Concept
Sectarian violence and/or sectarian strife is a form of communal violence which is inspired by sectarianism, that is, discrimination, hatred or prejudice between different sects of a particular mode of an ideology or different sects of a religion within a nation/community. Religious segregation often plays a role in sectarian violence. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute: Traditionally, sectarian violence implies a symmetrical confrontation between two or more non-state actors representing different population groups. Sectarian violence differs from the concept of race riot. It may involve the dynamics of social polarization, the balkanization of a geographic area along the lines of self-identifying groups, and protracted social conflict. Some of the possible enabling environments for sectarian violence include power struggles, political climate, social climate, cultural climate, and economic landscape. Economic conflict: capitalist versus Collectivist anarchism Political conflict: communist versus nationalist Interreligious conflict: Christians and/or Catholics versus JewsMuslim versus ChristianMuslim versus Buddhist Christian conflict: Catholic versus Protestant Islamic conflict: Shia versus Sunni In the Japanese Middle Ages, different Buddhist sects had private armies that frequently clashed. See Buddhism and violence and warrior monks. Sectarian violence among Christians Fourth Crusade Although the First Crusade was initially launched in response to an appeal from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos for help in repelling the invading Seljuq Turks from Anatolia, one of the lasting legacies of the Crusades was to "further separate the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity from each other." European wars of religion Hussite Wars Following the onset of the Protestant Reformation, a series of wars were waged in Europe starting circa 1524 and continuing intermittently until 1648. Although sometimes unconnected, all of these wars were strongly influenced by the religious change of the period, and the conflict and rivalry that it produced.
