As Conflicts Flare Up, Leaders Fan Sectarian Flames in Middle East
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/world/middleeast/as-conflicts-flare-up-leaders-fan-sectarian-flames-in-middle-east.html
In an online statement signed by 55 clerics, [Saudi clerics] warned that if the “holy warriors” were defeated in Syria, Sunni nations would also fall “one after the other.”
Madawi al-Rasheed, a visiting professor at the Middle East Center of the London School of Economics, said the strong sectarian tone of the statement represented the sort of pronouncements that have made the region’s hostilities harder and harder to arrest.
“The language of sectarianism involves elimination and purification, and these are very dangerous words to use in any conflict,” Dr. Rasheed said. “It makes it more difficult to see a space for dialogue and political solutions or compromises. Religious conflicts are more difficult to resolve than political ones.”