Religion and Conflict | Beliefs in Society | A-Level Sociology

welcome to this CH to you sociology topic video on beliefs in society focusing on religion and conflict in previous videos in this series we've looked at how religion can either act as a conservative force or facilitate social changes in society one way that social changes occur is through conflict in society and often religion is seen as the source of

conflicts both civil and international conflict these conflicts are not confined to one form of religious belief with many conflicts in Europe Africa the Middle East Asia and the Indian subcontinent being thought to be on the grounds of religious belief one question that sociologists look to answer is why does religion provokes such extreme reactions when

most world religions put forward ideas of peace and acceptance in this video we're going to look at some of the theories that examine the connection between religion and conflict one sociologist that has examined the connection between religion and conflict is Steve Bruce he argues that in many conflicts religion is used as a convenient

scapegoat for conflict simplifying the often complex nature of geopolitical relations by seeing religious differences as the main cause of a conflict between two Nations he cites the example of the Balkans conflict in the early 1990s as an example of this despite long-standing tensions between Balan States religion was seen as the main motivation of the

ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims and the shrein M Massacre by the Serbian paramilitary unit the Scorpions under the command of ratco madich similarly the conflict in Northern Ireland was simplified into Catholics versus Protestants when the main cause of conflict was the battle for control of a northern irand between those who wish to remain part of the UK