Editing Sectarianism (section)

== Definition ==
The term "sectarianism" is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "excessive attachment to a particular sect or party, especially in religion".<ref name=":4">{{Citation |last=Dixon |first=Paul |title=Beyond Sectarianism in the Middle East? |date=2018-02-01 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190876050.003.0002 |work=Beyond Sunni and Shia |pages=11–36 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oso/9780190876050.003.0002 |isbn=978-0-19-087605-0 |access-date=2022-05-23|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The phrase "[[sectarian conflict]]" usually refers to violent conflict along religious or political lines, such as the conflicts between [[Irish Nationalism|Nationalists]] and [[Unionism in Ireland|Unionists]] in [[Northern Ireland]] (religious and class-divisions may play major roles as well). It may also refer to general philosophical, political disparity between different schools of thought, such as that between [[Shia Islam|Shia]] and [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] [[Muslim]]s. Non-sectarians see free association and tolerance of different beliefs as the cornerstones to successful, peaceful human interaction. They adopt political and religious [[Pluralism (political philosophy)|pluralism]].

=== Polemics against the term "sectarianism" ===
Some scholars identify the problems with using the term "sectarianism" in articles.<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal |last1=Hashemi |first1=Nader |last2=Postel |first2=Danny |date=2017-07-03 |title=Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2017.1354462 |journal=The Review of Faith & International Affairs |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1080/15570274.2017.1354462 |s2cid=149047635 |issn=1557-0274}}</ref><ref name=":14">{{Citation |last=Haddad |first=Fanar |title=Sunni–Shi'a Relations |date=2020-03-15 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0006 |work=Understanding 'Sectarianism' |pages=167–216 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197510629.003.0006 |isbn=978-0-19-751062-9 |access-date=2022-05-23|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Western mainstream media and politicians often presume "sectarianism" as ancient and long-lasting. For example, [[Barack Obama|Obama]] in his final State of the Union address phrased the sectarian violence in the Middle East as "rooted in conflicts that dated back millennia", but many pointed out that some sectarian tensions don't even date back a decade.<ref>{{cite news |last=Adam |first=Karla |date=2016 |title=Washington Post |pages=np |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/13/obama-ridiculed-for-saying-conflicts-in-the-middle-east-date-back-millennia-some-dont-date-back-a-decade/ |access-date=May 24, 2022}}</ref> "Sectarianism" is also too ambiguous, which makes it a slogan whose meanings are up to the observers.<ref name=":14"/> Scholars argued that the use of term "sectarianism" has become a catch-all explanation to conflicts, which drives analytical attention away from underlying political and socioeconomic issues, lacks coherence, and is often associated with emotional negativity.<ref name=":03"/><ref name=":14"/> Many scholars find the term "sectarianism" problematic, and therefore three alternatives are proposed.

==== Alternative: Sectarianization ====
Hashemi and Postel and other scholars differentiate between "sectarianism" and "sectarianization".<ref name=":03"/> While "sectarianism" describes antipathy, prejudice, and discrimination between subdivisions within a group, e.g. based on their religious or ethnic identity, the latter describes a process mobilized by political actors operating within authoritarian contexts to pursue their political goals that involve popular mobilization around religious or identity markers.<ref name=":03" /> The use of the word ''sectarianism'' to explain [[sectarian violence]] and its upsurge in i.e. the [[Middle East]] is insufficient, as it does not take into account complex political realities.<ref name=":03" /> In the past and present, religious identities have been [[Politicization|politicized]] and mobilized by state actors inside and outside of the Middle East in pursuit of [[Political opportunism|political gain]] and [[Power in international relations|power]]. The term ''sectarianization'' conceptualizes this notion.<ref name=":blabla">Hashemi, Nader, and Danny Postel. "Introduction: The Sectarianization Thesis." In [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/957133611 ''Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East''], edited by Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. pp. 3, 5, 6, 10. {{ISBN|978-0-19-937-726-8}}.</ref> Sectarianization is an active, multi-layered process and a set of practices, not a static condition, that is set in motion and shaped by political actors pursuing political goals.<ref name=":blabla" /><ref name=":blabla1">Weiss, Max. [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674052987 ''In the Shadow of Sectarianism : Law, Shi`ism, and the Making of Modern Lebanon'']. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010. pp. 3, 4, 9–11, 11–128, 127, 129, 229. {{ISBN|978-0-674-05298-7}}.</ref><ref name=":blabla4">Hashemi, Nader. [https://en.qantara.de/content/interview-with-political-scientists-nader-hashemi-and-danny-postel-the-wests-intellectually The West's "intellectually lazy" obsession with sectarianism]. Interview by Emran Feroz. Qantara, 17 October 2018.</ref> The sectarianization thesis focuses on the intersection of politics and sectarian identity from a top-down state-centric perspective.<ref name=":03" /> Sectarianization would be more precise if you're referring to how sectarian identities and divisions are systematically created or reinforced by the state or other institutions, while sectarianism would be more appropriate when discussing the ideology or attitude that underpins sectarian divisions. While religious identity is salient in the Middle East and has contributed to and intensified conflicts across the region, it is the politicization and mobilization of popular sentiments around certain identity markers ("sectarianization") that explains the extent and upsurge of sectarian violence in the Middle East.<ref name=":blabla" /> The Ottoman [[Tanzimat]], [[colonialism|European colonialism]] and [[authoritarianism]] are key in the process of sectarianization in the Middle East.<ref name=":blabla" /><ref name=":blabla1" /><ref name=":blabla3">Makdisi, Ussama Samir. [https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520218468/the-culture-of-sectarianism ''The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon'']. California: University of California Press, 2000. p. 2. {{ISBN|0-520-21845-0}}</ref><ref name=":blabla2">Makdisi, Ussama Samir. [https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/17534/ISIM_8_Understanding_Sectarianism.pdf?sequence=1 "Understanding Sectarianism."] ''ISIM Newsletter'' 8, no.1 (2001), p. 19.</ref>

==== Alternative: Sectarian as a prefix ====
Haddad argues "sectarianism" cannot capture sectarian relations in reality nor represent the complex expressions of sectarian identities.<ref name=":14"/> Haddad calls for an abandonment of -''ism'' in "sectarianism" in scholarly research as it "has overshadowed the root" and direct use of 'sectarian' as a qualifier to "direct our analytical focus towards understanding sectarian ''identity''".<ref name=":14" /> Sectarian identity is "simultaneously formulated along four overlapping, interconnected and mutually informing dimensions: doctrinal, subnational, national, and transnational".<ref name=":14" /> The relevance of these factors is context-dependent and works on four layers in chorus. The multi-layered work provides more clarity and enables more accurate diagnoses of problems at certain dimensions to find more specific solutions.

==== Alternative: Sextarianism ====
In her book Sextarianism, Mikdashi emphasizes the relationship between sect, sex and sexuality.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mikdashi |first=Maya |title=Sextarianism |date=2022 |publisher=University Press Stanford |year=2022}}</ref> She argues that sectarianism cannot be studied in isolation, because the practice of sectarianism always goes hand in hand with the practice of [[sexism]]. Moreover, she states that the category 'sect' is already a [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]] inheritance. For this reason she proposes the term "sextarianism".  Sex, [[Human sexuality|sexuality]] and sect together define citizenship, and, since the concept of citizenship is the basis of the modern nation-state, sextarianism therefore forms the basis for the legal bureaucratic systems of the state and thus for state power.<ref name=":21">{{Cite book |last=Mikdashi |first=Maya |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781503631564/html |title=Sextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism, and the State in Lebanon |date=2022-05-03 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-1-5036-3156-4 |pages=23-50 |language=English |doi=10.1515/9781503631564}}</ref> It emphasizes how state power articulates, disarticulates, and manages sexual difference bureaucratically, ideologically, and legally.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mikdashi |first=Maya |title=Sextarianism |date=2022 |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2022 |pages=3}}</ref> To further illustrate the dimensions by which the dynamics of sextarianism in Lebanese society can be explained, Mikdashi refers to two central concepts: Evangelical Secularism, and the Epidermal State <ref>Mikdashi, M. (2022). The Epidermal State: Violence and the Materiality of Power. In Sextarianism (pp. 153–182). Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503631564-007</ref><ref>Mikdashi, M. (2022). Are You Going to Pride? Evangelical Secularism and the Politics of Law. In Sextarianism (pp. 117–152). Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503631564-006</ref>

Based on [[Carole Pateman]], sexual difference is political difference, while sexual difference is not merely a biological or cultural distinction but a fundamental mechanism of power relations. She argues that sexual difference functions as a process through which sectarian, [[Gender|gendered]], and sexual positions are structurally produced, represented, imagined, desired, and managed. In this view, the construction of sexual difference is inseparable from political structures, shaping not only individual identities but also the broader organization of social and political life.<ref name=":23" />

'''Dimension of Sextarianism: Evangelical Secularism and the Epidermal State'''

''Sextarianism'' builds on [[Joan Wallach Scott|Joan Scott]]’s theorization of the constitutive nature of sexual difference to the history of secularism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mikdashi |first=Maya |title=Sextarianism |date=2022 |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2022 |pages=3}}</ref> According to Mikdashi, sectarianism provided her with the chance to examine the Lebanese state without separating or favoring sectarian differences from sexual differences. This approach is rooted in the ways the state regulates and creates both sexual and sectarian distinctions. The Lebanese legal system shapes sexual difference across various areas of law, with sexual difference playing a far more significant role as a legal category than sectarian difference. The Lebanese state handles both sexual and sectarian differences through its judicial and governmental/bureaucratic structures.<ref name=":21" /> Mikdashi furthermore ties this development to the concepts of the evangelical and state based secularism which by emphasising the sectarian sphere through its sovereignty, securitisation, and citizenship laws, manages to enshrine its view into society <ref name=":23">Mikdashi, M. (2022). Afterlives of a Census: Rethinking State Power and Political Difference. Sextarianism: Sovereignty, Secularism, and the State in Lebanon. (pp 24-47). Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503631564-002</ref> The second important component - the epidermal state - is used by Mikdashi to show the locus and mode with which states manifest their power to enforce sextarianism. <ref>Mikdashi, M. (2022). The Epidermal State: Violence and the Materiality of Power. In Sextarianism (pp. 153–182). Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503631564-007</ref>

Mikdashi also refers to the idea that sextarianism unpacks how [[heterosexuality]], the [[Gender binary|sex binary]], and civil and [[criminal law]] are key to secularism’s management of sexual and religious difference, with secularism’s investment in sex manifesting as the regulation of straight and [[queer]] sexualities and a sex-gender binary system.<ref name=":21" />

==== Alternative: Practicing Sectarianism ====

In their book "Practicing Sectarianism" Deep, Nalbantian and Sbaiti (2022) emphasise that sectarianism does not need to remain a historical/anthropological pre-requisite for analyses but benefits from an understanding of the micro-level experiences of individuals, and how they relate, react, and contradict a static framing of "political" sectarianism. They also highlight that the concept - at least when focussing on the prominent example of Lebanon - should be understood as multi-dimensional with (1) political sectarianism, (2) Civil Sectarianism, and (3) Socio-Economic Sectarianism <ref>Deeb, L., Tsolin, N., Sbaiti, N., & Nalbantian, T. (2022). Introduction: Practicing Sectarianism in Lebanon. In Practicing Sectarianism (pp. 1–13). Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503633872-003</ref>