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.
Reviews:
“Taking religion seriously is a challenge in the field of political
science. For instance, how is it that, during the last three decades,
holy places around the world, whatever the religions they are
associated with, have been the theater of unprecedented and
nevertheless unconnected violence? Instead of diluting the religious
factor under more familiar paradigms (identity, ideology, ethnicity or
struggle for power), Ron E. Hassner, in his highly original book,
tackles brilliantly the issue of integrating religion into the field of
political science.”—Olivier Roy, author of The Failure of Political
Islam and Holy Ignorance
“This is a brilliantly argued book. Ron
E. Hassner offers an explanation for why religious sites become
contested and why these conflicts are often very difficult to resolve,
but he reminds us that in some instances resolution is possible. War on
Sacred Grounds is forcefully and vividly written.”—Daniel Philpott,
University of Notre Dame, author of Revolutions in Sovereignty
“The
play on words in the title of this important book indicates that it is
not only about religious reasons for fighting but also about contested
space-when grounds are regarded as sacred by more than one community.
From Ayodhya to Jerusalem, these sites have become flashpoints for
political confrontation. Ron E. Hassner proposes that they may also
inspire interfaith tolerance, accommodation, and cooperation. War on
Sacred Grounds deserves a careful reading by anyone interested in the
causes of global religious conflicts and the options that conduce
toward peace.”—Mark Juergensmeyer, author of Global Rebellion:
Religious Challenges to the Secular State
“Ron E. Hassner's War
on Sacred Grounds is among the most important contributions to the
study of sacred places and the politics of those spaces in many years.
Hassner's perspective is original, daring, bold, and vitally important
for scholars who seek to understand the enormous powers held in sacred
places and for diplomats who hope to contribute to the resolution of
conflicts that are generated by holy grounds.”—Richard D. Hecht,
University of California, Santa Barbara
“Ron E. Hassner has
drawn on a wide swath of secondary literature on conflicts in sacred
spaces; he weaves these insights, along with theoretical insights from
religious studies, sociology, and political science, into his
discussion of substantive cases. The extremely topical and compelling
subject of War on Sacred Grounds will attract the attention of policy
analysts and journalists.”—Sumit Ganguly, Rabindranath Tagore Chair in
Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Indiana University, author of
Conflict Unending
