{"title":"Sectarian Identity in the Era of the Nation-State","authors":"Fanar Haddad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the relationship between sectarian identity, the nation-state and nationalism It challenges one of the most common and most misplaced assumptions in the field, namely that sectarian identity and national identity are opposites or that they are mutually exclusive. This misplaced assumption frames what is assumed to be a normatively positive, modern, secular and territorialized national identity as the antidote to the ills of a normatively negative, pre-modern, religious and transnational sectarian identity. All of which overlooks one of the defining features of modern sectarian identity, namely its interaction with, and refraction through, the nation-state, national identity and nationalism. Far from negating the nation-state or denying nationalism, modern sectarian competition has more often revolved around contested national truths and contested hierarchies of power within the nation-state. The chapter surveys the literature on nationalism and demonstrates its relevance to the study of sectarian dynamics at the national level. The chapter also highlights the importance of the national level by examining the impact of the advent of the nation-state on sectarian relations. To that end, a survey of sectarian relations in the medieval and early-modern periods is contrasted against sectarian dynamics in the era of the nation-state.","PeriodicalId":441533,"journal":{"name":"Understanding 'Sectarianism'","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129221816","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Study of Sectarian Relations","authors":"Fanar Haddad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"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.","PeriodicalId":441533,"journal":{"name":"Understanding 'Sectarianism'","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121514101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Iraq, 2003–2018","authors":"Fanar Haddad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter takes Iraq as a case study with which to demonstrate many of the themes of the book and the layered and contextual nature of sectarian dynamics. The multidimensional model introduced in chapters 3-4 is used to explain not just the drivers of sectarian entrenchment but also of its retreat: the de-escalation of sectarian conflict, how sectarian identities lose relevance and how banal coexistence is recaptured. The chapter begins by outlining the pre-2003 roots of post-2003 sectarianization. The political changes of 2003 are then explored as is the evolution of the politics of sect between 2003 and 2018. Charting these transformations reveals the constantly evolving meaning, utility, social salience and political relevance of sectarian identity over the course of 15 years. What emerges is a gradually altered enabling environment with a changing set of incentive structures that have diminished the political salience of sectarian identity both in Iraq and regionally. This is evidenced in the normalization of the post-2003 order and in the transformations that have marked the evolution of threat perceptions, electoral behaviour, Iraq’s muhasasa system, and the parameters of populist discourse. All of which suggests the possibility that the ‘sectarian wave’ of chapter 6 may have crested.","PeriodicalId":441533,"journal":{"name":"Understanding 'Sectarianism'","volume":"433 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115934260","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What is ‘Sectarianism’?","authors":"Fanar Haddad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter interrogates the term ‘sectarianism’ and its problematic use in the field. It surveys over 200 Arabic and English language works to illustrate the term’s opacity, its shape-shifting fluidity, its negativity and the contradictory ways in which it is understood and used. The chapter identifies six broad understandings of ‘sectarianism’ in the literature: 1) ‘sectarianism’ as a catch-all for all that is related to sectarian identity; 2) as a catch-all for all that is related to inter-sect antagonisms; 3) as a term for various forms of sect-centricity, benign or otherwise; 4) as the sect-based equivalent of racism; 5) as the intersection of sectarian identity and politics; 6) as a multi-layered concept requiring typologies of various forms of ‘sectarianisms’. The chapter demonstrates why none of these approaches are sufficient. Moreover, combined with the term’s negativity, policy relevance and political utility, ‘sectarianism’ goes beyond mere incoherence and becomes analytically distortive, politically dangerous and socially divisive. The chapter thus argues for the term’s abandonment and presents an alternate lexical framework for addressing the subject. Absent the convoluted term ‘sectarianism’, the study of sectarian dynamics can proceed more fruitfully by taking sectarian identity, rather than an ill-defined ‘sectarianism’, as its starting point.","PeriodicalId":441533,"journal":{"name":"Understanding 'Sectarianism'","volume":"136 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129687551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"2003 and the ‘Sectarian Wave’","authors":"Fanar Haddad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the transformative impact of 2003 on sectarian identity and sectarian relations in the Middle East. The invasion of Iraq triggered what has been called a ‘sectarian wave’ that saw sectarian categories attaining unprecedented political relevance. This chapter sheds light on the processes unleashed by 2003 and the way they altered sectarian relations. Key drivers in the regional transformation of sectarian dynamics include the manner in which 2003 disturbed power relations between sect-centric actors; state collapse, firstly in Iraq and later on in several other countries after 2011; and the sense of regional crisis that followed the ‘Arab Spring’. 2003 was a transformative historical disruption that allowed for the contestation of the relations of power between sect-centric actors and that inflamed the salience of sectarian identity – processes that were accelerated by the simultaneous spread of social media. What emerged was a narrative of regionalized sectarian conflict and competing sectarian victimhoods in which the line between the national and transnational dimensions became increasingly blurred. Using the multidimensional framework introduced in chapters 3-4, this chapter explains the dynamics of these processes and how to contextualize them in the broader history of sectarian identity formation and sectarian relations.","PeriodicalId":441533,"journal":{"name":"Understanding 'Sectarianism'","volume":"55 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125259902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sunni–Shi’a Relations","authors":"Fanar Haddad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the overlooked role of demographics in sectarian identity formation and sectarian relations in the modern Arab world up to 2003. It will be argued that the demographic imbalance has created minoritarian and majoritarian outlooks. These can sometimes operate in contradictory ways between the various dimensions of sectarian identity – a national minority that is nevertheless part of a transnational majority for example. Demographics have helped shape power relations between sect-centric actors particularly at the transnational and doctrinal dimensions where mainstream conceptions of global Islam tend to be Sunni-inflected. The chapter will demonstrate the profound implications this has had for how sectarian identities are imagined and instrumentalized. In doing so, this chapter will concentrate on the extremes of sectarian polemics and sectarian ecumenism (as opposed to the more common norm of mundane coexistence and sectarian irrelevance). Finally, the role of demographics in state–sect relations and the role that the nation-state has played in minoritization, majoritization and securitization of sectarian identities will be examined. Specifically, it will look at the normativity of Sunni Islam; the often-counterproductive side-effects of state-sanctioned sect-blindness; the securitization of sectarian plurality and of sectarian outgroups; and the intersection of Arab-Iranian rivalry with state-sect relations.","PeriodicalId":441533,"journal":{"name":"Understanding 'Sectarianism'","volume":"36 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129568854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Many Dimensions of Modern Sectarian Identity","authors":"Fanar Haddad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This and the next chapter outline the book’s theoretical model for the conceptualization of sectarian identity. It will be argued that sectarian identity simultaneously operates and is imagined on four interdependent, mutually informing and reinforcing dimensions: doctrinal, subnational, national and transnational. Rather than four separate phenomena, these dimensions are four sides of one thing: sectarian identity. This model sharpens our analysis by emphasizing the inherent multidimensionality of sectarian identity and by enabling us to identify which aspect of sectarian identity is relevant to a given situation. This allows us to better match the correct analytical tools and the appropriate bodies of literature to meet the needs of a given context. IR theory is useful for understanding sectarian dynamics at the transnational level but is useless at the doctrinal level; critical race theory is useful for the subnational level but not the national level etc. The model also highlights sectarian identity’s intersection with other variables such as class, tribe, patronage networks, economic distribution and the like. This chapter explains the model and examines three dimensions: doctrinal (sectarian identity as it relates to doctrine/religious truths); subnational (sectarian identity within a given national setting); transnational (sectarian identity in international relations and geostrategic competition).","PeriodicalId":441533,"journal":{"name":"Understanding 'Sectarianism'","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133100837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Conclusion","authors":"Fanar Haddad","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"The conclusion summarizes the book’s main arguments while emphasizing the urgent need to demystify and de-exoticize the study of sectarian dynamics. Doing so requires an abandonment of the term ‘sectarianism’ and an analytical shift towards sectarian identity. The book’s conceptual approach to the study of sectarian identity (chapters 3-4) is then summarized. Sectarian identity should be framed as something that is formed, imagined, perceived and practiced at four overlapping, interdependent and mutually dialogical levels: doctrinal, subnational national, transnational. The benefits of the model are that, firstly, it creates a sharper focus that can better capture the multifaceted nature of sectarian identity. This helps us identify which aspect(s) of sectarian identity is relevant to a given context. Secondly, it helps us move beyond the false binaries and rigid dichotomies that have dominated the literature (see chapter 2). Finally, the suggested framework allows us to better identify which analytical tools and bodies of literature are most relevant to a given context. In the process, we can better identify linkages between sectarian dynamics and other social and/or political frames, contexts and variables. The book ends with predictions regarding the future of sectarian relations and suggestions for future research into the subject.","PeriodicalId":441533,"journal":{"name":"Understanding 'Sectarianism'","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129358232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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