Religion for Peace: Identifying Conditions and Mechanisms of Interfaith Peace

Religion for Peace: Identifying Conditions and Mechanisms of Interfaith Peace

Religion has become an increasingly contentious phenomenon, with religious violence and discrimination on the rise worldwide. However, there are also many societies that are examples of peaceful interreligious coexistence. We contribute to the rigorous empirical study of the link between religion and interfaith peace, especially regarding elements of positive peace like interreligious cooperation.
DFG, 2020-2024

Team

Dr. Lisa Hoffmann

Associate

Dr. Julia Köbrich

Research Fellow / Spokesperson Working Group Processes of Peace and Conflict

Head

Prof. Dr. Matthias Basedau

Director of the GIGA Institute for African Affairs / Editor GIGA Focus Africa

Research Questions

This project asks: What are the conditions and mechanisms of peaceful interfaith relations, and what policies are promising for promoting interfaith peace?

Specific questions are:
1.What are the conditions for peaceful interfaith relations worldwide?
2.What institutional, ideational, and other variables work in favor of peace when certain other conditions are not favorable to it?
3.What are the underlying mechanisms that link religion and peace?
4.What policies are hence promising for creating interfaith peace?

Contribution to International Research

In recent years, religion has become an increasingly contentious phenomenon, with religious violence and discrimination on the rise worldwide (e.g. Toft et al. 2011; Grim & Finke 2011; Fox 2016). However, according to the “ambivalence of the sacred” (Appleby 2000; Philpott 2007), religion is also connected to peace: interfaith peace is, in fact, the norm rather than the exception. Even where conditions seem less favourable, such as in religiously diverse and rather poor countries like Benin, Ghana, Mauritius, or Tanzania, peaceful coexistence occurs. Theoretically, religion is also a source of positive peace beyond neutralizing conflict risks (e.g. Hasenclever & Rittberger 2000). Religious ideas such as norms and values of nonviolence, universal love, tolerance, and forgiveness increase trust, prevent violence, inspire peace efforts during conflict, and foster reconciliation after it. Regarding the demography of religious identity groups, crosscutting cleavages and high diversity are favourable to peace (e.g. Gubler & Selway 2011). If structural conditions are unfavourable, inclusive institutions can accommodate the interests of religious communities; interreligious networks can reduce prejudice between them. However, while a growing body of empirical works has investigated the link between religion and violence (e.g. Svensson 2007, 2012; Toft 2007; Bormann et al. 2015; Basedau et al. 2016), interfaith peace has scarcely been studied empirically in a rigorous manner—especially the positive aspects of faith.
This project contributes to the rigorous empirical study of the link between religion and interreligious peace, especially regarding elements of positive peace such as interreligious cooperation.

Democratization | 04/2026

Resilient to Violence?: One plus Four Hypotheses on the Effect of Democracy on Domestic Conflict

Fifty years after the Third Wave of democratization, this systematic review revisits the debate on democracy and internal conflict. Analyzing 66 studies, it finds a modest peace effect: stable liberal democracies are more peaceful, while hybrids face more conflict—offering a nuanced optimism.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Basedau

Director of the GIGA Institute for African Affairs / Editor GIGA Focus Africa

Political Psychology | 12/2025

Overcoming Barriers to Interreligious Peace: Determinants of Preferences for Religiously Similar Others in Togo and Sierra Leone

This mixed methods paper developed and tested hypotheses on changeable determinants of contact preferences informed by data from Togo and Sierra Leone. Inclusive ideas and knowledge of outgroup practices were associated with weaker, and exclusive ideas with stronger, preferences for similar others.

Dr. Julia Köbrich

Ass. Prof. Dr. Tobias H. Stark

Ass. Prof. Dr. Borja Martinović

Yawo Seyram Adiakpo

Monograph | 11/2025

Fostering Contact to Build Interreligious Peace:: Mixed-Methods Evidence from Togo and Sierra Leone

Prompted by the persistence of violence and hostility, Julia Köbrich pursued the overarching research question: How to maintain and foster interreligious peace? Four empirical chapters each take a different angle to offer answers to this question drawing on data from Togo and Sierra Leone.

Dr. Julia Köbrich

Research Fellow / Spokesperson Working Group Processes of Peace and Conflict

Blog Article | 03/2025

Finding Answers to Societal Division in Togo and Sierra Leone

People tend to seek out others who are like them. This preference for similarity can result in divided societies as people burrow deeper into like-minded groups. So, in the interest of social cohesion and peace, what would encourage people to engage with others across social divides?

Dr. Julia Köbrich

Research Fellow / Spokesperson Working Group Processes of Peace and Conflict

Yawo Seyram Adiakpo

Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding | 2025

Correlates of Peace: Religious Determinants of Interreligious Peace

While the study of interreligious conflict is a growing field of research, interreligious peace lacks conceptualisation and empirical investigation. This article proposes a concept of interreligious peace that distinguishes between positive and negative elements as well as attitudinal and behavioural aspects.

Dr. Lisa Hoffmann

Dr. Julia Köbrich

Dr. Eric Stollenwerk

Prof. Dr. Matthias Basedau

Preliminary Findings

This project contributes in three ways to research on religion and peace: First, it proposes a definition of interreligious peace and reviews the relatively scarce research on (religious) determinants of interreligious peace. Second, it measures interreligious peace in a global comparative study and underscores how state-religion relations create conditions for interreligious peace. Third, it allows insights on mechanisms behind interreligious peace using qualitative and quantitative data from Togo and Sierra Leone.

The project’s definition conceptualizes interreligious peace as the absence of interreligious physical violence, hostile attitudes and perceived threats, and the presence of interreligious cooperation and trust. A systematic review of the existing quantitative literature spotlights the scarcity of research on religious determinants of interreligious peace, particularly regarding the role of religious elites and institutions. Efforts to map interreligious peace show great regional variation but overall we observed a global downward trend. In the global comparative study, the project investigated three main religious correlates of peace, namely religious ideas and norms, religious demography, and state-religion relations. The findings highlight how state institutions matter for interreligious peace: While secularization seems particularly important for peaceful interreligious coexistence, state discrimination is undermining interreligious peace in general (Hoffmann et al. 2024).

Turning to Togo and Sierra Leone - two unlikely success stories of interreligious peace - we compiled local theories on factors contributing to maintaining interreligious peace. The combined knowledge of conversation partners in Togo and Sierra Leone suggests that strong social relationships and norms, inclusive religious ideas, lived tolerance and institutional cooperation as well as state protection of freedom of religion and belief protect interreligious peace despite unfavorable conditions (Akinocho et al. 2024). Research with residents of Lomé and Freetown shows that pro-mixing ingroup norms are related to more interactions between members of religious groups. In contrast, individuals’ preferences to interact with those similar to themselves were a barrier to interreligious contact. Inclusive religious ideas and knowledge of outgroup religious practices can be factors reducing preferences for similar others while exclusive religious ideas reinforce them (Köbrich et al. 2023). Further, in an experimental study, videoclips wiht peace messages effectively increased cooperation and willingness for contact across religious divides. Against our expectations, we found video peace messages by non-leaders to be at least as effective as those from religious leaders – if not more so.

Publications and outputs of the project can be found below.