Two-thirds to three-quarters of intercivilizational wars pitted Muslims against non-Muslims

Evidence

These ethnic conflicts and fault line wars have not been evenly distributed among the world’s civilizations. Major fault line fighting has occurred between Serbs and Croats in the former Yugoslavia and between Buddhists and Hindus in Sri Lanka, while less violent conflicts took place between non-Muslim groups in a few other places. The overwhelming majority of fault line conflicts, however, have taken place along the boundary looping across Eurasia and Africa that separates Muslims from non-Muslims. While at the macro or global level of world politics the primary clash of civilizations is between the West and the rest, at the micro or local level it is between Islam and the others. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 705 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

If we take all the violent conflicts we know of in a given historical period, and assess the degree to which religious divisions were a factor, what would we find? Such studies are rare, but in the Encyclopedia of Wars, Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod attempted one such comprehensive analysis. They surveyed nearly 1,800 violent conflicts throughout history. They measured, based on historical records, whether or not religion was a factor, and if so, to what degree. They found that less than 10 percent involved religion at all. In a related “God and War” audit commissioned by the BBC, researchers again scrutinized 3,500 years of violent conflicts recorded in history, and rated the degree to which religion was a factor. Wars got high marks if religious leaders expressed support for the war effort, if religion was a mobilizing factor, if religious targets were attacked, and if religious conversion was a key goal of the war. Thus, on a six-point scale of 0 (no religious role) to 5 (central role of religion), the Peloponnesian War (460–445 BCE) was a zero; the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) was a 1; the United States and allied second invasion of Iraq was a 3; the Al-Qaeda terror war was a 4; and the Crusades (1097–1291) and the Arab-Muslim conquests (632–732) earned a full 5 points. In the end, religion was a factor in 40 percent of all rated violent conflicts, but rarely as the key motivator of the conflict. Religion is an important player, but rarely the primary cause of wars and violent conflicts. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 512 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Half of all interreligious wars from 1820-1929 pitted Muslims against Christians; Half of wars between different-religion states were Muslim-Christian conflicts — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 563; Islam has had more violent intercivilizational conflicts than other civilizations — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 1358 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Most fault line wars occur along the Muslim-non-Muslim boundary #corroborates (0.92) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 705
• Religion factors into most wars but rarely causes them #complicates (0.74) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 512