ABSTRACT
In Rwanda in the early 1990s, more than 90% of Rwandans were Christians. Although the central issue of the war and the genocide was ethnicity rather than religion, this study shows that Hutu extremist propagandists injected divine elements into profane anti-Tutsi messages, to separate the Tutsis from Hutus and make genocide morally acceptable to the Christian Hutu population. This chapter uses extensive sources, consisting of Hutu extremist media propaganda from both the Rwandan civil war and 1990–1994 genocide. Using these sources, it demonstrates how the Hutu extremist propagandists used religiously influenced rhetoric to create separate religious identities for the groups, by arguing that the Tutsis were in league with the devil, heathens, and atheists. In contrast, Hutus were presented as pious, with their own god—“the Rwandan God”—a God who not only accepted the extermination of the Rwandan Tutsis, but also encouraged it. Based on the Rwandan example—but also drawing upon Cambodia, Bosnia, and Darfur—this chapter discusses the importance of recognizing religiously influenced rhetoric in genocide propaganda. This chapter furthers our understanding of attempts to divide groups, mobilize perpetrators, and legitimize genocidal violence.
