Multiconfessionalism
flourishes in a multicultural state on two conditions. The stronger and more
stable the state, the better off the state’s religions are. And perhaps
unexpectedly but not surprisingly, the stronger the majority religion is, the
safer are the minority religions in the state. An excellent example of this is
Russia, but we have other examples of strong authoritarian rulers, like Broz
Tito in Yugoslavia, or Saddam Hussein in Iraq, or the late Hafez al-Assad in
Syria, succeeded by his far less competent, but at first inertially stable son
Bashar,--- all secular regimes, providing, until recently, genuine safe haven
and peaceful coexistence to the constituent minority communities. (Let us not
confuse the question of political opposition with religious intolerance, except
when the latter originates with the oppositionists themselves.)
The
trouble comes when the majority culture has a weak religion or no religion at
all. In that case, the void is quickly filled by a minority culture asserting
itself by means of its strong and energetic religion. All of a sudden, the
majority group remembers its faded religious identity and fights back against
the minority intruder. An excellent example of this is Western Europe, where
the religiously indifferent Christian majority has these days come under attack
from the minority immigrants, primarily from Islamic countries.
The
joker on the deck of the ship of
state, mentioned in the title is the social arsonist, the agent-provocateur
sowing trouble by energizing one cultural group against another, producing an incendiary
chain reaction. If you wish to know the details, we have been there before. Who
wants both his friends and enemies to be in a jam of a messy domestic conflict?
Divide et impera! Thus speaks the wannabe emperor, the dreamer of the
hegemonical dream. His enemies hate him, but what about his friends, who are
being subjected to the same kind of treatment? With friends like this… well,
you know how that goes…
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