Religion, Political Power, and the ‘Sectarian Surge’: Middle Eastern Identity Politics in Comparative Perspective

Are countries in the Middle East characterized by comparatively distinctive, domestic‐level attributes that justify the recent years’ intensification of identity conflict in the region? The article presents descriptive statistics showing, first, that the Middle East is the only region in the world where religious (including sectarian) affiliation is the predominant identity marker determining group membership and, second, that people in the Middle East, on average, are twice as likely as people in other developing regions to belong to identity groups excluded from legitimate political representation. The article discusses these empirical trends based on the literature on ethnicity (defined broadly to include language, ‘race’, religion, and other cultural attributes) and ethnic conflict. The discussion suggests that the comparatively high level of identity‐based political inequality in the region provides a better explanation for the intensity of the conflict than does the predominance of religious identity divides.