The "Good" Faces of Faith : Secularism and Counter-Narratives in Religious Peacebuilding

Abstract: There is an increasing interest in international relations to engage with religious actors for peacebuilding purposes. This development is an example of what is referred to as a restorative narrative, which responds to a current 'resurgence' of religion in the political sphere by prescribing the restoration of benevolent forms religion in international politics, to counteract 'dangerous' religion. This narrative reinforces secularist dichotomies of 'good' and 'bad religion', or what Elizabeth Shakman Hurd calls 'The Two Faces of Faith' (Hurd 2017, 100). As many peacebuilding efforts take place in the MENA-region, where western secularism and liberalism are often met with suspicion, this thesis aims to investigate how secularist narratives are reproduced and challenged within religious peacebuilding in the region. It does so through discourse analysis of three international and transnational organizations of 'secular' and faith-based character. The result indicates that secularist narratives still set the frames for what role religion is allowed to play in peacebuilding, but also that faith-based actors can challenge secularist narratives in several ways. Furthermore, the result shows that in international discourses, secularist or non-secularist categories are not always clear-cut, and even narratives that challenge secularism might not challenge the liberal peace paradigm at large.