DOCSLIB.ORG

Religious Diversity and Violent Conflict: Lessons from Nigeria

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Religious Diversity and Violent Conflict: Lessons from Nigeria 153 Religious Diversity and Violent Conflict: Lessons from Nigeria Robert Dowd What explains why certain countries or regions of the world are more prone to inter-religious conflict than others? This is an immensely important question as religious tensions continue to fuel and be fueled by social conflict in various parts of the world. If we can identify condi- tions that make some societies more or less prone to inter-religious conflict than others, we can devote ourselves to fostering conditions that decrease the likelihood that religion is used to inspire violence. More ambitiously, we may even be able to cultivate conditions that increase the likelihood that religious institutions are harbingers of tolerance and peace rather than intolerance and violent social conflict. While there are many explanatory variables we could examine to explain why there is more religious conflict in some societies than others, such as poverty, urbanization, and geo-polit- ical context, this essay focuses on religious diversity within societies. The conventional wisdom is that religious institutions tend to play a more constructive role, or at least a less destructive one, in religiously homogeneous societies than in religiously diverse societies.1 This is the Robert A. Dowd is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director of the Ford Family Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity in the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana. His research interests include African politics, ethnic politics, and the impact of religion on development outcomes and political institutions. He is currently working on a book manuscript titled, God and Democracy in Africa: Islam, Christianity and Liberal Government. vol.38:1 winter 2014 154 the fletcher forum of world affairs conventional wisdom, with good reason. The underlying logic is sound, and there appears to be plenty of evidence to support it.2 Without the presence of people who adhere to different religions or belong to other religious communities, those we might call “religious others,” it is hard to imagine how religion can be used to fuel violent conflict. The more divided a society is by religion, the more likely it is that religion can be used to fuel social conflict. When we look around the world, we find religiously diverse societies, particularly where religious and other social identities like class and ethnicity overlap, to be among the most strife- ridden.3 Although there are religiously diverse societies where there is social tolerance and a low level of societal conflict, such as the United States, most analysts presume that social tolerance preceded and explains religious diversity in such soci- eties.4 It would seem to follow, then, that if we want to decrease the likeli- hood that religion is used to fuel social conflict in the world, particularly in new and fragile democracies, we should keep people of different religions apart Although Nigeria’s Muslim- from one another, and largely confine Christian divide is thought political competition to people who to prompt destabilizing share the same religious identities.5 religious competition and Nigeria is often considered the inspire religious intolerance “poster child” for this conventional wisdom. Including almost equal percent- that has resulted in much ages of Christians and Muslims, Nigeria of the violence that has has been the site of considerable reli- shaken the country, I find gious strife. Since the early 1980s, clashes that communal religious have taken place between Christians engagement among both and Muslims that have claimed tens of thousands of lives.6 Over the past few Christians and Muslims decades, it would appear that there has tends to have a more positive been consistently more religious strife effect on religious tolerance in Nigeria than in other countries in in Nigeria’s more religiously sub-Saharan Africa largely because the diverse settings than in the country is divided between Christians and Muslims. Religious differences overlap country’s more religiously and reinforce ethnic differences in many homogeneous settings. parts of the country. The assumption is that Nigeria’s religious diversity increases religious intolerance and the likelihood of destabilizing religious-based social conflict; that the country would be a more peaceful if it were partitioned differ- ently so as to create more religiously homogeneous political units.7 vol.38:1 winter 2014 religious diversity and violent conflict: lessons from nigeria 155 This essay is intended to spark more careful consideration of the impor- tant problem of religious conflict by pointing to evidence from Nigeria. This evidence calls into question the conventional wisdom and policies that seek to prevent or end religious-based social conflict by preserving or creating religiously homogeneous political units. Although Nigeria’s Muslim- Christian divide is thought to have prompted destabilizing religious compe- tition and to have inspired religious intolerance that have resulted in much of the violence that has shaken the country, I find that communal religious engagement among both Christians and Muslims tends to have a more posi- tive effect on religious tolerance in Nigeria’s more religiously diverse settings than in the country’s more religiously homogeneous ones. In the following section I briefly describe the conventional wisdom and the evidence that appears to support it. I go on to analyze data collected from Nigeria and discuss the implications of the results. Because this essay represents a first cut at a limited body of data, I conclude with questions for further research. RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL CONFLICT It is important to be clear about what we mean by religious diver- sity. I propose that there are three dimensions to religious diversity. One is qualitative and pertains to differences in creed. All else being equal, a society where religious communities are distinguished by core beliefs (e.g., a society with Christians who belief Jesus was God and Muslims who do not believe Jesus was God) is more diverse than the society where they are not (e.g., society with Protestants and Catholics or Shi’a and Sunni). The second dimension is quantitative and concerns the number of distinc- tive religious groups. All else being equal, a society with more distinctive religious groups, particularly a higher number of different world religions (e.g., Christians, Muslims, and Hindus), is more diverse than a society with fewer distinctive religious groups (e.g., Christians and Muslims). Of course, the number of different religious communities in a society tells us nothing of their relative size. Therefore, the third dimension of religious diversity is proportionality. I consider a society where half the popula- tion belongs to one religious community and half the population belongs to another to be more diverse than a society that includes five religious communities, one of which includes 90 percent of the population. The most religiously diverse societies include sizeable percentages of different world religions and different denominations within these world religions. It is important to recognize that differences between distinct world religions, and between denominations within world religions, have been vol.38:1 winter 2014 156 the fletcher forum of world affairs used to fuel social conflict. In some societies conflict has been as or more intense between people of different denominations within the same reli- gions than between people of distinctive world religions, such as the case of Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland and Sunni and Shi’a in Iraq. In others, the conflict is between different religions, such as Hindus and Muslims in parts of India and Christians and Muslims in Bosnia and Nigeria. The question is, what are the religious demographics of tolerance and intolerance? How does religious diversity, taking into consideration all three of its dimensions, affect the likelihood that religion is effectively used to promote social peace or fuel social conflict? Predominant thinking holds that cultural homogeneity, particularly religious homogeneity, is good for social stability and enhances the pros- pects for peaceful democratization, while religious divisions, particularly where they overlap with and reinforce ethnic or class differences, increase the likelihood of social conflict.8 The logic of the conventional wisdom Predominant thinking concerning how religious divisions lead holds that cultural to destabilizing conflict certainly seems homogeneity, particularly sound: in religiously diverse societies where democratic institutions are new religious homogeneity, is and fragile, we tend to find intense reli- good for social stability and gious contestation as religious commu- enhances the prospects for nities compete for adherents and/ peaceful democratization or social influence. Nigeria, Bosnia, while religious divisions, and Iraq are cases in point. A number of studies have found a positive asso- particularly where they ciation between religious diversity and overlap with and reinforce social conflict.9 ethnic or class differences, The problem with several studies increase the likelihood of that focus on religious diversity and social conflict. social conflict is that they typically analyze cross-national data, look at societies from a distance, and only compare countries.10 If we really want to understand how religious diver- sity affects social conflict, we need
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty for Everyone
    All Faiths & None A GUIDE TO PROTECTING RELIGIOUS LIBERTY FOR EVERYONE October 2020 Authors Elizabeth Reiner Platt & Professor Katherine Franke Law, Rights, and Religion Project Dr. Keisha E. McKenzie & Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson Auburn Acknowledgements For advice and assistance, we thank the Auburn Senior Fellows, Susan Barnett, Melissa Rogers, Sirine Shebaya, and Maggie Siddiqi. Lilia Hadjiivanova provided invaluable support with editing, outreach, and communications. Design David Beasley & Matt See Auburn LAW, RIGHTS, AND RELIGION PROJECT X AUBURN | ALL FAITHS & NONE: A GUIDE TO PROTECTING RELIGIOUS LIBERTY FOR EVERYONE 2 Table of Contents 04 Preface 05 Introduction 06 Religious Liberty Must Be Neutral a. End Islamophobic Policies & Rhetoric b. Eliminate Religious Exemptions That Favor Particular Beliefs c. Act Neutrally in Promulgating New Religious Exemptions d. Treat Religious Litigants Neutrally 11 Religious Liberty Must Be Noncoercive a. Ensure That Beneficiaries of Government & Government-funded Services Are Protected from Religious Coercion b. Eliminate Coercive Religious Exemptions c. Protect Immigrants from Religious Coercion Abroad 15 Religious Liberty Must Be Nondiscriminatory a. Eliminate Policies That Permit Religious Discrimination 17 Religious Liberty Must Not Be Absolute a. Reject the Notion of Religious Liberty as the “First Freedom” b. Ensure That Religious Liberty Protections Are Not Written in Absolute Terms c. Respect the Establishment Clause 20 Religious Liberty Must Be Democratic a. Eliminate Antidemocratic Religious Exemptions b. Protect the Johnson Amendment 23 Religious Liberty Must Be Pluralistic a. Protect Religious Minorities & Atheists b. Reject Christian Nationalism 26 Conclusion LAW, RIGHTS, AND RELIGION PROJECT X AUBURN | ALL FAITHS & NONE: A GUIDE TO PROTECTING RELIGIOUS LIBERTY FOR EVERYONE 3 Preface This year, the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of Religious Residential Segregation in Northern Ireland, 1981-2011
    Stockholm Research Reports in Demography | no 2021:14 A Study of Religious Residential Segregation in Northern Ireland, 1981-2011 Brad Campbell ISSN 2002-617X | Department of Sociology A Study of Religious Residential Segregation in Northern Ireland, 1981-2011 Brad Campbell Stockholm University Queen’s University Belfast Abstract Using individual level census data along with a temporally consistent geography from the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study (NILS) this paper sets out to investigate how the intensity and nature of religious residential segregation in Northern Ireland has evolved in the period between 1981 and 2011. The findings of this paper reveal that residential segregation levels increased sharply over the turbulent period of 1981 and 1991, remaining high until 2001, with levels decreasing in the most recent peaceful and politically stable time period leading up to 2011. These trends align with the Smith and Chamber’s ‘ratchet thesis’ (1991) and the empirical findings of previous aggregate census based studied of segregation (Shuttleworth & Lloyd, 2009). Furthermore, long term religious compositional change has contributed to the Catholic community experiencing declining levels of exposure to Protestants thus becoming more isolated over time. As a product of its declining population and in the context of peace, the Protestant community is experiencing enhanced social contact with Catholics over time which has reduced historically high levels of isolation. Keywords: Religious residential segregation; ethno-national division,
    [Show full text]
  • An Assessment of Religious Segregation in Northern Ireland's Schools
    Stockholm Research Reports in Demography | no 2021:15 An Assessment of Religious Segregation in Northern Ireland’s Schools Brad Campbell ISSN 2002-617X | Department of Sociology 1 An Assessment of Religious Segregation in Northern Ireland’s Schools Brad Campbell Stockholm University Queen’s University Belfast Abstract Reflecting the deep ethno-national differences that exist between the Protestant-British and Catholic-Irish communities in Northern Ireland, a considerable wealth of knowledge exists on the nature and intensity of residential segregation. However, in contrast there have been relatively few empirical studies undertaken to quantify the scale and intensity of religious segregation between Protestant and Catholic pupils in Northern Ireland’s schools. This paper aims to contribute to the literature by using school census data from the Department of Education (DoE) for the school year 2018/19 to investigate religious segregation from several perspectives including (1) educational stage, (2) school type and (3) by pupils’ religion. The analysis will adopt well established indices to capture two dimensions of segregation; firstly, population unevenness to measure the intensity of segregation between Protestant and Catholic pupils using the index of dissimilarity (D) and the degree of unevenness by each religious and non-religious group using the segregation index (IS). The second dimension – social exposure will be used measured using the interaction index (P*x) to explore the intra group inter-group contact. The main findings from this study are that primary schools are more segregated than post-primary attributed to smaller, more localised catchment area and the influence of familial ties. The Protestant “Controlled” sector is less segregated than the Catholic “Maintained” sector due to a more religiously diverse intake.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnic and Religious Intergenerational Mobility in Africa∗
    Ethnic and Religious Intergenerational Mobility in Africa∗ Alberto Alesina Sebastian Hohmann Harvard University, CEPR and NBER London Business School Stelios Michalopoulos Elias Papaioannou Brown University, CEPR and NBER London Business School and CEPR September 27, 2018 Abstract We investigate the evolution of inequality and intergenerational mobility in educational attainment across ethnic and religious lines in Africa. Using census data covering more than 70 million people in 19 countries we document the following regularities. (1) There are large differences in intergenerational mobility both across and within countries across cultural groups. Most broadly, Christians are more mobile than Muslims who are more mobile than people following traditional religions. (2) The average country-wide education level of the group in the generation of individuals' parents is a strong predictor of group- level mobility in that more mobile groups also were previously more educated. This holds both across religions and ethnicities, within ethnicities controlling for religion and vice versa, as well as for two individuals from different groups growing up in the same region within a country. (3) Considering a range of variables, we find some evidence that mobility correlates negatively with discrimination in the political arena post indepdence, and that mobility is higher for groups that historically derived most of their subsistence from agriculture as opposed to pastoralism. Keywords: Africa, Development, Education, Inequality, Intergenerational Mobility. JEL Numbers. N00, N9, O10, O43, O55 ∗Alberto Alesina Harvard Univerity and IGIER Bocconi, Sebatian Hohmnn , London Busienss Schoiol, Stelios Michalopoulos. Brown University, Elias Papaioannou. London Business School. We thank Remi Jedwab and Adam Storeygard for sharing their data on colonial roads and railroads in Africa, Julia Cag´eand Valeria Rueda for sharing their data on protestant missions, and Nathan Nunn for sharing his data on Catholic and Protestant missions.
    [Show full text]
  • Race, Religion, and Cultural Identity: Reconciling the Jurisprudence of Race and Religion Tseming Yang Santa Clara University School of Law, [email protected]
    Santa Clara Law Santa Clara Law Digital Commons Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 1997 Race, Religion, and Cultural Identity: Reconciling the Jurisprudence of Race and Religion Tseming Yang Santa Clara University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/facpubs Part of the Law Commons Automated Citation Tseming Yang, Race, Religion, and Cultural Identity: Reconciling the Jurisprudence of Race and Religion , 73 Ind. L.J. 119 (1997), Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/facpubs/713 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Santa Clara Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Santa Clara Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Race, Religion, and Cultural Identity: Reconciling the Jurisprudence of Race and Religion t TSEMING YANG* INTRODUCTION .................................................. 120 I. SIMILARITY OF RACE AND RELIGION: A FUNCTIONAL APPROACH ....... 124 A. Religious Discriminationand Race Discrimination ............... 124 B. Race and Religion as Aspects of CulturalIdentity ................ 127 1. The Value of Cultural Identity and Group Membership ......... 127 2. Religion and Race as Similar Cultural Groupings .............. 129 C. Religion Clausesand EqualProtection Clauses as Protectionfor Individual CulturalIdentity ...................... 135 D. Race and Religion Under the Constitution ...................... 140 1. The Equality Principle ..................................... 140 2. Equal Protection .......................................... 146 3. Liberty and Due Process ................................... 148 II. RECONCILING THE JURISPRUDENCE OF RACE AND RELIGION: TOWARD AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO CULTURAL IDENTITY ........ 151 A. Religion as the Primary Model ................................ 151 B. Pervasive Regulation of Race and Religion: Nonentanglement and Segregation ............................. 154 C.
    [Show full text]
  • Worshiping Across the Color Line: the Influence of Congregational Composition on Whites' Friendship Networks and Racial Attitu
    SREXXX10.1177/2332649218757804Sociology of Race and EthnicityPolson and Dougherty 757804research-article2018 Race and Religion Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 2019, Vol. 5(1) 100 –114 Worshiping across the Color © American Sociological Association 2018 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649218757804 10.1177/2332649218757804 Line: The Influence of sre.sagepub.com Congregational Composition on Whites’ Friendship Networks and Racial Attitudes Edward C. Polson1 and Kevin D. Dougherty2 Abstract Religious participation has reinforced the color line in American society for generations. Despite rising racial and ethnic diversity across U.S. communities, most Americans continue to belong to congregations composed primarily of others from their own racial/ethnic groups. Yet recent scholarship suggests that the presence of multiple racial or ethnic groups in the same congregation is increasing. The authors examine how the racial/ethnic composition of U.S. congregations is related to white attenders’ friendship networks and comfort with other racial/ethnic groups (i.e., blacks, Hispanics, and Asians). Using national survey data, the authors find that whites in multiracial congregations report more diverse friendship networks and higher levels of comfort with nonwhites than do whites in nonmultiracial congregations. However, the influence of worshipping with another race/ethnicity seems to be most pronounced for whites in congregations with Hispanics. Moreover, neighbors and friends of other races have more impact on whites’ friendship networks and attitudes than do congregations. The authors discuss implications of these findings for understanding U.S. intergroup relations and the potential of congregations to address the color line. Keywords race, religion, diversity, intergroup relations, ethnicity In 1903, W.E.B.
    [Show full text]
  • Maldives 2020 International Religious Freedom Report
    MALDIVES 2020 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT Executive Summary The constitution designates Islam as the state religion, requires citizens to be Muslim, and requires public office holders, including the President, to be followers of Sunni Islam. The constitution provides for limitations on rights and freedoms “to protect and maintain the tenets of Islam.” The law states both the government and the people must protect religious unity. Propagation of any religion other than Islam is a criminal offense. The law criminalizes “criticism of Islam” and speech “in a manner likely to cause religious segregation.” The penal code permits the administration of certain sharia punishments, such as flogging, stoning, and amputation of hands, but no sentences were carried out during the year. During June and July, groups of religious scholars, island councils, and youth groups released statements calling on the government to deregister the women’s rights nongovernmental organization (NGO) Uthema, citing the group’s Shadow Report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women as including content derogatory to Islam. In October, a group of religious scholars called on the government to stop “allowing irreligious individuals and those who criticize Islam to remain free and take action against them as prescribed by Islamic Shariah and the law.” In March, Maldives Police Services (MPS) investigated a man from Thinadhoo Island in Gaafu Dhaalu atoll for a second time on suspicion of “criticizing Islam” and in April charged him with the lesser charge of “obstructing justice.” He was convicted in June, sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, and remained in detention at year’s end.
    [Show full text]
  • Drawing Religious and Political Boundaries
    are two key building blocks in Supreme sort themselves however they wish. Perhaps Santeria's Court precedent for an anti-sorting principle-a victory means that the local political unpopularity of a Thereprinciple that would disfavor the alignment of migrant's religion, like her race, is not something she political with religious boundaries. The first is a case about should have to worry about while sorting. But even with a exclusion. Upon learning that a Santeria church was planned useful concept of "minority religion" within a multitude of for construction within the City of Hialeah, a series of faiths, this reading is not quite right. The Court's concern ordinances was adopted. Part of the Santeria faith calls for goes beyond empowering minorities to join a locality that animal sacrifice, and the practical effect of the ordinances prefers to maintain its religious composition. was to outlaw "ritual" animal sacrifice without threatening The point is made by a second and more controversial kosher butchers. The Court unanimously held the ordinances case. A year after the Hialeah decision, the New York invalid. Going out of its way to teach the locals a lesson, legislature was rebuked for drawing a new public school the majority explained that Santeria is a religion for First district at the request of the Satmar Hasidim. The district's Amendment purposes even though the City did not argue boundaries would have matched the Satmars' residential otherwise. The opinion opened with the observation that enclave in the Village of Kiryas Joel, and the Court balked local officials "did not understand, failed to perceive, or at officials consciously aligning political institutions with chose to ignore the fact that their official actions violated religious geography.
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Freedom and Conflict: a Review of the Evidence
    Religious Freedom and Conflict: A Review of the Evidence Prepared by Roger Finke and Robert R. Martin Pennsylvania State University COPYRIGHT STATUS: This work, authored by Roger Finke and Robert R. Martin, was funded in whole or in part by USAID Conflict Management and Mitigation Office under U.S. Government contract AID-OAA-TO-10-00054, and is therefore, subject to the following license: The Government is granted for itself and others acting on its behalf a paid-up, non-exclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in this work to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government. All other rights are reserved by the copyright owner. The views presented in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the view of the United States Agency for International Development or any other federal agency. Religious Freedom and Conflict: A Review of the Evidence Introduction When an unlikely alliance of American religious groups and human rights activists advocated for improving the state of international religious freedom in the mid-1990s, they described religious freedom as the overlooked “orphan of human rights” (Hertzke 2004, p. 69). But if religious freedoms were frequently overlooked in the policy arena in the 1990s, they were often completely ignored in the study of social conflict. Prior to 2000 there were virtually no systematic data collections on religious freedoms and few studies attempted to understand the relationship between religious freedoms and social conflict. Indeed, even the more general topic of religion was surprisingly ignored in most studies of social conflict.
    [Show full text]
  • Segregation in Religion Networks Jiantao Hu1, Qian-Ming Zhang2* and Tao Zhou1,2*
    Hu et al. EPJ Data Science (2019)8:6 https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-019-0184-x REGULAR ARTICLE OpenAccess Segregation in religion networks Jiantao Hu1, Qian-Ming Zhang2* and Tao Zhou1,2* *Correspondence: [email protected]; Abstract [email protected] 1CompleX Lab, University of Religion is considered as a notable origin of interpersonal relations, as well as an Electronic Science and Technology effective and efficient tool to organize a huge number of people towards some of China, Chengdu, China challenging targets. At the same time, a believer prefers to make friend with other 2Big Data Research Center, University of Electronic Science and people of the same faith, and thus people of different faiths tend to form relatively Technology of China, Chengdu, isolated communities. The segregation between different religions is a major factor China for many social conflicts. However, quantitative understanding of religious segregation is rare. Here we analyze a directed social network extracted from weibo.com (the largest directed social network in China, similar to twitter.com), which is consisted of 6875 believers in Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Taoism. This religion network is highly segregative. Comparative analysis shows that the extent of segregation for different religions is much higher than that for different races and slightly higher than that for different political parties. Furthermore, we study the few cross-religion links and find 46.7% of them are probably related to charitable issues. Our findings provide quantitative insights into religious segregation and valuable evidence for religious syncretism. Keywords: Social networks; Religion; Mixing pattern; Segregation; Percolation 1 Introduction Religious belief is a sort of mental cement that connects, blends people of diverse colors, ages and sexes.
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Segregation, Peace Walls, and House Prices
    Peace and Conflict Studies Volume 24 Number 2 Article 1 10-2017 The Political Cost? Religious Segregation, Peace Walls, and House Prices John A. McCord University of Ulster, [email protected] Michael J. McCord University of Ulster, [email protected] Peadar T. Davis University of Ulster, [email protected] Martin E. Haran University of Ulster, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/pcs See next page for additional authors Part of the Econometrics Commons, Peace and Conflict Studies Commons, Spatial Science Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons This Article has supplementary content. View the full record on NSUWorks here: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/pcs/vol24/iss2/1 Recommended Citation McCord, John A.; McCord, Michael J.; Davis, Peadar T.; Haran, Martin E.; and MacIntyre, Sean (2017) "The Political Cost? Religious Segregation, Peace Walls, and House Prices," Peace and Conflict Studies: Vol. 24 : No. 2 , Article 1. DOI: 10.46743/1082-7307/2017.1406 Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/pcs/vol24/iss2/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Peace & Conflict Studies at NSUWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Peace and Conflict Studies by an authorized editor of NSUWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Political Cost? Religious Segregation, Peace Walls, and House Prices Abstract The longstanding issue of discrimination and segregation in housing markets has enveloped housing market analysis and particularly the understanding of house price determination. Whilst the relationship of segregation in residential space is diverse and encompasses numerous taxonomies, in Northern Ireland, the high level of market segregation is compounded by the addition of tactile barriers such as Peace walls.
    [Show full text]
  • Strong Religion in a Secular Society: the Case of Orthodox Reformed Schools in the Netherlands
    education sciences Article Strong Religion in a Secular Society: The Case of Orthodox Reformed Schools in The Netherlands John Exalto 1,* and Gerdien Bertram-Troost 2 1 Department of Educational Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 7, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2 Faculty of Religion and Theology & Department of Educational Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 14 November 2018; Accepted: 23 January 2019; Published: 28 January 2019 Abstract: In the Netherlands, state and religious schools are equally financed by the government. Parents are free to choose a school that optimally fits their moral values as well as their idea of a good education. As a result, there is a huge variety of schools, which include those orthodox Reformed schools that form part of the so-called Bible Belt culture. We elaborate on the complex relation between this religious culture and liberal, secular society by focusing on education. Occasionally, there is severe criticism of schools based on a strong religious identity (so-called strong religious schools), especially when it comes to their allegedly inadequate contribution to citizenship education. In order to add a historical perspective and a reflection on the arguments to the debate, our central research question is: ‘How can the founding and existence of orthodox Reformed schools in the Dutch liberal and secular society be explained and justified?’ Starting with a historical explanation of why the orthodox Reformed founded their own schools in the 1920s, we elaborate on philosophical arguments that can justify the existence of orthodox Reformed schools in a liberal, secular society.
    [Show full text]