ABSTRACT
The increased global fl ow of peoples and ideas brings religious people more regularly into contact with people who adhere to religions other than their own. And while that does mean that the nature of interreligious violence is now different — local disputes are now more frequently linked with national and global problems and concerns — it does not necessarily mean that we are in a period of more regular than usual interreligious violence. Nor does it mean that interreligious riots are actually interreligious in the narrowest sense. In fact, it seems to be infrequent indeed that people actually clash violently over differences in religious practice or doctrine. Rather, interreligious violence generally involves confl ict among communities whose competing identities are differentiated along religious lines. Interreligious violence might in many cases be better described as ethnic violence, or as majority-minority violence. And if this is true, then it becomes clear why we might speak of the cultural aspects of interreligious confl ict.
