Explaining the Osmosis of Identity Threats and Religious Violence

Religion is the contemporary debate in political science since the fall of the Berlin wall. The way religion affects our society in the modern world is fraught with complexities. This is given the fact that religion is a serious factor in world politics and in strong variable in contemporary conflicts. This article explores how religion has assumed the center stage of the globalized world and how it has become a source of ideological division. National and religious identities connect the individual to a past with attached shared and cultural symbols. Most of all it tends to establish a strong boundary amongst people possessing different identities—thus generating conflict potential. Religion has the propensity to influence culture and ideology, and religion has gone beyond mere sociology. This being the case, religion is a phenomenon that unites and divides in equal proportion. Religion at its worst fosters conflict and at its best acts as a social glue. Religion and differing identities have been associated with conflict and violence all through history. What then are the theories that explain the divisive nature of religion and identity? The purport of this article is to chart a critique on differing theories explaining religious and identity conflicts.