Sectarianism as a Modern Mobile Global Structure

Using a case study of Arabs in Israel as a starting point, thisarticle focuses on the phenomenon of communal and ethnic violence.Through a discussion of different theoretical perspectives on ethnicconflict in the context of the case study in Israel as well as conflicts around the world, the article suggests that there is often a confusion of symptoms and secondary factors with the core causes of ethnic conflicts and communal violence. The article discusses how western centric assumptions might have shaped theorizing on the issue of communal conflict, and proposes an alternative theory that views these conflicts as a modern global structure. Going beyond commonly used explanations such as economic, cultural, or instrumentalist factors, the article argues that the phenomenon is a deeply structural one that is linked to nationalism, the nation-state, and by extension to the European colonial outlook and tomodernity. The colonialist perspective was built on the racist assumption that the answer for modern political problems is to be found in the nationstate and its structures of organizing, categorizing, including, and excluding groups. This structure that organizes contemporary life around the world informs the acts of racism and violence against those who are seen as not belonging to a particular nation or the group. Previously colonized groups are trapped within this structure that is not of their own making. Similarly the colonizers are also trapped in the mindset thatinformed, and still informs, their outlook on the organization of modern politics. In conclusion, the article that work in the field of communal violence needs to pay greater attention to this structural thesis, and move away from limited approaches that often confuse the causes with symptoms. This will help deepen our understanding of what is happening in contexts such as Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Rwanda, and India, where colonization lingers or decolonized states are still plagued by the structural ramifications of colonial legacies. This structural thesis can also help understand questions of race and citizenship, in relation to thepolitics of exclusion and violence, as they are shaped by the framework of citizenship rights in countries such as the U.S., France, or elsewhere. The article calls for a possible solution in countries that are still fighting the after-effects of colonization, by engaging in a dialogue on a possible future polity that could potentially avoid the pitfalls of the nation-state: its narrow-minded nationalism and the inequalities of restrictive citizenshiprights.