one god, many wars: religious dimensions of armed conflict in the middle east and north africa

The spiritual leaders of the Catholic population, from the popes on down, regarded these expeditions as just and holy wars, in part because they considered the earlier Muslim conquests as unjust incursions into and occupation of Christian lands. Future scholarship should also consider research designs that test the causal processes purported to link religion with conflict outcomes and pay increased attention to the interaction between insurgent and counterinsurgent forces.From 1096 until 1271, Christians from western Europe waged eight major wars and many smaller military operations in the Near East and North Africa that scholars now call the crusades. Moving forward, studies that look at both sides of the battlefield need to expand their empirical emphases, as well as more directly address a common set of challenges to the broader study of religious violence-how best to conceptualize, measure, and analyze the religious dynamics of war. A growing body of research since the mid-2010s has pushed further, cataloguing a more varied set of ways counterinsurgent forces account for religion in combat and information operations. Following the U.S.-led invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan, a few initial studies explored how state forces misunderstand or ignore the religious dynamics of armed conflict. Less attention has been paid to the role of counterinsurgent armies in irregular, religious wars. Of particular interest has been the way religion shapes the motivations and means of guerrilla fighters. Most of this research focuses on the religious, usually radical, ideas and practices of insurgent groups. The academic study of religion and irregular warfare has expanded considerably since the turn of the 21st century-driven by both global events such as 9/11 and empirical studies that find armed rebellions with religious dimensions to be longer, bloodier, and more difficult to resolve than nonreligious conflicts.

One god, many wars: religious dimensions of armed conflict in the middle east and north africa