Wars and Conflicts Today

In Brief

A sub-chapter of Religion, War and Peace, focused on the conflicts active today. For each conflict it gives the background, the religious dimension, what makes peace hard and what might help. Religion is almost never the only cause: it is intertwined with nationalism, ethnicity, control of territory and power. The description covers developments up to the end of 2025, and the situation changes quickly. Wars and conflicts in history, and what helped end them, are in Religion, War and Peace.

How to Think About a "Religious Conflict"

• Religion as identity: religion often marks who belongs to which side (Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, the communities of Lebanon), even when the dispute itself is about power and territory.
• Religion as a goal: some wars have an openly religious aim – imposing a faith, controlling a holy place, or founding a state under religious law.
• Religion as justification and mobilisation: leaders use religious language to recruit fighters and justify violence, even when their motives are political.
• Holy places: the scholar Ron Hassner (War on Sacred Grounds, 2009) shows that holy places are perceived as "indivisible", which makes compromise over them especially hard.
• Religion as a resource for peace: Scott Appleby (The Ambivalence of the Sacred, 2000) describes how the same tradition can produce both zealots and peacemakers.

Active Conflicts Today and the Chances of Peace

"Chances of peace" here means: what makes peace hard, what might help, and which frameworks exist. This is not a forecast; experts disagree and the situation changes. The description covers developments up to the end of 2025.

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict

The full chapter: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and Religion.

• Religious dimension: mainly a national conflict over the same land, but Jerusalem and the Temple Mount/al-Aqsa are holy to Jews and Muslims (and to the city's Christians), and religious currents on both sides see the whole land as a religious inheritance that cannot be given up. Hamas is an Islamist movement.
• The situation: in the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023 about 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 251 taken hostage to Gaza. In the war that followed, more than 74,600 Palestinians were killed in Gaza by November 2026, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants; according to the IDF, tens of thousands of the dead were armed operatives. Most buildings in the Strip were destroyed or damaged, according to UN satellite analysis. In October 2025 a ceasefire took effect under a US plan, and the living hostages were released.
• What makes it hard: deep mistrust after 7 October and the war; polls on both sides show low support for an agreed solution; Hamas refuses to recognise Israel or disarm; the political split between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas; disputes over settlements, borders, refugees and Jerusalem; and the difficulty of dividing or sharing holy places.
• What might help: the peace treaties with Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994) have held for decades; the Abraham Accords (2020); Arab and Gulf states' interest in regional stability; the ceasefire plan includes stages of reconstruction, an international stabilisation force and disarmament – if they are carried out; and on the ground there are joint Israeli–Palestinian organisations, including initiatives by religious leaders (for example the Alexandria Declaration, 2002).
• Frameworks on the table: two states (in September 2025 more countries recognised Palestine, including the UK, France, Canada and Australia, a step the Israeli government strongly opposed), interim arrangements and conflict management, and confederation. The "status quo" on the Temple Mount since 1967 is an example of a practical arrangement around a holy place – and a constant point of friction.

Kashmir – India and Pakistan

• Religious dimension: a Muslim-majority region, mostly under Indian control, claimed by both countries (and in part by China) since 1947. Alongside the territorial dispute there is Hindu–Muslim tension.
• The situation: in 2019 India revoked the special autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir. After the attack near Pahalgam (April 2025, 26 dead) India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, and in May 2025 a brief military clash ended in a ceasefire.
• What makes it hard: two nuclear powers, nationalism and domestic politics on both sides, terrorist groups operating from Pakistan, and disagreement over international mediation itself (India opposes it).
• What might help: precedents of practical agreements – the Indus Waters Treaty (1960) survived wars for decades, the Line of Control ceasefire (2003, renewed in 2021), and the Kartarpur Corridor for Sikh pilgrims from India (2019).

Syria after Assad

• Religious dimension: a Sunni majority and Alawite, Druze, Christian and Kurdish minorities (the Kurds are an ethnic group, mostly Sunni). The Assad regime relied on the Alawites, and the new government grew out of an Islamist movement (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham).
• The situation: after Assad's fall (December 2024) – a massacre of Alawites on the coast (March 2025; a government committee counted 1,426 dead) and violence against Druze in Suwayda (July 2025; according to human rights groups, more than a thousand dead), in which Israel also intervened.
• What makes it hard: minorities' mistrust of the new government, militias not fully under control, economic ruin, and the involvement of neighbouring states.
• What might help: the lifting of most sanctions, an agreement in principle to integrate the Kurdish forces into the state (March 2025), inquiries and trials of those responsible for the massacres, and constitutional guarantees for minorities – if they are kept in practice.

Nigeria and the Sahel

• Religious dimension: jihadist insurgencies by Boko Haram (since 2009) and groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS, which have spread across large areas of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. In central Nigeria, violence between herders (mostly Muslim) and farmers (many of them Christian).
• Dispute: some describe the violence in Nigeria as targeted persecution of Christians; many researchers note that many Muslims are also killed by jihadists, and that the herder–farmer conflict is also driven by competition over land and water, climate change and crime.
• What makes it hard: weak states, military coups in the Sahel, the withdrawal of international forces, and corruption.
• What might help: local interfaith initiatives (for example Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammad Ashafa of Kaduna, once armed rivals, who have worked together for reconciliation since the 1990s), local mechanisms for resolving land disputes, and economic development.

Myanmar – the Rohingya

• Religious dimension: the Rohingya, a Muslim minority denied citizenship, were persecuted by the army, accompanied by extreme Buddhist nationalism from some monks.
• The situation: in 2017 more than 700 thousand Rohingya fled to Bangladesh. The Gambia brought a genocide case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (the case is ongoing). Since the 2021 military coup the country has been in civil war.
• What makes it hard: the civil war, the denial of citizenship, and unsafe conditions for refugees to return.
• What might help: international legal proceedings, regional pressure, and – if a civilian government is established – granting citizenship.

Yemen and the regional Sunni–Shia rivalry

• Religious dimension: the Houthis are a Zaydi (Shia) movement backed by Iran; against them stood a Saudi-led coalition (from 2015). The Iran–Saudi rivalry is sometimes described as Sunni–Shia, but it is also a contest for regional influence.
• The situation: a UN-brokered truce (2022) reduced the fighting inside Yemen. Since November 2023 the Houthis have attacked ships in the Red Sea and Israel.
• What might help: the China-brokered Saudi–Iranian rapprochement (2023), and the UN-sponsored roadmap.

Other conflicts where religion is a secondary dimension

• Central African Republic: from 2013, Séléka militias (mostly Muslim) against the anti-balaka (Christians and followers of traditional religions). The Catholic archbishop, the senior imam and the head of the evangelical churches together founded an "Interfaith Platform" for reconciliation and to prevent violence.
• Mindanao, the Philippines: a decades-long conflict with Muslim rebels ended in an agreement (2014) and the creation of the Bangsamoro autonomous region (2019) – an example of peace through autonomy.
• Nagorno-Karabakh: an ethnic-national conflict between Armenians (Christian) and Azerbaijanis (Muslim). In 2023 Azerbaijan took over the region and almost all its Armenian residents left. In August 2025 a peace agreement between the two countries was initialled in Washington.
• Manipur, India: since 2023, violence between the Meitei (mostly Hindu) and the Kuki (mostly Christian), mainly on ethnic lines and over land; churches and temples were burned.