This paper explores violence against religious houses as an indicator of the limits of political negotiation and consensus building in early medieval polities. It analyses records of attacks against religious houses and clerics from León (NW Iberia) that escape traditional interpreta- tions of violence as a tool in the negotiation of social relations, and construes the events as an ex- pression of local social cleavages. In so doing, it provides a guideline for probing similar records in ways that might illuminate aspects of social relations and dynamics otherwise obscured by the dominant themes of the documentary sources from this period.
Since the 1980s the Pakistani society has been characterized by a rise of sectarian violence that has especially involved the Sunni and Shiite communities in the Punjab province. While there is a long history of communitarian and sectarian violence in South Asia before 1947, the contemporary phenomenon has significantly innovated the forms of violence. Sectarian clashes in the past were typically sporadic and localized, where the contemporary Sunni-Shi'a violence is based on a perception of religious identity as collective and homogeneous. Sunni and Shi'a conflicts in the Punjab are connected to the activity of sectarian organizations that combine requests for religious purification with socio-political themes. The essay analyzes the historical evolution of this phenomenon in connection with the larger economic and social change in the Punjab province from the 1970s onwards. ; La società pachistana è stata caratterizzata dagli anni ottanta del novecento da una violenza a carattere settario che ha coinvolto in special modo le comunità sunnita e sciita. Pur presentando elementi di continuità con i conflitti del passato, questo fenomeno ha innovato in modo rilevante le forme della violenza tipiche dell'Asia meridionale. I conflitti settari attuali non hanno le caratteristiche sporadiche e localizzate tipiche della violenza "tradizionale", ma si basano su una percezione dell'identità come collettiva e omogenea. Inoltre il fenomeno è collegato all'attività di organizzazioni che uniscono richieste di purificazione religiosa a temi di carattere socio-politico. Il saggio analizza le radici storiche e l'evoluzione di questo fenomeno ricollegandolo alla più generale trasformazione sociale ed economica della provincia del Punjab dagli anni settanta in poi.
Our research on the dynamic of international agreements in preventing and treating violence against women is a specific topic and important for the spirit of legislation, policy recommendations and projects especially in the Muslim Arab countries working on the new status of Muslim women. Violence is a tragic situation for all; Governments make it a matter of concern because of the emergency alarming number of victims. The French media reports for example that one woman dies every two days due to the assault and violence caused by a spouse, parent or in the street. In Morocco, domestic, marital and social violence takes more space and is part of everyday life to such an extent that it no longer shocks anyone, it seems that the couple has integrity where the man is the core family, all the merit and the priority back mainly to him. Patriarchal power, brother, husband draws its strength from some misinterpretations of Koranic texts, a speech that does not promote the spirit of sharing and equality that the texts of the Koran, guidelines and practices of the Prophet encouraged fully. In this research, we will try to explore how we could prevent and treat violence against women, based on texts and experiences, which limit and fight against discrimination against women and against violence when they are victims. We will find a legal study, put in a frame to social, cultural, political and psychological, for they think that violence is closely related to all disciplines that will meet the needs of people and improve living conditions. Our research has been developed around practical work and field experiences. Violence against women remains a family problematic first. Around the world, women have their rights abused in the name of honor, love, jealousy, passion and tradition and religion, even within their families. Yet, none of these values allows the legitimate use of violence. Discrimination and violence against women are closely linked. Today, Morocco, Turkey, Yemen, Afghanistan and others, the little girl may be betrothed at birth; she became less easy to schooling and higher education than boys. Once adult, women are less informed about their rights, they will have fewer chances to develop its capabilities in different sectors, including politics. Without a profession and without its own financial resources, it is difficult to end a violent relationship. Violence against women is no longer considered as a taboo, women respond; they have no more difficulties to file complaints against their abusers. But the complaint is not an end in itself if the laws do not provide any text to protect women against violence, whether physical or moral. Non-Governmental Organizations call all leaders and the international community to support and to promote initiatives to ensure the prevention and the treatment of violence, to establish mechanisms of protection and that all women victims of violence receive compensation. The perpetrators of such violence must be sentenced to punishment applicable with their crime. The police and the judiciary should be trained to be able to act quickly and effectively against all forms of violence against women and grant them appropriate weight. Religious institutions are called on to give up any action that encourages or tolerates violence against women and to respect the rights thereof, and to introduce civic education programs in schools, highlighting the role of women within the family and society and promoting a change in attitudes. A cultural and economic revolution of women is necessary; independence allows freedom of choice and expression. The lack of places where they can escape, take refuge, a place to be listened and get the help needed faced to the violence constitutes an obstacle for them to denounce their aggressors and fight against this violence lived for a long time.
The principles of pacifism and federalism were central to William Penn's career. His Quaker belief in liberty of conscience and his experience of religious violence in England and Europe committed Penn to peace – within as well as between nations – and inspired both his founding of Pennsylvania and his proposal for a European Parliament. Peace was a fundamental commitment of Penn's not only because of the Quaker peace testimony, but also because he considered it a universal human aspiration. Thus, he always sought to build bridges beyond the Quaker community by appealing to broader, shared values, and he believed that well-designed political institutions that protected fundamental rights could offer a way to channel human energies in constructive, not destructive, directions. Drawing on my forthcoming biography of Penn, I consider some of the significant episodes in his life that prepared him to engage in peace building, whether it be an American society with liberty of conscience at its core or a European Parliament where nations could seek resolution of their disputes against each other.
The last several decades have witnessed a vibrant discussion about the proper political role of religion in pluralistic liberal democracies. An important part of that discussion has been a dispute about the role that religious and secular reasons properly play in the justification of state coercion. As I understand it, the standard view advocated by the members of that pantheon, and by many others as well, includes the following two claims, namely, that reli-gious reasons cannot play a decisive role in justifying state coercion and that citizens and public officials in a liberal polity should not endorse state coercion that requires decisive re-ligious support. I am skeptical about the standard view's restrictions on religious reasons as a class – restrictions that apply to any and all religious considerations, to religious reasons as such. My main aim in this paper is to motivate skepticism regarding the standard view. I will try to achieve this aim by reflecting on what I take to be the paradigmatic case of state coercion, namely, the use of military violence in war.
One of the works that close the golden age of the Attic tragedy, Euripides' Bacchae, has been studied by scholars interested in showing how tragic theatre derives from religious ritual. Among others, Cambridge Ritualists and Karl Kerényi saw in the sacrifice of Pentheus/Dionysus the mise-en-scène of the primary homicide that founds both the ritual sacrifice and the order of tragic representation. The true subject of Euripides' tragedy is nevertheless violence, whose religious legitimitation comes before the political system. The sense of the "Theban anomaly" – that can later be seen in the events involving the Labdacides and Oedipus – lies in this legitimation of the violence that founds the political system. In the mortal combat between Pentheus, the regent, and Dionysus, the demigod whose birth is directly related to the vicissitudes of the family that reigns in Thebes, the conflict between religion and politics comes to light. That conflict recalls the myth of the foundation of the town. Thebes is founded by Cadmus, who, after killing the dragon, sows his teeth. From these rise the Spartoi, violent warriors that, immediately after coming to life, kill each other. As witnessed by Pentheus and Oedipus, the violence of the origins extends to the following events of the town. From this point of view the Bacchae can be of great importance to understand the connection between religion, violence and politics. This connection doesn't escape Nietzsche's notice. In aphorism 472 (Religion and government) of Human, All-Too-Human, a small but meaningful hint to the background of Euripides's tragedy can be found. ; One of the works that close the golden age of the Attic tragedy, Euripides' Bacchae, has been studied by scholars interested in showing how tragic theatre derives from religious ritual. Among others, Cambridge Ritualists and Karl Kerényi saw in the sacrifice of Pentheus/Dionysus the mise-en-scène of the primary homicide that founds both the ritual sacrifice and the order of tragic representation. The true subject of Euripides' tragedy is nevertheless violence, whose religious legitimitation comes before the political system. The sense of the "Theban anomaly" – that can later be seen in the events involving the Labdacides and Oedipus – lies in this legitimation of the violence that founds the political system. In the mortal combat between Pentheus, the regent, and Dionysus, the demigod whose birth is directly related to the vicissitudes of the family that reigns in Thebes, the conflict between religion and politics comes to light. That conflict recalls the myth of the foundation of the town. Thebes is founded by Cadmus, who, after killing the dragon, sows his teeth. From these rise the Spartoi, violent warriors that, immediately after coming to life, kill each other. As witnessed by Pentheus and Oedipus, the violence of the origins extends to the following events of the town. From this point of view the Bacchae can be of great importance to understand the connection between religion, violence and politics. This connection doesn't escape Nietzsche's notice. In aphorism 472 (Religion and government) of Human, All-Too-Human, a small but meaningful hint to the background of Euripides's tragedy can be found.
The article addresses the definition of the State as an institution (Anstalt) that holds the monopoly of the legitimate use of force/violence (Gewalt). It is divided into three parts: the first one discusses some chief scholarly contributions on the topic. The second focuses on Weber's use of "monopoly" within his work, with the aim of showing that the expression "monopoly of the legitimate use of force/violence" can be better understood if conceived and explained within the much wider employment of this term. The third part analyses the expression "monopoly of the legitimate use of violence (Gewaltsamkeit)" in Weber's Intermediate Reflections. Religious Rejections of the World and Their Directions. Trying to grasp the meaning of the expression within this text can be helpful in order to better illustrate its sense within the entire Max Weber's work. ; Il contributo pone in questione la definizione dello Stato come istituzione (Anstalt) che detiene il monopolio dell'uso legittimo della forza/violenza (Gewalt), e si articola in tre parti. Nella prima, ci si confronta con alcuni essenziali riferimenti di bibliografia secondaria sull'espressione in oggetto. Nella seconda, si focalizza l'uso che Weber fa di "monopolio" all'interno delle sue opere, con l'intento di mostrare come l'espressione "monopolio dell'uso legittimo della violenza/forza" possa essere meglio compresa se concepita come un uso specifico di "monopolio" all'interno della ben più ampia casistica weberiana. Nella terza parte viene analizzata l'importanza del richiamo al monopolio della Gewaltsamkeit all'interno della cosiddetta Considerazioni intermedia, che è stato finora meno considerato. Si ritiene che fornire alcune indicazioni sul senso che l'espressione ha all'interno di questo testo possa essere d'aiuto per afferrare meglio alcuni aspetti del suo utilizzo all'interno del complesso dell'opera weberiana.
In order to understand the strategy adapted by the Albanian Communist Party in its struggle against religious beliefs, we shouldn't consider the violent persecution as the fundamental feature of the struggle; instead, we better look at it as one of the instruments of a more complex and vast tactic. Violence and persecution (veiled by political reasons), legislative and administrative measures and continues movement of the masses were all phases and elements of the State-Party's struggle. Yet, the final goal – the eradication of religious thought – couldn't have been achieved without moving the anti-religious battle to the ideological and conceptual level. The ideological struggle covered the education-al and cultural environments and was accompanied by propaganda. This considerable intellectual effort thus created an original atheology that would influence the Albanian people radically. The atheistic doctrines of western scholars and the Soviet atheism were intertwined with the laic thought of Albania's greatest scholars in order to create a corpus of original theories that would have effectively act against faith and religious thought. Placed under forms of indictment, the State's-Party condemned religion as a foreign and anti-Albanian element, an instrument in the hands of the rich and exploitative. They held it responsible for the submission of women and called it the enemy of scientific thought and progress. However, beside the prosecutrix ideology, the most original theory was a positive one. This theory was based on the Shqiptaria, the Albanianism faith, that exalts the Albanians as historically non-religious. Charming and self-exalting, it invited the people of the «Land of the Eagle» to believe in it blindly.
Based on the issue of colonial agency and aiming at a revision of Homi Bhabha's notion of third space, this essay considers two novels roughly based on a dystopian pattern and actually showing two similar interpretations of the Other. The first one, Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle (1963), was written as a political and fictional response to the US bombing of Hiroshima and is set in the Republic of San Lorenzo, a Carribbean island whose history has developed through the struggle between a naïf and ruthless dictator, 'Papa' Monzano, and a religious leader, Bokonon, who's made an outlaw though the religion he predicates is professed by almost everyone. The second, Will Self's The Butt (2008), develops the story of a tourist, Tom Brodzinki, in a tropical island conceived as something of a cross between Australia and Iraq. In both cases, the main focus is the relationship between the Westerner – ex-colonizer and naïf traveller – and the native, that appears to be more ambiguous than it seemed at first sight. The Imperial legacy produces a definite notion of exotic Paradise that is finally reversed in the colonizer's Hell.
The article investigates aspects of the complex symbolic construction of the figure of Madonna, at the f rontiera between two religious populations. The focus is on an area of contact between Christianity and Islam, materialised in the history of a major husband sanctuary of northern Af, the basilica of Nostra Signora d'Af rica in Algiers. This Catholic pilgrimage site also attracts Muslim faiths. Initially, these inter-religious demonstrations developed in the context of the colonial state of Francese, where a Christian minority dominated a large Muslim majority. Then, they continued after independence in 1962, although the construction of the post-colonial state was characterised by a strong push towards the homogenisation of the population from a religious point of view. The article shows a surprising stability of Nostra's mixed attendance at Lord d'Af rica for about 150 years, despite changing political, social and cultural contexts. In the sanctuary, the sharing of the same space by separate religious groups has also continued in temples of hatred and violence. This peaceful organisation of daily life in the sanctuary is embedded in a complex history of power relations and a network of often contradictory symbols and meanings. ; International audience The article investigates some aspects of the complex symbolic construction of the figure of the Madonna, at the border between two religious universes. Attention will focus on an area of contact between Christianity and Islam, which is materialized in the history of an important Marian sanctuary in North Af rica, the Basilica of Our Lady of Af rica in Algiers. This Catholic pilgrimage site also attracts Muslim faithful. At first, these interfaith events developed in the f rame work of the French colonial state, where a Christian minority dominated a large Muslim majority. Then, they continued after the independence of the country in 1962, although the construction of the post-colonial state was characterized by a strong push towards homogenization of the ...
