War on Sacred Grounds - Hardcover

Hassner, Ron E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801448069 ISBN 13: 9780801448065

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2009

Synopsis

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.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"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

"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 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

About the Author:

Ron E. Hassner is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Visit his website at www.waronsacredgrounds.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0801448069
• ISBN 13: 9780801448065
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 248