Religious conflicts

Religious conflicts arise because of the constant impact of a number of factors. The main ones are:

1. The presence in the state of many religions. As an example, Lebanon is perhaps the most unique country in this regard. It has more than twenty ethno-religious communities. And each of them seeks to preserve its individual character, often even to the detriment of state interests. Since 1943, the distribution of senior positions has become a matter of private ownership. So, only the Christian can be the president of the republic, the Sunni Muslim - the Prime Minister, and the Shia Muslim - the chairman of the parliament. Naturally, the strengthening of Christian positions could not please the Muslim part of the population. On this basis, interfaith conflicts began to appear more and more often in the country. Sometimes ordinary clashes develop into a civil war. The political situation in Lebanon is changing with varying success, but it remains tense.

2. Some religious conflicts are due to the peculiarities of the creation of the state. For example, many African and Asian countries only became independent fifty years ago. Before that, they were colonies or semi-colonies of European countries. Moreover, the metropolitan states created states, completely disregarding the differences of religious communities that have developed historically. As a result, followers of one religion were disunited and, on the contrary, were forced to live in one country with representatives of other faiths. Thus, the outcome of the civil war that lasted for many years between the residents of the province of Eritrea, professing Islam, and the inhabitants of Ethiopia, professing mainly Christianity, was the province's exit in 1993 from Ethiopia.

3. Religious conflicts are also provoked by discrimination of some groups living in the country. This is manifested in socioeconomic inequality and in the predominance of representatives of a certain confession in the political elite.

4. Interreligious conflicts also arise when the opposition religious movement is supported from the outside by economic, political, ideological and military means. More often this kind of conflict occurs when followers of the same religion live in the territory of several states. The effect of this factor is obvious on the example of India. In 1947, this British colony gained independence and divided its territory into two states on a religious basis. Where Muslims predominated, Pakistan was formed, and where there were more Hindus, the Indian Union. The latter, in turn, divided the territory into West and East Pakistan. Despite the predominance of the Muslim population, the Kashmir principality became part of India. As a result of which, permanent regional conflicts resulted in the Indo-Pakistani war. Each principality could decide for itself whether to enter India or Pakistan.

5. Often religious conflicts are provoked by those countries that allegedly defend the rights of their co-religionists and interfere in the internal life of other states. For example, this happened in the 80 years during the Iran-Iraq conflict, the official cause of which was called the confrontation that arose between Shiites and Sunnis. But in fact, the reason was the struggle for power in the region in general and in particular for the possession of oil deposits on the territory of the Persian Gulf (that is, economic interests).

6. Sometimes religious conflicts result from interference in the religion of politics. This situation takes place in modern Ukraine. There arose a confrontation between the Orthodox Kiev Patriarchate and Moscow. That is, there was a conflict within the representatives of the same religious doctrine.