Sacred sites offer believers the possibility of communing with the divine and achieving deeper insight into their faith. Yet their spiritual and cultural importance can lead to competition as religious groups seek to exclude rivals from practicing potentially sacrilegious rituals in the hallowed space and wish to assert their own claims. Holy places thus create the potential for military, theological, or political clashes, not only between competing religious groups but also between religious groups and secular actors. In War on Sacred Grounds, Ron E. Hassner investigates the causes and properties of conflicts over sites that are both venerated and contested; he also proposes potential means for managing these disputes. Hassner illustrates a complex and poorly understood political dilemma with accounts of the failures to reach settlement at Temple Mount/Haram el-Sharif, leading to the clashes of 2000, and the competing claims of Hindus and Muslims at Ayodhya, which resulted in the destruction of the mosque there in 1992. He also addresses more successful compromises in Jerusalem in 1967 and Mecca in 1979. Sacred sites, he contends, are particularly prone to conflict because they provide valuable resources for both religious and political actors yet cannot be divided. The management of conflicts over sacred sites requires cooperation, Hassner suggests, between political leaders interested in promoting conflict resolution and religious leaders who can shape the meaning and value that sacred places hold for believers. Because a reconfiguration of sacred space requires a confluence of political will, religious authority, and a window of opportunity, it is relatively rare. Drawing on the study of religion and the study of politics in equal measure, Hassner's account offers insight into the often-violent dynamics that come into play at the places where religion and politics collide.

Sacred sites offer believers the possibility of communing with the divine and achieving deeper insight into their faith. Yet their spiritual and cultural importance can lead to competition as religious groups seek to exclude rivals from practicing potentially sacrilegious rituals in the hallowed space and wish to assert their own claims. Holy places thus create the potential for military, theological, or political clashes, not only between competing religious groups but also between religious groups and secular actors. In War on Sacred Grounds, Ron E. Hassner investigates the causes and properties of conflicts over sites that are both venerated and contested; he also proposes potential means for managing these disputes. Hassner illustrates a complex and poorly understood political dilemma with accounts of the failures to reach settlement at Temple Mount/Haram el-Sharif, leading to the clashes of 2000, and the competing claims of Hindus and Muslims at Ayodhya, which resulted in the destruction of the mosque there in 1992. He also addresses more successful compromises in Jerusalem in 1967 and Mecca in 1979. Sacred sites, he contends, are particularly prone to conflict because they provide valuable resources for both religious and political actors yet cannot be divided. The management of conflicts over sacred sites requires cooperation, Hassner suggests, between political leaders interested in promoting conflict resolution and religious leaders who can shape the meaning and value that sacred places hold for believers. Because a reconfiguration of sacred space requires a confluence of political will, religious authority, and a window of opportunity, it is relatively rare. Drawing on the study of religion and the study of politics in equal measure, Hassner's account offers insight into the often-violent dynamics that come into play at the places where religion and politics collide.

This anthology explores the dynamics of shared religious sites in Turkey, the Balkans, Palestine/Israel, Cyprus, and Algeria, indicating where local and national stakeholders maneuver between competition and cooperation, coexistence and conflict. Contributors probe the notion of coexistence and the logic that underlies centuries of "sharing," exploring when and why sharing gets interrupted—or not—by conflict, and the policy consequences. These essays map the choreographies of shared sacred spaces within the framework of state-society relations, juxtaposing a site's political and religious features and exploring whether sharing or contestation is primarily religious or politically motivated. Although religion and politics are intertwined phenomena, the contributors to this volume understand the category of "religion" and the "political" as devices meant to distinguish between the theological and confessional aspects of religion and the political goals of groups. Their comparative approach better represents the transition in some cases of sites into places of hatred and violence, while in other instances they remain noncontroversial. The essays clearly delineate the religious and political factors that contribute to the context and causality of conflict at these sites and draw on history and anthropology to shed light on the often rapid switch from relative tolerance to distress to peace and calm.

Because of his dark skin and questionable origins, the young Cathan Dussault was taunted and ridiculed. Survivability in an insensitive world demands flexibility, and children are remarkably flexible. However, there are limits to a child's ability to manage his environment, particularly when negative inputs are overwhelming. Cathan came home from school one day anticipating a joyful reunion with his small sister. It was raining, and a daunting, muddy hill persuaded the bus driver to drop him off at a distance from the house. His uncle was not aware of the boys arrival, and the boy witnessed, through a keyhole, his uncle molesting his sister, who was too young to be quite aware of what was going on. When Cathan told their father, a violent scene ensued, but for reasons obscure to the boy, the uncle was not ejected from the house. Cathan and his sister must live in that house with innocence-shattering knowledge and under on-going pressure of reprisal by the uncle. The psychological hell that Cathan underwent worked upon his mind until it sought help from a bizarre source. He fell ill for a protracted time, and while in a near comatose state, he had a vision so real that years afterward he came to believe he had suffered an out-of-body experience. Though marginally aware of his mother's physical presence during his sickness, a part of him traveled to another plane. Within that otherworldly dimension, he was adopted by Indians that had inhabited the nearby sacred grounds long before. Through rituals, they gave the boy a new identity, and through physical trials, they taught him the meaning of fearlessness. When he awoke, physically ravaged by the illness, but empowered by the forgotten mystical experience, he found the inner strength to survive the hell of living in the same house with his uncle. He graduated from high school and left to seek his future. The conscious Cathan Dussault avoided memories of the ugly incident witnessed through the keyhole, but within him dwelled a personality not so forgiving. Recurring dreams inserted an uneasiness into Cathan's psyche, and he grew to believe that he was battling insanity. He did not realize that another part of him was exacting revenge against innocent proxies for his uncle's aberrant behavior. The angst of his other's deeds was seeping through well-constructed emotional barriers, trying to alert the moral Cathan Dussault to the wrongful behavior of his suppressed personality. Beyond the ken of the conscious Cathan Dussault, arcane forces were at play, guiding the actions of his secret persona. Could Cathan be held accountable for crimes he was unaware of? A half-breed Cherokee detective of the Bannock County Sheriff Department believed so. By accident, he linked the murders of several people with Cathan Dussault. Aaron Walker was dedicated to righting wrong, no matter how small or great the infraction. However, Aaron Walker shared an Indian ancestry, and he was unaware that arcane forces worked upon him as well. Are there forces outside human awareness controlling the actions of men? Are there clearly defined rules of human conduct inscribed upon some ethereal text that are sacrosanct, and their violations enforced by supernatural judge and jury? Though ignorant of his crimes, is Cathan Dussault guilty? If you dare to judge, read the book and don your black robe.

"Examines how different groups of Americans have competed to control, define, and own cherished national stories relating to events at four battlefields."--Amazon.com.

He pretends to have no talent for cultivating, but in fact already has super strong force. Others think he has no talent, laugh at him, bully him, but he doesn't care, because he has more important things to do.In order to seek the whereabouts of his parents, to regain the prestige of the family, and to protect the safety of the people, he needs to hide his strength and win eventually when others are inadvertent.☆About the Author☆Nan Chen, a new online novel writer, wrote a novel named Greatest Conceited Emperor on the literary website and received high marks. The rich storyline and distinctive character of the book attracted readers.

A pathbreaking call to halt the intertwined crises of cultural heritage attacks and mass atrocities and mobilize international efforts to protect people and cultures. Intentional destruction of cultural heritage has a long history. Contemporary examples include the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, mosques in Xinjiang, mausoleums in Timbuktu, and Greco-Roman remains in Syria. Cultural heritage destruction invariably accompanies assaults on civilians, making heritage attacks impossible to disentangle from the mass atrocities of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. Both seek to eliminate people and the heritage with which they identify. Cultural Heritage and Mass Atrocities assembles essays by thirty-eight experts from the heritage, social science, humanitarian, legal, and military communities. Focusing on immovable cultural heritage vulnerable to attack, the volume's guiding framework is the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), a United Nations resolution adopted unanimously in 2005 to permit international intervention against crimes of war or genocide. Based on the three pillars of prevent, react, and rebuild, R2P offers today's policymakers a set of existing laws and international norms that can and—as this book argues—must be extended to the protection of cultural heritage. Contributions consider the global value of cultural heritage and document recent attacks on people and sites in China, Guatemala, Iraq, Mali, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Comprehensive sections on vulnerable populations as well as the role of international law and the military offer readers critical insights and point toward research, policy, and action agendas to protect both people and cultural heritage. A concise abstract of each chapter is offered online in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish to facilitate robust, global dissemination of the strategies and tactics offered in this pathbreaking call to action. The free online edition of this publication is available at getty.edu/publications/cultural-heritage-mass-atrocities. Also available are free PDF, EPUB, and Kindle/MOBI downloads of the book.

Religious leaders and political actors often use holy places to rally citizens to 'protect' or 'liberate' national territory as 'hallowed land.' The Holy Land, Palestine or Eretz-Israel, is the most obvious case of the process of 'religionizing' ethnic, national and territorial conflicts. This book analyzes fourteen case studies of conflicts over holy sites in the Holy Land, each representing a particular archetype of conflict. It seeks to understand the many facets of disputes and the triggers for the outbreak of violence in and around such sites. It also analyses the effectiveness of the conflict mitigation and resolution tools used for dealing with such disputes.

Using case studies from the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Basin, this book examines the global trend of violence against religious places and figures. The contributors believe attacks on sacred places to be particularly damaging to peace and harmony because of the centrality of religion in many Asian and Pacific countries.A diverse range of topics are covered, including an empirical exploration of the global trends of violence against sacred spaces; attacks against and policies toward holy sites in Israel and the Palestinian Territories; the fate of Indian Islamic monuments after India gained independence in 1947; the Christian community's response to the increasing Islamization of Malaysia, and the future of communalism in Malaysia. Africa and Australia are also referenced in the work.Taken together, this volume explores the importance of protecting sacred spaces, holy symbols, and religious people as a crucial element in fostering peace in the world, and especially the Asia-Pacific region. The contributors argue that much of the violence in the world is rooted in politics of religious identity.

This book investigates demonization in international politics, particularly in the Middle East. It argues that while demonization’s origins are religious, its continued presence is fundamentally political. Drawing upon examples from historical and modern conflicts, this work addresses two key questions: Why do leaders demonize enemies when waging war? And what are the lasting impacts on peacemaking? In providing answers to these inquiries, the author applies historical insight to twenty-first century conflict. Specific attention is given to Israel and Palestine as the author argues that war-time demonization in policy, media, and art is a psychological and relational barrier during peace talks.