Nicolas Pelham

Holy Lands: Sectarianism in the Middle East

Sectarian divides increasingly fuel conflict across the diverse countries of the Middle East, spilling over borders and contributing to ongoing violence in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere. Yet in the nineteenth century the region was considerably more tolerant than Western Europe at the time; a high degree of religious pluralism and self-determination were permitted across the Ottoman Empire’s wide-reaching territories. We will be joined by The Economist‘s Jerusalem correspondent Nicolas Pelham and others to discuss the roots of sectarian violence – as well as hopes for recovery from conflict and a return to plurality.