, or even insurgency. Though this list is not exhaustive, sectarianism can also manifest through such issues as:
- Genocide refers to the intent to destroy national, racial, political, ethnic, or religious groups. According to the UN, this destruction includes killing members, causing harm to members of the group through emotional and physical trauma, and imposing discriminatory measures on members of a group, like intentionally preventing births within a group.
- Racism refers to exclusion, distinctions, and restrictions based on race, skin color, nationality, ethnic origin, and descent. As stated by the UNHCR, racial discrimination takes away people’s human rights and fundamental freedoms in politics, economics, society, and culture. For more information on racism, see our study guide on Critical Race Theory.
- Xenophobia is discrimination based on the attitude that another person or a group of people are foreigners and thereby originate from outside a community or group. According to the UNHCR, people’s physical characteristics, immigration status, and ancestry can make people targets of xenophobic hate crimes.
- Pillarization refers to the separation of citizens into groups based on politics or religion. As described by author Staf Hellemans in “Pillarization (‘Verzuiling’). On Organized ‘Self-Contained Worlds’ in the Modern World,” in the Netherlands, for instance, Protestant, Catholic, socialist, and liberal “pillars” divided society from the late nineteenth century up to the late twentieth century and each “pillar” had its own social institutions and social organizations.
- Identity Politics, while the term is complex, refers to political activity that is based on identity related to race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, gender, sexuality, or social class. Author Cressida Heyes in “Identity Politics” explains that while identity politics may try to be perceived as inclusive and authentic, it may end up being divisive and can ultimately create an oppressive hierarchy.
Manifestations of sectarianism ultimately target people’s identities, with division and separation at the core of these sectarian issues and atrocities.
Key origins of sectarian conflict
While the concept of sectarianism is complex, sectarian conflict is often labeled as either political or religious in nature. However, religious sectarian conflict might have elements of political or even cultural sectarianism within the conflict, and vice versa. Political and religious sectarianism manifest in violent conflicts around the world and often adopt similar issues, like identity, with people on both sides of the conflict feeling discriminated against. Here we will highlight examples of religious sectarianism in Northern Ireland and the Middle East as well as an example of political sectarianism in Iraq specifically.
Examples of religious sectarianism
- The Troubles (1960s - 1998)
A key example of religious sectarianism includes the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland, sectarianism generally occurs between those who belong to the Christian religions, Protestantism and Catholicism. As explained in their work Northern Ireland Since 1969 (2014), authors Paul Dixon and Eammon O’Kane indicate that primarily, though not exclusively, Protestants identify as unionists, a group of people who believe in the continued union of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland as one sovereign state, and broadly wish for peace. On the other hand, Catholics primarily, though once again not exclusively, identify as nationalists, those who want a united Ireland, separate from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and who generally wish to achieve this goal through non-violent means. Unionists might identify as loyalists, those who pledge allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom and will use militant methods to defend the crown, while nationalists might refer to themselves as republicans, those who wish to be part of the republic of Ireland and who will use violence to get there. At the heart of these sectarian tensions lay the concept of discrimination,