174 Sigrid Faath and hanSpeter Mat teS
vated conf licts and conf licts in which ethnic or ethno-linguistic (cultural)
rivalries play a major role.
Religiously motivated conf licts are those between the different religious
groups (such as Muslims vs Christians, Sunnis vs Shiites, see Denis & Fra-
chon 2007; Planhol 1997) and conf licts surrounding the role of religion in
the state and in society in general. The dispute in the Gaza Strip in 2007
between Hamas and al-Fatah is one example of a recent confrontation of
this nature.
Among the religiously motivated conf licts in the MENA countries, cor-
related as they are with the supra-regional effects of the Iranian Revolution
of 1979, most are triggered by groups who wish to realise the unity of church
and state (Islam) and the postulate ‘Islam is the solution’ (to all social prob-
lems) by militant means. The target of their actions is any heretical state
whose non-Islamic, secular structures must be overcome by the ‘Islamic
social project’. Accordingly, Islamic groups have been able to mobilise the
dissatisfaction of large parts of the population with their socio-economic
conditions, causing domestic conf licts in Tunisia (from 1986 up to the begin-
ning of the 1990s), Algeria (particularly 1991-1999 and thereafter), Egypt
(particularly 1992 to the end of the 1990s), Libya (1992-1996), and Morocco
(since 2003). Some incidents, such as the occupation of a large mosque
in Mecca (November 1979), the uprising of the Muslim Brothers in Hama
(Syria) in 1981-1982, and the armed actions of the Bouiali group in Algeria
(1984-1985), predated these conf licts. Although the conf licts toward the
end of the 1990s could be formally contained in many countries through
the massive use of repression, the fundamental situation of the conf licting
social programmes was not relieved in any way. Nevertheless, cells of Islam-
ist combat groups (like al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb; al-Qaida branches
in Yemen etc.) continued their f ight and are actually reviving under the
conditions of the Arab Spring in several countries – for example, Algeria,
Libya, the Sahel region, Yemen and Syria.
The internal religious conf licts arising from the checkered religious map
of the MENA countries are the most intensive where the greatest religious
differences are found. For Christians, this would be Egypt (with its powerful
Coptic minority), Sudan (also home to a Coptic minority), Lebanon, Iraq
and Palestine (Steinbach 2006). Although there have been repeated clashes
between Copts and Muslims in Egypt, especially in the context of rising
Islamist political and social inf luence during the last years, the major area
of Christian persecution currently lies in Iraq, where we f ind the largest