Mapping the sacred: Understanding the move to violence in religious and non religious groups

This research explores how groups make the transition from having strongly held
beliefs, to having strongly held beliefs that legitimate violent action: the move to
violence. Working from a number of case studies, I have produced a matrix of
markers that helps us theorise about the causes of violent potentialities within
groups. The case studies include Aum Shiru·ikyo, al Qaeda, the Red Army Faction
as well as some non·violent counter·examples; Agonshu, Hizb ut·Tahrir in
Uzbekistan and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Through analysis of their statements, I have coded data into a numbe1· of market's
that aim to capture information about the sacred boundaries of these groups.
These boundaries refer to the non·negotiable beliefs and values of the groups,
which they use to define themselves and their 'Other', and are developed out of a
neo· Durkheimian discussion of society and the sacred. Mapping these sacred
boundaries helps us to understand the nature of beliefs that groups will fight to
defend. Concentrating on the sacred, which I argue can be located in secular as
well as religious groups, ensures that the exploration of the move to violence in
1·eligious groups is not trapped in essentialised or dismissive accounts of definitions
of religion and the causative role it plays within modernity.
Together, the operationalisation of the sacred and the use of markers to locate it in
the statements of groups form the model- the matrix - that I have constructed for
this study. There are. then. two principal outcomes from this research. The first is
a set of findings coming out of the exploration of the move to violence. The second
is a model which I have demonstrated in use and which I suggest can be used in
future research exploring the role of the sacred in modern society.