Investigating the role of religious institutions in the prevention of violent extremism in Nineveh province, Iraq

Authors

  • Juline Beaujouan University of Edinburgh
  • Amjed Rasheed Queen’s University Belfast

Keywords:

Violent Extremism, Religious Institutions, Iraq, P/CVE

Abstract

This article investigates the role of religious institutions in the countering and prevention of violent extremism (C/PVE) in Nineveh province, Iraq. It addresses a major gap in the literature that offers largely descriptive accounts of C/PVE policies, without considering the different stakeholders involved in their implementation and the complex network of relationships among them. The actions and legitimacy of religious institutions are analysed against the background of the post-2003 Iraqi state apparatus. The hybridity of the new political system of the second republic (2005-present) justifies the focus on the initiatives of both formal and informal religious institutions towards key C/PVE sectors such as education and peace-building. Building on 59 interviews conducted in Hamdaniyyah and Tel Afar four years after the official victory over the Islamic State, this paper introduces new data and innovative insights into the relationships between religious institutions, state apparatus and civil society. The findings suggest that i) while the legitimacy of religious institutions is contested across Nineveh province, there is a consensus on the need for these institutions to be involved in C/PVE; ii) interactions between religious institutions, political systems, and civil society have increased but remain limited; and iii) the fragmentation of the state apparatus is reflected in uncoordinated and unregulated C/PVE strategies. The importance of religious institutions in fostering community resilience to violent extremism in Nineveh province should not overlook the need for a transversal and inclusive approach to healing the scars left by two decades of rampant conflicts.

 

Acknowledgements
The findings presented in this paper are the result of research undertaken under the Preventing and Addressing Violent Extremism Through Community Resilience (PAVE) project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870769. The publication of this paper has been supported by the Peace and Conflict Resolution Evidence Platform (PeaceRep), funded by UK Aid from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) for the benefit of developing countries. The information and views set out in this publication are those of the authors.

References

Abu-Nimer, M. (2003). Nonviolence and Peace Building in Islam: Theory and Practice. University Press of Florida.

Abu-Nimer, M. and Kadayifci, A. (2008). “Muslim Peacebuilding Actors in Africa and the Balkans.” Peace and Change: A Journal of Peace Research 33(4): 549–581.

Abu-Nimer, M. (2018). “Alternative Approaches to Transforming Violent Extremism. The Case of Islamic Peace and Interreligious Peacebuilding.” In Austin B. and Giessmann, H. J. (eds.), Transformative Approaches to Violent Extremism (2–20). Berghof Handbook Dialogue No. 13. Berghof Foundation.

Aid to the Church in Need (CAN International) (2018). “An international peace-keeping force should be stationed on the Nineveh Plains,” August 8. https://acninternational.org/an-international-peace-keeping-force-should-be-stationed-on-the-nineveh-plains/.

Alaaldin, R. (2015). “Shia Ascendancy in Iraq and the Sectarian Polarisation of the Middle East.” In Isakhan, B. (ed.), The Legacy of Iraq: From the 2003 War to the 'Islamic State'. Edinburgh University Press.

Al-Qarawee, H. H. (2017). “Sistani, Iran, and the Future of Shii Clerical Authority in Iraq.” Middle East Brief No. 105 (January). Crown Centre for Middle East Study.

Al-Rawi, A. K. (2013). “The anti-terrorist advertising campaigns in the Middle East.” The Journal of International Communication 19(2), 182-195.

Alshamary, M. R. (2021). “Religious Peacebuilding in Iraq: Prospects and Challenges from the Hawza.” Journal of Interventions and Statebuilding 15(4): 494–509.

Al-Sumer, A. (2012). North of Iraq. Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies [in Arabic].

Angell, A. M. and Gunaratna, R. (2012). Terrorist rehabilitation: the U.S. experience in Iraq. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Appleby, R. S. (2000). The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Assyrian Policy Institute (2020). Contested Control: The Future of Security in Iraq's Nineveh Plain. https://50f3ad00-5b28-4016-898f-6130d301c97a.filesusr.com/ugd/6ae567_98f8f8912baa40949a18a3a0b717eaea.pdf.

Batatu, H. (1978). The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq: A Study of Iraq's Old Landed and Commercial Classes and of Its Communists, Ba'thists, and Free Officers. Princeton University Press.

Chulov, M. (2014). "Isis: the inside story". The Guardian, 11 December. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/11/-sp-isis-the-inside-story.

Cordesman, A. H. (2018). America's Failed State Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen: Still Less Than Half a Strategy. Centre for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), October 15.

Cordesman, A. H. (2019). Iraq as a Failed State. Centre for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), November 18.

Devlin-Foltzand, Z. and Ozkececi-Taner, B. (2010). “State Collapse and Islamist Extremism: Re-evaluating the Link.” Contemporary Security Policy 31(1): 88–113.

El-Said, H. and Harrigan, J. (2012). Deradicalising violent extremists: counter-radicalisation and deradicalisation programmes and their impact in Muslim majority states. London; New York: Routledge.

Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (2021). Exiled at Home Internal displacement resulted from the armed conflict in Iraq and its humanitarian consequences (June). https://euromedmonitor.org/uploads/reports/IraqReportEN.pdf

Gaston, E. (2017). “Iraq after ISIL: Qaraqosh, Hamdaniya District.” Global Public Policy Institute, 5 August. https://www.gppi.net/2017/08/05/iraq-after-isil-qaraqosh-hamdaniya-district.

Glatz, C. (2019). “Chaldean Church says so-called 'Christian' militias are not Christian.” Angelus News, July 26. https://angelusnews.com/news/chaldean-church-says-so-called-christian-militias-are-not-christian/.

Gopin, M. (2000). Between Eden and Armageddon: the future of world religions, violence, and peacemaking. Oxford University Press.

Haken, N. et al. (2022). “Fragile States Index 2022 – Annual Report.” The Fund for Peace, May. https://fragilestatesindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/22-FSI-Report-Final.pdf.

Hasan, H. (2019). Religious Authority and the Politics of Islamic Endowments in Iraq. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Series on Political Islam. https://carnegieendowment.org/files/03_19_Hasan_Islamic_Endowments_final.pdf.

Helfont, S. (2018). Compulsion in Religion: Saddam Hussein, Islam, and the Roots of Insurgencies in Iraq. Oxford University Press.

Hoffman, B. (2006). Inside Terrorism. Columbia University Press.

Holmer, G. (2013). “Countering Violent Extremism: A Peacebuilding Perspective.” United States Institute of Peace, Special Report no. 336.

Hough, M. (2020). Good Policing: Trust, Legitimacy and Authority. Bristol University Press.

ICRC (2004). Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the Treatment by the Coalition Forces of Prisoners of War and Other Protected Persons by the Geneva Conventions in Iraq During Arrest, Internment and Interrogation. February.

Ismael, T. Y. and Ismael, J. S. (2015). Iraq in the Twenty-First Century. Regime Change and the Making of a Failed State. Routledge.

KAICIID Dialogue Centre (2014). Muslim and Christian Religious Leaders Unite to Denounce ISIS and Violence in Iraq and Syria, November 19. https://www.kaiciid.org/news-events/news/muslim-and-christian-religious-leaders-unite-denounce-isis-and-violence-iraq-and.

Karam, A. (ed.) (2016). Realizing the Faith Dividend: Religion, Gender, Peace and Security in Agenda 2030. United Nations Population Fund.

Laqueur, W (1999). The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction. Oxford University Press.

Lucent, A. (2020). “Demographic changes in northern Iraq raise concerns.” Noon Post, April 24 [in Arabic]. https://www.noonpost.com/content/36841.

Mandaville, P. and Nozell, M. (2017). “Engaging Religion and Religious Actors in Countering Violent Extremism.” United States Institute of Peace, Special Report 413 (August).

McCoy, T. (2014). "How the Islamic State evolved in an American prison". The Washington Post, 4 November. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/11/04/how-an-american-prison-helped-ignite-the-islamic-state/.

Moughania, J. 2021. “The Pope Met a Different Kind of Ayatollah—As a Shiite Muslim I am Hopeful.” News Week, November 3. https://www.newsweek.com/pope-met-different-kind-ayatollah-shiite-muslim-i-am-hopeful-opinion-1575243.

O'Driscoll, D. (2017). “Autonomy Impaired: Centralisation, Authoritarianism and the Failing Iraqi State.” Ethnopolitics 16(4): 315–332.

Office of International Religious Freedom. (2021). 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom: Iraq. US Department of State.

Parker, N. (2012). “The Iraq We Left Behind. Welcome to the World’s Next Failed State.” Foreign Affairs 91(2): 94–110.

Rabasa, A., Pettyjohn, S. L., Ghez, J. J., & Boucek, C. (2010). Deradicalizing Islamist Extremists. Santa Monica: RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2010/RAND_MG1053.pdf.

Rudolf, I. (2018). Holy Mobilisation: The Religious Legitimation behind Iraq’s Counter-ISIS Campaign. Trends Research Advisory and International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation.

Trip, C. (2007). A History of Iraq. Cambridge University Press.

Sheline, A. (2017). “Middle East Regimes Are Using ‘Moderate’ Islam to Stay in Power.” Washington Post, January 3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkeycage/wp/2017/03/01/middle-east-regimes-are-using-moderateislam-to-stay-in-power.

Smolansky, O. (1976). “Qasim and the Iraqi Communist party: A study in Arab Politics.” Il Politico 32(2): 292–307.

US Department of Treasury. (2019). Treasury Sanctions Persons Associated with Serious Human Rights Abuse and Corrupt Actors in Iraq. Press Release, July 18. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm735

van Zoonen, D. and Wirya, K. (2017). Turkmen in Tal Afar Perceptions of Reconciliation and Conflict. Middle East Research Institute. https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/Turkmen-in-Tal-Afar-Perceptions-of-Reconciliation-and-Conflict-Report.pdf

Weiss, M. and Hassan, H. (2015). ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. Regan Arts.

Wilton Park (2016). Statement: Religion, radicalization and countering violent extremism, April 29. www.wiltonpark.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Statement-on-religion-radicalisation-and-countering-violent-extremism.pdf.

Downloads

Published

2022-09-30

Issue

Section

Articles