Shalom, Professor Staub

As a semester of blogging comes to a close, reflection is necessary in order to mark change and look back over the great amount of information gained over the semester.  Thinking back over the full course, 3 specific things that I will take and apply to real life are an understanding that all religions have the capacity for peace and at the same time, violence, a knowledge that religious discourse can be used to transform a situation from secular to religious in nature, and a recognition that peace making needs to use the same language as the groups in conflict in order to understand the conflict and to make any headway toward peace.  

First, this course has deepened my understanding that religions have the potential for peace and violence at the same time.  Many of the same tenants that make a religion peaceful can also result in violence and these violent actors are not always radicals.  I have always known that all religions have peaceful beliefs at some level, but I previously believed that it was only the radicals that committed the violence as part of religion.  Now, as I look at conflicts in the news or hear about religion from my friends, I can read and discuss knowing that religion at its core has the capacity for both peace and violence.  This understanding can help me to analyze motivations and see why certain groups are not on good terms.

Second, the three papers for this course have allowed me to investigate a religious conflict in which religion transformed a conflict which was previously secular into a conflict with religion as a major mobilizing and driving force.  Especially the second paper forced me to analyze deep motivations for the Chechen-Russian conflict.  I knew that religious language was a powerful tool just as the antagonist from the movie “Book of Eli” (starring Denzel Washington) hoped to use the words of the Bible to control the masses in a post-apocalyptic world, but I did not know that it could transform the very nature of a conflict in the current era.  Now, I will be more aware of the language used concerning conflicts and curious to see how the conflict may change as a result of specific discourse.

Third and most importantly, the last portion of this class talked about peace-making and my favorite criticism of modern peace-makers is that they are not speaking the correct language.  Not language as one thinks of English, Spanish, or French, but language as in the motivations and deeper reasons behind a conflict.  For instance, if a religious conflict occurs and peacemakers use economic and/or political language, it is no surprise that negotiations did not go very well.  This applies directly to my life in that now I know to be very intentional with the language I use when entering or mediating a conflict.  Understanding the conflict and being able to use language to reflect that understanding is crucial in order to make progress in negotiations. 

Chechnya Today

This semester, I focused on the religious conflict between Chechnya and Russia.  To summarize, the main conflict began in the 90's after the fall of the Soviet Union when Chechnya declared itself to be a separate union.  This secular separatist movement changed into a religious conflict as Islamist discourse was used to mobilize the Chechens and create a common identity to unite the country, who at the time was searching for new identity after the loss of Soviet identity.  Fighting ensued and both sides were not especially friendly.  Russians are seen as the oppressive former government who is violating human rights laws and Chechnya is seen as the radical Muslim terrorists.  Fun times.  As I wrap up my semester with a paper discussion possible peacemaking efforts, I came upon a video that talks about the rebuilding process of Grozny (the capital of Chechnya) after more than a decade of fighting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBGDIwOcp5g

An important fact to realize is that Russia is putting money into the Chechen economy in hope that the money will be able to revitalize Chechnya and create jobs and a sustainable future; specifically a future that does not cause the youth to join the Islamist separatist movement.  This money is being spent on skyscrapers and repairs on physical damage.  The money is being well spent in my opinion to give the Chechens a city that they can be proud of but long term efforts may demand more money to actually see change in the economy.  At least, at this point in history the conflict is not in full swing but at a point of "normalization."  This term may not actually be normal but it is much better than the late 1990's and early 2000's.  Only time will tell if these people can reconcile their differences and rebound completely after a time of great physical and emotional destruction.