Sectarism

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sectarism ( loan word ) denotes a mindset or aspiration aimed at the division between religious, ethnic or social communities. Originally a result of the Reformation and the Enlightenment debate, “sectarism” is now used synonymously with the more widespread “confessionalism” or “ confessionalization ”, for example in connection with conflicts between religious communities in the Middle East .

Definition and conceptual history

In the Enlightenment debate one understood the sectarism u. a. as a "binding scholastic school philosophy, which formed a self-contained system of thought". The late Baroque Jesuit religious priest and writer Franz Neumayr dealt with this and protested against the accusation that the Jesuits were sectarii .

In his handbook on poetry, Johann Huebner , a writer and pedagogue of the early Enlightenment , scoffs at the attitude of the sectarii , who uncritically imitate a certain method, way of thinking, or style. During the French Enlightenment , sectarisme was seen as a tendency towards intellectual and ideological separation.

Over time, the term is directed less towards the description of a certain system of thought, but towards a fundamental attitude which views the goals and interests of a certain group as priority over those of the general public.

In the “Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation” signed by him in 1986, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger , at the time Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , also uses the term sectarism: “The option that gives preference to the poor is far from being a sign of To be particularism and sectarism; rather it reveals how universal being and mission of the church are. "

The term sectarism appears, among other things, in Latin American studies , here mostly from a translation from the Spanish sectarismo . The Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet saw it as the “priority of particular interests over the common good”, which had ended by military rule.

This is how the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa uses it . In his Nobel Lecture on the acceptance of the Nobel Prize for Literature "A Praise for Reading and Fiction", he names the transition from dictatorship to democracy (Transition) in Spain as an example that "Reason and understanding outweigh and political opponents their sectarism in favor of the Put the common good in the background. "

In French today, sectarisme is more broadly defined as the “unyielding attitude” of an intolerant group or party. In contrast to confessionalism, the focus here is on a state of mind, not on a political or social system. The English s ectarianism is according to its modern definition an excessive, fanatical support for or an excessive feeling of belonging to a "religious or political group".

Sectarism and Confessionalism in the Middle East

A conceptual problem arises from an apparent equality of meaning: unlike the French secte , the German word sect usually denotes religious minorities or denominational communities that have not grown historically such as Shiites , Druze , Alawites , Yazidis or the Christian Maronites and Arameans . In modern parlance, “sect” is a term that is mostly meant to be pejorative for a religious group that presents itself as the only soul-making group.

Denominations and denominational affiliations historically play a major role in the Middle East, especially in the multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-denominational states such as the Syrian Arab Republic , the Republic of Iraq or Lebanon . The political system of Lebanon, for example, has been based on a denominational key of power-sharing since the country's independence in 1945. As the successor to the Ottoman Empire , which granted the denominational communities some administrative autonomy, these states also have different legal norms for different religious communities. The ethno-denominational proportional representation between Sunnis , Shiites and Kurds also plays a role in the political system of Iraq .

In the context of the Syrian civil war, the orientalist and Middle East expert Daniel Gerlach defines the term sectarism, which he uses in numerous publications, as follows: “Sectarism is an attitude of mind that assumes that in the event of a conflict, only the Sunni at your side A Sunni can fight, the Alawites only with Alawites. This is a deeply identitary mindset ”. According to Gerlach, sectarism is also the attempt to deepen ethno-denominational tensions between communities, for example through propaganda and hate speech , or to make use of them.

The term “denominationalism”, which is often used synonymously for this phenomenon, is more likely to emerge from the Catholic-Protestant conflict and is used, among other things, to describe a historical-political process of order that leads to a particular system. The modern term “sectarism”, on the other hand, encompasses a mental attitude and the actions derived from it, according to which the causes of conflicts in the Middle East are only or mainly based on ethno-religious or confessional contradictions.

According to Gerlach, sectarism is also the adequate translation of the term family ta'ifiya (to describe denominational thinking or a denominational logic) or tatayyuf for the independent or willful confessionalization of a conflict.

The term sectarianism is now becoming increasingly popular in the German-language daily press.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Petrus Thomas Van der Veldt: Franz Neumayr SJ. Life and work of a late baroque clerical author . APA-Hollad University Press, Amsterdam 1992, p. 151 .
  2. ↑ Johann Hübner: Neu-Vermehrtes poetisches Hand-Buch: that is, a short guide to German poetry, together with a complete rhyme register, brought together for beginners in the best way . Bey JF Gleditschen's soul. Sohn, Leipzig 1731, p. 185 .
  3. ^ Charles Rihs: Voltaire: recherches sur les origines du matérialisme historique . Slatkine, Paris, Geneva 1977, pp. 64 .
  4. ↑ Donum Vitae - Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation. Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Reinhard Friedmann (ed.): Chile under Pinochet: the authoritarian experiment (1973–1990) . Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, Freiburg i. B. 1990, p. 136 .
  6. ↑ Mario Vargas Llosa: In Praise of Reading and Fiction. Nobel Lecture on December 7, 2010. Nobel Foundation, December 7, 2010, accessed on April 4, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Éditions Larousse: Définitions: sectarisme - Dictionnaire de français Larousse. Retrieved April 3, 2020 (French).
  8. ↑ SECTARIAN | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. Accessed April 3, 2020 (English).
  9. ↑ a b Daniel Gerlach: The Heresy of Others - Le Monde Diplomatique. Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Husseini, Abdel El Mottaleb: The religious communities in Lebanon | APuZ. Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
  11. ↑ The Syrian Personal Statute Act / Provisions for Druze, Christians and Jews. Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Iraq's Constitution and Federal Order: Road to Stagnation? - Qantara.de. Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Eva Marie Kogel: "Islam is quite capable of innovations" . In: THE WORLD . September 5, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed April 3, 2020]).
  14. ↑ a b What is sectarism? May 15, 2019, accessed April 3, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Real fear of a new civil war. Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Republic: The war is over, the revolution begins. Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
  17. ↑ EURASIAN MAGAZINE Germany: Syria, Eurasia and the new multipolar world order. Retrieved April 3, 2020 .
  18. ^ Agony in the Islamic world - derStandard.at. Retrieved April 3, 2020 (Austrian German).