Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T20:23:28.655Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Catholic and Muslim Human Rights Activism in Violent Internal Conflicts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2014

Güneş Murat Tezcür
Güneş Murat Tezcür*
Affiliation:
Loyola University Chicago
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Güneş Murat Tezcür, Department of Political Science, Loyola University Chicago, 1032 West Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60660. E-mail: gtezcur@luc.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

When do religious organizations develop human rights platforms during violent internal conflicts? This article offers the first comparative study to address this question and focuses on religious organizations in El Salvador, Peru, Turkey, and Indonesia. It identifies two causal factors to explain variation in religious human rights activism in these four countries: (1) transnational religious ideas and linkages, and (2) the nature of the state-religion relationship. First, Vatican II and Liberation theology significantly contributed to the rise of religious human rights activism in El Salvador and Peru. Similar transitional linkages were absent in Turkey and Indonesia. Next, the more conflictual nature of the state-religion relationship in El Salvador explains why the Salvadorian Church pursued a more determined human rights agenda than its Peruvian counterpart. A similarly conflictual state-religion relationship contributed to the presence of Islamic human rights activism in Turkey, and a less conflictual relationship prevented its emergence in Indonesia.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 111 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aditjondro, George J. 1997. “Challenges and Prospects of the Indonesian pro-East Timor Movement.” http://peace.home.xs4all.nl/pubeng/pdm/pdmga.html (Accessed on May 10, 2014).Google Scholar
Abou El Fadl, Khaled M. 2005. The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists. New York, NY: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Anderson, John. 2007. “The Catholic Contribution to Democratization's ‘Third Wave’: Altruism, Hegemony or Self-Interest?” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 20: 383–399.Google Scholar
An-Na'im, Abdullahi Ahmed. 2008. Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari'a. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Appleby, R. Scott. 2000. The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Aspinall, Edward. 2005. Opposing Suharto: Compromise, Resistance, and Regime Change in Indonesia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Pres.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aspinall, Edward. 2009. Islam and Nation: Separatist Rebellion in Aceh, Indonesia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bertrand, Jacques. 2004. Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Berryman, Phillip. 1984. The Religious Roots of Rebellion. New York, NY: Maryknoll.Google Scholar
Blanke, Svenja. 2004. “Civic Foreign Policy: Human Rights, Faith-Based Groups and U.S.-Salvadoran Relations in the 1970s.” The Americas 61: 217–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boler, Jean. 1985. “The Mothers Committee of El Salvador: National Human Rights Activists.” Human Rights Quarterly 7: 541–556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cardenal, Rodolfo. 1990. “The Martyrdom of Salvadorean Church.” In Church and Politics in Latin America, ed. Keogh, Dermot, pp. 205–224. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casanova, José. 1994. Public Religions in Modern World. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Çakır, Ruşen. 1994. Ne şeriat Ne Demokrasi (Translate title here). İstanbul: Metis Yayınları.Google Scholar
Çalı, Başak, 2007. “Human Rights Discourse and Domestic Human Rights NGOs.” In Human Rights in Turkey, ed. Kabasakal Arat, Zehra F., pp. 217–232. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Çalmuk, Fehmi. 2001. Erbakan'ın Kürtleri: Milli Görüş'ün Güneydoğu Politikası (Translate title here). İstanbul: Metis Yayınları.Google Scholar
Donnelly, Jack. 2007. “The Relative Universality of Human Rights.” Human Rights Quarterly 29: 281–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driessen, Michael D. 2010. “Religion, State, and Democracy: Analyzing Two Dimensions of Church-State Arrangements.” Politics and Religion 3: 55–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Economist , 2007. María Julia Hernández. http://www.economist.com/node/8998321 (Accessed on May 10, 2014).Google Scholar
Ellenbogen, Gustavo Gorriti. 1991. “Latin America's Internal Wars.” Journal of Democracy 2: 85–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Espinosa, Oscar A. 2011. “The Catholic Church and the Indigenous Movement in the Peruvian Amazon Region.” Paper presented in Democracy, Culture, and Catholicism International Research Project, Lima. http://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/dccirp/pdfs/ oscar_a_espinosa_2.pdf (Accessed on May 10, 2014).Google Scholar
Fealy, Greg, 2008. “Indonesian Islamist Perspectives on Human Rights.” In Islam and Human Rights in Practice: Perspectives across the Ummah, eds. Akbarzadeh, Shahram and MacQueen, Benjamin, pp. 142–153. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fleet, Michael, and Smith, Brian H. 1998. Catholic Church and Democracy in Chile and Peru. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Gill, Anthony. 1998. Rendering unto Chicago: The Catholic Church and the State in Latin America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Göle, Nilüfer. 1996. “Authoritarian Secularism and Islamist Politics.” In Civil Society in the Middle East Vol.2, ed. Norton, A. R., pp. 17–43. Leiden, NY: E.J. Brill.Google Scholar
Hagopian, Frances. 2008. “Latin American Catholicism in an Age of Religious and Political Pluralism: A Framework for Analysis.” Comparative Politics 40: 149–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hebblethwaite, Peter. 1990. “The Vatican's Latin American Policy.” In Church and Politics in Latin America, ed. Keogh, Dermot, pp. 49–64. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hefner, Robert. W. 2000. Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hefner, Robert W. 2004. “Muslim Democrats and Islamist Violence in Post-Sueharto Indonesia.” In Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization, ed. Hefner, Robert W., pp. 273–301. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hicks, Neil. 2002. “Does Islamist Human Rights Activism Offer a Remedy to the Crisis of Human Rights Implementation in the Middle East?” Human Rights Quarterly 24: 361–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iglesias, Carlos Basombrío, 1998. “Sendero Luminoso and Human Rights: A Perverse Logic that Captured the Country.” In Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru, 1980–1995, ed. Stern, Steve J., pp. 447–469. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Jetschke, Anja. 1999. “Linking the Unlinkable? International Norms and Nationalism in Indonesia and the Philippines.” In The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change, eds. Risse, Thomas, Ropp, Stephen C., and Sikkink, Kathryn, pp. 134–171. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kabasakal Arat, Zehra F. 2006. “Forging a Global Culture of Human Rights: Origins and Prospects of the International Bill of Rights.” Human Rights Quarterly 28: 416–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kadıoğlu, Ayşe. “Civil Society, Islam and Democracy in Turkey: A Study of Three Islamic non-Governmental Organizations.” The Muslim World 95: 23–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaliber, Alper, and Tocci, Nathalie. 2010. “Civil Society and the Transformation of Turkey's Kurdish Question.” Security Dialogue 41: 191–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kepel, Gilles. 2003. The Trail of Political Islam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Klaiber, Jeffrey. 1998. The Church, Dictatorships and Democracy in Latin America. New York, NY: Orbis Books.Google Scholar
Krauss, Clifford. 1982. “Religious Roots of Rebellion in El Salvador.” Nation 235: 7–10.Google Scholar
Kumm, Bjorn. 1978. “El Salvador's Rebel Priests.” Nation 227: 728–730.Google Scholar
Kuru, Ahmet T. 2007. “Passive and Assertive Secularism: Historical Conditions, Ideological Struggles, and State Policies toward Religion.” World Politics 59: 568–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, Daniel H. 1990. “The Catholic Church and Politics in Latin America: Basic Trends and Likely Futures.” In Church and Politics in Latin America, ed. Keogh, Dermot, pp. 25–48. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, Daniel H., and Mainwaring, Scott. 2001. “Religion and Popular Protest in Latin America: Contrasting Experiences.” In Power and Popular Protest, ed. Eckstein, Susan, pp. 203–240. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Liddle, R. William. 1996. “The Islamic Turn in Indonesia: A Political Explanation.” The Journal of Asian Studies 55: 613–634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Little, David. 2007. Peacemakers in Action: Profiles of Religion in Conflict Resolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Loveman, Mara. 1998. “High-Risk Collective Actions: Defending Human Rights in Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina.” American Journal of Sociology 104: 477–525.Google Scholar
Mahoney, James. 2007. “Qualitative Methodology and Comparative Politics.” Comparative Political Studies 40: 122–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahoney, James, and Rueschemeyer, Dietrich, ed. 2003. Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mainwaring, Scott. 1986. The Catholic Church and Politics in Brazil. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mantilla, Luis Felipe. 2010. “Mobilizing Religion for Democracy: Explaining Catholic Church Support for Democratization in South America.” Politics and Religion 3: 533–579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, Ann Elizabeth. 1993. Universal versus Islam Human Rights: A Clash of Cultures or Clash with a Construct.” Michigan Journal of International Law 15: 307–403.Google Scholar
Mayer, Ann Elizabeth. 2007. “The Islam and Human Rights Nexus: Shifting Dimensions.” Muslim World Journal of Human Rights 4: 1–27.Google Scholar
Mazlum-Der . 1991. İnsan Hakları İhlalleri ve İşkence. Ankara: n.p.Google Scholar
Mazlum-Der . 1993. Kürt Sorunu Forumu, 28-29 Kasım 1992. Ankara: Sor Yayıncılık.Google Scholar
McClintock, Cynthia. 2001. “Peru's Sendero Luminoso Rebellion: Origins and Trajectory.” In Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements, ed. Eckstein, Susan, pp. 61–101. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Moyn, Samuel. 2010. The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Muňoz, Hortensia. 1998. “Human Rights and Social Referents: The Construction of New Sensibilities.” In Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru: 1980–1995, ed. Stern, S. J., pp. 447–469. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Öztekin, Berna. 2009. “Human Rights in Turkey: A Comparative Study of İHD and Mazlum-Der.” M.A. Thesis, İstanbul: Sabancı University.Google Scholar
Paige, Jeffrey M. 1997. Coffee and Power: Revolution and the Rise of Democracy in Central America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pásara, Luis. 1989. “Peru: The Leftist Angels.” In The Progressive Church in Latin America, ed. Mainwaring, Scott, pp. 276–327. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Peña, Milagros. 1992. “The Sodalitium Vitae Movement in Peru: A Rewriting of Liberation Theology.” Sociological Analysis 53: 159–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peña, Milagros. 1994. “Liberation Theology in Peru: An Analysis of the Role of Intellectuals in Social Movements.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 33: 34–45 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philpott, Daniel. 2004. “The Catholic Wave.” Journal of Democracy 15: 32–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philpott, Daniel. 2007. “Explaining the Political Ambivalence of Religion.” American Political Science Review 101: 505–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, Donald J. 2002. Managing Politics and Islam in Indonesia. London: Routledge Curzon.Google Scholar
Poulat, Emile. 1990. “The Path of Latin American Catholicism.” In Church and Politics in Latin America, ed. Keogh, Dermot, pp. 3–24. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramage, Douglas E. Politics in Indonesia: Democracy, Islam and the Ideology of Tolerance. New York, NY: Routledge, 1995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Risse, Thomas, Ropp, Stephen C., and Sikkink, Kathryn, eds. 1999. The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Geoffrey. 1995. The Dark Side of Paradise: Political Violence in Bali. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, Geoffrey. 2010. “If You Leave Us Here, We Will Die: How Genocide was stopped in East Timor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Romero, Catalina. 1989. “The Peruvian Church: Change and Continuity.” In The Progressive Church in Latin America, ed. Mainwaring, S., pp. 253–275. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Roy, Olivier. 2004. Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Sanchez, Peter M. 2014. “Ideas and Leaders in Contentious Politics: One Parish Priest in El Salvador's Popular Movement.” Journal of Latin American Studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X14000704 (Accessed on May 10, 2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandal, Nukhet Ahu. 2011. “Religious Actors as Epistemic Communities in Conflict Transformation: The Cases of South Africa and Northern Ireland.” Review of International Studies 37: 929–949.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarkissian, Ani. 2012. “Religious Regulation and the Muslim Democracy Gap.” Politics and Religion 5: 501–527.Google Scholar
Sigmund, Paul E. 1990. Liberation Theology at the Crossroads: Democracy or Revolution? New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sigmund, Paul E. 1995. “The Transformation of Catholic Social Thought in Latin America: Christian Democracy, Liberation Theology, and the New Catholic Right.” In Organized Religion in the Political Transformation of Latin America, ed. Pattnayak, Satya R., pp. 42–63. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Smith, Christian. 1991. The Emergence of Liberation Theology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sulistiyanto, Priyambudi. 2007. “Politics of Justice and Reconciliation in Post-Suharto Indonesia.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 37: 73–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stepan, Alfred. 2000. “Religion, Democracy, and the Twin Tolerations.” Journal of Democracy 11: 37–57.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles. 2007. A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Tezcür, Güneş Murat. 2010. Muslim Reformers in Iran and Turkey: The Paradox of Moderation. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Toft, Monica Duffy, Philpott, Daniel, and Shah, Timothy Samuel. 2011. God's Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics. New York, NY: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Van Bruinessen, Martin. 2004. “Post-Suharto Muslim Engagements with Civil Society and Democratization.” In Indonesia in Transition: Rethinking “Civil Society”, “Religion,” and “Crisis,” eds. Hanneman, S., and Nordholt, H. S., pp. 1–19. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.Google Scholar
Wilde, Melissa J. 2007. Vatican II: A Sociological Analysis of Religious Change. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2003. Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yenigün, Sedat. 1998. Bir şehidin Notları. İstanbul: İnkılâb.Google Scholar