نموذج من نشاط استشراقي فأين أصحاب الهمم؟

 

 European University Institute – Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies

Workshop 17

Religion, culture and territory in the Mediterranean space

directed by Olivier Roy	Sahar Atrache
National Center for Scientific Research, France; School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, France; Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, France	International Crisis Group, Lebanon
oroy2@wanadoo.fr	satrache@crisisgroup.org

 

 Workshop abstract

Religions in the Mediterranean space are traditionally associated with a territory, a state and/or an ethnic group. In Spain and in the Balkans expansion and decline of empires led to displacements of religious groups (“moriscos” leaving for the Maghreb, Muslims from Balkans leaving for the Ottoman Empire). The XVII th century principle of “cujus region ejus religio” led to a relative religious homogeneity of European societies. In pluri-religious societies around the Mediterranean sea, religious minorities used to be associated with minority ethnic groups; this minority might be genuinely ethnic (Turks in Greece, Greeks in turkey) or constructed as a quasi ethnic-group due to the administrative management of religious groups, even if they share cultural and linguistics patterns with their neighbours (Bosnian, Maronites). The Ottoman millet system has thus largely survived the demise of the Ottoman Empire (civil status is linked with religion in Greece, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and Syria). In Greece and Turkey, religious minorities are still seen as “alien”. It took a long time in Europe to disentangle state and official religion, and the process is not really achieved in Spain, Italy, and Greece.

The consequence was a relatively stable religious map, with majority and minorities, and a clear distinction between Muslim, Christian and Jewish states. The recent wars in Balkans illustrated the fact that the process of territorialisation and ethnicization of religion is still at work.