Paper Abstracts

Sharing Sacred Space:
Religion and Conflict Resolution

Columbia University, New York
International Affairs Building, Room 1501
February 14-15, 2008

The conference “Sharing Sacred Space: Religion and Conflict Resolution” intends to focus on the role of sites and spaces that are significant to more than one religion and on the ways these religions engage each other in order to overcome and resolve conflict. The goal is to illuminate a pioneering approach for promoting toleration through religious processes that engage and respect the narrative and beliefs of the Other, be it religious or ethnic groups.

The Samuel Tomb – Tolerance via Museumization
– Dr. Yitzhak Reiter and Dr. Yusuf Natsheh

The Tomb of Samuel located on the current northern boundary of Jerusalem, where Israeli and Palestinian borders come across, is the only place in the world where a mosque operates directly above a recent synagogue in a relatively peaceful atmosphere and in an ongoing mode of co-habitation between Jewish and Muslim worshipers.

The place is holy to the three monotheistic religions and was used as a monastery and church respectively during Byzantine and Crusader eras and as a mosque and a Jewish place of worship. since the post-Crusader period.

Using Nabi Samuel as a pilot project of “museumization”, this paper shall present a pioneering idea of utilizing shared holy and historical sites as a mechanism for religious and ethno-national tolerance. The special tourist attraction of the site could serve as a venue for a universal educational center in which the narratives and practices of people from the three great religious denominations, and particularly those of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims, would be acknowledged, respected and harmonized. Our vision is to transform the area around the site into a museum that documents the heritage of Jews, Muslims, Christians, Palestinian and Israelis. As we envision it, all the visitors will be exposed to a wide range of exhibits and signs in the three languages (Hebrew, Arabic, and English) that will provide information about the distinctive aspects of each religion as well as highlight the traditions they have in common. This vision is confined with many obstacles and challenges which the presenter would like to discuss and to seek solutions and feedback for them.

Towards An Inclusive Archaeology in Jerusalem: Can Archaeology Further the Peace of Jerusalem?
– Dr. Raphael Greenberg

In recent years archaeology has been at the centre of ethnic and religious conflict in Jerusalem. It has often found itself enlisted—whether directly or by implication—to further the interests of groups claiming exclusive rights to the city and its history. In this presentation I wish to put forward alternative concepts of the role that archaeology can play in the city, and of its possible contribution to mutual understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. These concepts are based on recent definitions of the social responsibilities of archaeologists, as well as on fruitful discussions of the issues with Palestinian colleagues.

From Contested to Shared Narratives of Holy Sites in Palestine/Israel
– Dr. Nazmi al-Ju`beh and Dr. Yitzhak Reiter

This paper presents a pioneering project of composing joint Israeli-Palestinian scholarly narratives of holy places in Palestine/Israel. Backed by a group of Israeli and Palestinian academics convened by the Salzburg Seminar and the IHJR, in the last two years we engaged in the co-writing of the history of a selection of holy places in the holy land, including those that are most contested. The purpose was to compose a simplified academic text that would expose individuals of various religious convictions and national denominations to the narrative of the other party without causing offence. Our presentation will address the challenges and crises that we faced during the work and how we overcame them. The following issues will be discussed in the paper: what kind of narrative to include (academic or popular); what sites to select for work as representative; how to present historical abuse of holy sites by parties to the national conflict; how to balance the historical narrative when the holy site is important to more than one religious tradition and each religious/national groups believes that the other invented their respective story for political reasons; how should we relate to holy sites shared today by both Jews and Muslims in a relatively “peaceful” situation: is this a symbol of “co-existence” or enforced order under occupation; and finally, how much room should be given to holy figures associated with a sacred site and how can this space be given in a balanced way.

Everybody's Baba: Making Space for the Other
– Dr. Anna Bigelow

This paper presents three different modes of inter-religious exchange at three sacred sites in Punjab, India. Inter-religious relations in Punjab have been highly fraught since the time of Partition. Indeed Punjab was the state most violently divided in 1947. The eastern region of Punjab was nearly cleansed of Muslims while the west was cleared of Hindus and Sikhs. Yet Islam is not gone from Punjab. On the contrary, in very interesting and complicated ways the Muslim shrines that remain in Indian Punjab have become important locations for ongoing interaction. Through ritual, narrative, and administrative modes of exchange the pious practices that establish a shared ethical idiom for Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs emerge. Here I will explore the shrine of Baba Farid in Faridkot, the Guru's Mosque in Sri Hargobindpur, and the tomb of Haider Shaikh in Malerkotla to exemplify these three modes of exchange at three different types of shared sacred sites. The range and depth of interaction challenges the expectation that these three religions should be fundamentally antagonistic towards one another. On the contrary, we find that through both pragmatic and spiritual strategies people from a range of backgrounds forge micro-strategies of attunement that promote and give substance to a shared moral culture.

Muslim Politics of Monuments and Memory: Babri Masjid
– Dr. Hilal Ahmed

My thesis deals with three different kinds of contestations. The clash between the modern concept of secular monument, which looks at historic sites as dead entities, and various Islamic traditions, which commemorate these buildings as living sites, characterises the first kind of contestation. This study examines how these two very different approaches to the past overlap each other and shape the idea of an Indian Muslim architectural heritage in colonial and postcolonial India. The placing of the Indo-Islamic buildings in the official discourse on ‘national heritage’ is the second kind of contestation. I try to examine a few popular images of Indo-Islamic buildings such as ‘dead historical monuments’, ‘symbols of Islamic conquests’, ‘emblem of Indian’s shared heritage’ and so on to find out why an ‘additional explanation’ is always attached to describe these sites. The political appropriation of Indo-Islamic buildings by Muslim leaders as political symbols illustrates the third kind of contestation. The study looks at the ways in which historic sites are used as political symbols for fashioning appropriate mobilisation strategies. Reconsidering the ‘secularism versus communalism’ debate and the ‘Muslim homogeneity versus Muslim plurality’ debate, this study tries to understand how the contested images of Indo-Islamic buildings are re-invented by the Muslim political groups in postcolonial India. In this sense, instead of arguing for or against the notion of a single Muslim community in India, the purpose of this endeavour is to look at how the collective political existence of India’s Muslims is conceptualised as a ‘political community’ in variety of ways. 

Bonbibi and the Muslims and Hindus Who Worship Her
– Dr. Sufia M. Uddin

Bonbibiprovides protection to all those who ask. While Hindus have Dakskin Ray (Lord of the South), they too, will seek the protection of Bonbibi. Bonbibi is the superhuman agent Muslims look to for protection. This paper will examine the ways in which the Sundarban mangrove forest becomes the site of Bonbibi worship for both Hindus and Muslims. There is no mazar (shrine) for the veneration of Bonbibi (Lady of the Forest). Instead, Muslims and Hindus venerate the Lady of the Forest in a number of locations in and on the edge of the mangrove forest. The sites become sacred with formalized Hindu and Muslim ritual invocations to Bonbibi.

“Sacred Week”: Re-Experiencing Jewish-Muslim Co-existence in Urban Moroccan Space
– Dr. Aomar Boum

Shrines are spaces where religious, folkloric, economic, cultural, and political beliefs and practices are socially highlighted, publicly celebrated and communally enforced. Morocco provides an example of a unique environment where Muslims venerated Jewish saints and Jews worshipped Muslim shrines. In the wake of the massive social changes that resulted from migration of Moroccan Jews to Israel, especially between 1948-1982, saint veneration gained new meanings. This paper builds on the literature about relations between Jews and Muslims in saint veneration. Focusing on the city of Essaouira, a historically vibrant Jewish urban space, I argue that the annual “Essaouira Gnaoua and World Music Festival” exhibits all the signs of saint veneration where Jews and Muslims negotiate new social meanings in an officially publicized “culture of tolerance” despite the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I use the concept of “sacred month” as an Islamic reference to a period when early Muslims were asked to respect truce (hudna) with non-believers during what was called the sanctity of the forbidden months that were upheld in all circumstances by both parties in an environment of peaceful interaction and respect. These monthly truces are not only occasions for conflict resolution, but also opportunities for the exchange of ideas and information. Each year since 1998, the organizers of the Festival capitalize on this Judeo-Islamic cultural heritage of the city and its neighboring shrine (Rabbi Nissim ben-Nissim) to market a tourist model of acceptance where Jews and Muslims interact. Using Ernest Gellner’s concept of the effective Igurramen (holy men), I contend that Essaouira Festival benefits from the local, regional, and global cultural and political baraka (supernatural blessing) of Andre Azoulay, the economic advisor of the King of Morocco and a native of Essaouira. The urban space becomes a mahram (a sacred space), a sanctuary for piety for Jews, and above all a space where a national concept of tolerance is disseminated in a conflict-free space where Muslims and Jews interact economically and socially. Underlying this event is nostalgia for a Muslim-Jewish symbiosis blessed by the monarchy and setting an example for Muslim-Jewish dialogue.

Jewish-Muslim relationships during the Hillulah of Lag-Ba-Omer
– Dr. Andre Levy

The paper examines the ambivalent stance Jews hold toward their Muslim Moroccan compatriots within the context of Jewish hagiolatry. It joins studies that reassess modernist claims that French protectorate in Morocco was the major generator of an acute split between Jews and Muslims. According to these claims, French protectorate offered Jews luring temptations, most basically - the abolition of the humiliating dhimmi status. My paper joins critical post-colonial studies that reject the Eurocentric ground of the modernization theory. In the spirit of anthropological post-colonial studies, it focuses on particular point of interaction between Europe and the Maghreb to elaborate more nuanced claims about the Continent's influence; namely: hagiolatry. Thus, unlike modernists who studied this influence, I do not consider the selective adoption of French culture as a failure in understanding it. I see that ambiguous response as a complex outcome of their structural situation: a minority in a post-colonial state. That ambiguity is manifested in various practices that meet Jews and Muslims in hagiolatry contexts.

Toleration of the Other at the Blessed Village in West Java
– Dr. Tommy Christomy

The proposed paper intends to discuss toleration of the other (religious or ethnic group) found at the tomb of Shaykh Abd al-Muhyi, the propagator of the Shattariyah Order, in Pamijahan, West Java. These pilgrimages have been the central topic of debates among Muslim groups. Seeking the blessings of the holy men buried in the tombs have been forbidden by some, but allowed by other groups. In fact, ziyarah, or pilgrimage to Shaykh Abd al-Muhyi’s tomb, is a perpetually practiced tradition. Various ethnic groups from different Muslim orders still pay regular visits to the blessed sites. Ignoring protests of the “modernists”, the government has deliberately supported such practice to promote the tourism industry. In my paper I will demonstrate the importance of the sacred place associated with the holy men. The site is not only a center for spreading the holiness of the wali, but it also serves as a platform of toleration of the other where various ethnic groups share their experiences and exercise tolerance.

The Two Peace Agreements: In Search of Tolerance and Peace in Malino
– Sukidi

This paper offers an in-depth study of the two peace agreements that are agreed upon by the warring parties. Both Muslims and Christians have mutually agreed to end violence under the banner of religion by signing the Malino peace agreements. Malino, conceived of as a memorable city in South Sulawesi, holds a deeply prominent role in the minds of Indonesian people as the shared site of promoting tolerance and peace. A number of representative figures from both sides come to common terms and sit down together in the city of Malino to sign “the first Malino Agreement.” It took place on December 20, 2001 when “the ten commandments” were officially declared before the public. Not only did the Christmas celebration proceed peacefully in the year 2001, but the Muslim and Protestant groups who have fought over three years in the deadly town of Poso, the eastern central Sulawesi, also began to engage each other in a more tolerant and peaceful manner. A successful endeavor of “the First Malino Agreement” has been seen as a pioneering model for the peaceful conflict resolution. Due to years of religious conflict in Poso, there have been high levels of violence between Muslims and Christians in Ambon, the capital city of Moluccas. What is a truly remarkable about the similar processes of promoting tolerance and peace is that on February 12, 2002, seventy representatives of both Muslim and Christian groups came to the city of Malino in order to fully engage in the signing of the eleven-point “Second Malino Agreement.”

Sacred Cohabitation in a Fracture Zone; Mixing in Macedonia
– Glenn Bowman

Assumptions about the fundamental exclusiveness of religious identities, practices and communities are thrown into question by shared shrines. In the Balkans these have brought Muslims, Christians and (historically) Jews together around objects, tombs and sites believed to deliver boons or spiritual protection. Using textual and field-gathered materials this paper investigates beliefs and practices related to sites shared between religious communities in southern regions of Former Yugoslavia to assess the impact of such 'cohabitation' on cultural and political identities and understand the forces that work to undermine that cohabitation. My work will address other scholars’ work on shared shrines in the Balkans and further afield in providing detailed descriptions of inter-communal interactions and their representation so as to assess the validity of academic and popular arguments for clashing civilisations and sectarian incommensurabilities.

Sharing Nostalgia in Istanbul; Pilgrims on St George's Sanctuary on Princes Island
– Dr. Maria Couroucli

Shared ritual practices are one of the most striking aspects of the Ottoman legacy, a specific way of living, making room for difference. Here, syncretism flourished within a highly hierarchical structure where Greek, Armenian and Jewish minorities enjoyed lesser rights and lower social status compared to the Muslim majority. Mixed ritual practices associated with St. George's holy places in the Balkans and in Anatolia inform the idioms of cohabitation of the different religious communities within the same territory. Shrines or vakfs (places belonging to religious institutions) of such legendary saints and heroes of the frontiers, who partake of more than one possible world, are conveniently situated in the margins, beyond the territories of ethno-religious communities, in no man's land open to all, where the crossing of religious borders becomes possible. This paper explores the chthonian nature of these supernatural beings that attract pilgrims to their sacred places by focusing on contemporary practices in and around the monastery of St. George in Princes Island in Istanbul.

Sacred Roses for All: Street Shrines, Memory, and Belonging in post-War Sarajevo
– Dr. Amila Buturovic

The siege of Sarajevo was the most televised horror of the 1992-1996 Bosnian war. Nested in a narrow valley on the foot of high mountains, Sarajevo was a perfect setting for a siege that for nearly four years cut it off from the outside world. This is in fact considered the longest siege in the history of modern warfare. The Serb Army, deploying troops and artillery in the surrounding hills, imposed a blockade on all traffic in and out the city in April 1992, and engaged in a constant bombarded the civilian population in the city in an effort to prevent the home army from deploying. Over 11,000 citizens of Sarajevo lost their lives.

In the aftermath of the war, the challenge of coming to terms with the ubiquity of death, both physically and metaphysically, fell onto many commissions, jurisdictions, governmental offices and religious authorities. The dead demanded attention. The city grieved and commemorated, and this process acquired a political function, directly built into post-war nation building. Amidst state and ecclesiastic memorials that directed commemoration through religiously specific rituals of remembrance, a more popular and inclusive way of marking the loss began to emerge through many spontaneous shrines. This paper will focus on one of the most poignant of such shrines, the so-called Sarajevo Roses. These are scars in the asphalt caused by mortar explosions that, ironically, created a delicate floral pattern etched in the cityscape. It is estimated that on average 300 shells exploded in the city every day. Some of this deadly art, in the aftermath of the war, was filled in with red dye to mark the places where a number of people were killed by such explosions. These anonymous wounds in the asphalt draw attention not to a specific victim but to no victim in particular, and therefore to all victims, regardless of their ethno-national or religious background. The numinosity of such markers, delineated without political or ecclesiastical intervention, emerged out of a sense of common loss, counterbalancing nationalist appropriation of the dead in this transitional period from war to peace.

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