Introduction

Abstract

From the passing wake of the colonial era and the Cold War, ethnic and religious conflicts have reemerged as one of the most significant threats to the internal stability of many states as well as peaceful relations between states. The last decade of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first have borne witness to a renewed emphasis on expressions of nationalism defined in terms of religious and ethnic identity. In the rubble of the former Yugoslavia, Serbian nationalists slaughtered Bosnian Muslims as both sides attempted to carve out independent states based on ethnic, and to some degree, religious differences. In the Russian Republic of Chechnya, a war of independence appears to be taking on a religious dimension as Chechen Muslims seek support from radical Islamic movements and the Russian government attempts to portray its engagement there as one of the fronts in the worldwide “war on terrorism.” Violence between Hindu nationalists and Muslims in India has claimed thousands of lives in terrible spasms of ethno-religious hatred. The world’s most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia, is wracked by its own Islamic insurgency in Aceh, Muslim-Christian violence in the Moluccas, and the threat of Islamic extremism in Java. And as Catholic-Protestant violence in Northern Ireland appears to be progressing toward peace after thirty years of violence, the first rumblings of Islamic resistance among the Huigir people of Chinas Xianjian province make the international news.