The salience of religious issues in ethnic conflicts: a large-N study

The purpose of this study is twofold: First, to establish that despite arguments to the contrary by the modernization/secularization and the functionalism schools of thought, religion plays a role in ethnic conflict; second, to present a basic large-n cross-setional data analysis of issues relating to ethno-religious conflict. The results show that ethno-religious conflicts are different from other ethnic conflicts and that religion does play a role in some ethno-religious conflicts but that role is not as common as one whould believe given anecdotal evidence taken from current events.