What we know about religion and non-violent action – and what we don’t

The Interfaith Council of Kenya has expressed its solidarity with the youth protesters and warned against excessive police violence. one Day before the protests turned violent. Then in early July, religious leaders from various denominations attended a memorial service to commemorate at least 43 people killed during the protests and called on the government to release demonstrators still being held by police.

The conspicuous role of spiritual leaders – not only in Kenya but also in recent protest movements from Hong Kong to Iran to Nicaragua – demonstrates the importance of greater recognition of the religious dimensions of peaceful, sustainable change. The urgency of this call is all the more pressing as we witness a broader resurgence of religion in world politics in the 21st century.

And new data from USIP can support activists, practitioners, and policymakers in their efforts by expanding our understanding of the often overlooked but widespread role religion can play in nonviolent resistance campaigns. The Religion and Nonviolent Action (RNVA) dataset examines 183 different campaigns for major political change between 1945 and 2013—and includes information on various religious dimensions (such as ideas, actors, institutions, and symbols) for 102 movements. This can help illuminate what we know about religion and nonviolent action, but also raise questions that still remain unanswered.

The overlooked importance of religion in nonviolent movements

Much of what we know about religion and nonviolent resistance comes from a limited number of examples—the American civil rights movement, the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, and the civil disobedience movement in India are among the most frequently cited. Yet religion has shaped nonviolent resistance on almost every continent.

According to the RNVA dataset, religion has been linked in some way in more than half of the 183 nonviolent campaigns for major political change since World War II. This includes a whole range of cases that often do not attract public attention. During the anti-Noriega movement in Panama in the late 1980s, for example, priests often joined the “Civic Crusade in Panama” coalition at rallies. In South Korea, religious clergy similarly supported calls for democratic reform, with several dozen Roman Catholic priests and nuns leading a march in Pusan ​​in June 1987. And in Madagascar, the National Council of Christian Churches proved a key ally of the Active Forces movement after the deaths of protesters marching peacefully to the presidential palace in 1991. More information on these and other cases can be explored via USIP’s new interactive map.

The wide range of nonviolent movements that involve religion can broaden the lessons that policymakers and practitioners can learn from past cases. For example, it can help them draw more informed conclusions about when and why religion contributes to the success of nonviolent campaigns by comparing movements that achieve their goals and those that do not. It can also help put these lessons in context and figure out how to support nonviolent resistance in ways that are sensitive to local religious and cultural norms.

More than spiritual guides: The role of sacred times, places and events

Moreover, our current understanding of religion and nonviolent action relies on only one type of religious influence: charismatic religious leaders – such as Mahatma Gandhi and the Dalai Lama – who mobilize movements that are in the spotlight.

However, the RNVA dataset underscores that religion can do more than motivate people to act nonviolently, and shows that religion has an influence that extends far beyond traditional faith leaders. Religious festivals, commemorations, and holidays often dictate the timing of nonviolent action, as these sacred events serve as important coordination points, even when resistance is not necessarily religiously motivated.

The East Timorese Student National Resistance, for example, organized its trips to meetings or protests across the country under the guise of religious events. And during the Arab Spring, protests in Egypt and Tunisia often followed Friday prayers.

Religious sites often function in a similar way. Sacred sites can serve organizational purposes or be deliberately chosen for their symbolic value. In the early 2010s, churches in Côte d’Ivoire—including the Roman St. Paul’s Cathedral in the center of Abidjan, the country’s largest city—served as popular sites for sit-ins by the pro-Ouattara campaign. In addition, Buddhist monks in Tibet deliberately organized demonstrations at the Jokhang Temple, one of Tibet’s most important religious sites, in 1987.

Spiritual practices can further strengthen protesters’ resolve in the face of setbacks and state repression. For example, Christian hymns have regularly accompanied protest rallies, from the independence movement in Ghana in the late 1940s to the democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong more than half a century later.

Religious rituals and symbols can also contribute to a sense of collective identity and energize movements because they have deep meaning for their followers and evoke strong emotions. In Poland, Catholic masses on the last Sunday of the month at the Church of Saint Stanislaus Kostka in Warsaw often led to Solidarity rallies. And in the 1960s, Buddhist monks and nuns in South Vietnam combined symbolic resistance practices such as hunger strikes and sit-ins with prayers to gain support for the anti-war movement.

Religious nonviolent action in the 21st century

Because the best-known examples of the link between religion and nonviolent resistance date back decades, there is also a tendency to overlook their more contemporary influence. The RNVA dataset shows that religious influence on nonviolent resistance is by no means a thing of the past.

Of the 102 religiously based nonviolent campaigns that occurred between 1945 and 2013, more than 40 percent were launched at the beginning of the 21st century. In the 2000s alone, more religious nonviolent movements were launched than in any of the previous decades.

This is not only because more movements emerged overall during this decade. The proportion of religious campaigns has generally increased since the 1960s, and in the 2000s they accounted for more than two-thirds of all new movements.

Nor is the importance of religious movements in the 21st century solely due to the Arab Spring, whose resistance campaigns accounted for less than 20 percent of the 64 movements between 2000 and 2013. Rather, religion has shaped resistance all over the world in recent years.

Religious organizations such as Christians for the Abolition of Torture were among the civil society groups that formed the Let’s Save Togo collective in the mid-2010s. Village mullahs urged protesters to remain peaceful during the 2005 Tulip Revolution marches in Kyrgyzstan. And religious leaders, including Father Gerard Jean-Juste, took part in nonviolent demonstrations in 2011 demanding the return of President Astride to Haiti.

The growing influence of religion on nonviolent resistance runs parallel to another, more worrying trend: the rise of religious conflict. But this could present an important opportunity for activists, policymakers and practitioners. Harnessing the peaceful roots of religion can help movements maintain nonviolent discipline and counter messages that encourage violence.

From proof to practice

We have only scratched the surface when it comes to understanding the role of religion in nonviolent action. The continued focus on a limited form of spiritual influence (leaders) in a limited number of cases in the past obscures the full range of religion’s influence on peaceful change. The RNVA dataset brings some of these aspects into focus while emphasizing the need for an even deeper understanding of the contribution of religion to nonviolent resistance.

In particular, we still do not know under what conditions religious support for movements can emerge in the first place, or why some religious groups support a movement while others of the same faith do not. We also know relatively little about how and when religion might be used to increase a movement’s commitment to nonviolent discipline or to overcome setbacks.

Finally, the question remains as to when religion contributes to the success of a movement and when it does not. While religious nonviolent movements are not necessarily more likely to achieve their goals overall, the RNVA dataset shows that campaigns with formal institutional support were the exception: Nonviolent movements with institutional religious support were about 40 percent more likely to succeed than those without such support.

Activists, practitioners, and policymakers cannot afford to overlook religion if they want to expand the possibilities—and chances of success—for nonviolent movements. And a deeper understanding of religious influence on nonviolent resistance will give them a more comprehensive picture of the current forces pushing for peaceful change.