In recent years, disputes between mainly Pashtun nomadic tribes and sedentary Hazaras in the provinces of Wardak, Ghazni and Bamyan have escalated into an organized armed conflict with significant national political repercussions. This article seeks to explain why, since 2001, this particular local conflict, originating in the central part of the country, has gained national and political significance. It uses a relational theory to explain dynamics of the conflict and argues that it intensified and gained significant political dimensions as a result of interaction of cognitive, relational and environmental mechanisms, most notably social boundary activation, memory mobilization, brokerage operation, and sharpening claim-making performances over resources. Relational mechanisms explain the dynamics of the violent nomad-sedentary conflict at the local level and its intensification at the national level in the context of political contention based on ethnic appeals. Furthermore, the article shows that nomad-sedentary conflict in Afghanistan is not only a conflict over resources. Rather, it has a complex historical dimension. Consequently, explanation of the conflict requires greater attention to be paid on historical processes of contentious interactions in the country. The historical dimensions of contention show that the nomad-sedentary conflict is rooted in state formation processes and still remains a contentious enigma. Therefore, this article, challenges resource-based analysis, and contends that a broad historical analysis of the conflict shows historical processes of state formation in Afghanistan in which the nomad-sedentary conflict is rooted.

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This paper examines the sectarian conflicts in the modern Middle East as the ideological conflicts of ternary rivalry; Shiite Revolutionalism, Sunni Conservatism and Sunni Salafi-Jihadism. And also this paper clarifies how Jordan formulates its religious strategies in such situation. Jordan, as the representation of Sunni Conservatism, is attacked by both of Shiite ideology and Sunni Salafi-Jihadi ideology. Therefore, Jordan is under pressure of necessity to redefine its Sunni ideology. The Amman Message issued in 2004 shows representatively the religious strategy of Jordan. The message has significance to redefine Jordan’s Sunni ideology based on the modern situation and to revive the Sunni moderate thought. Because this Sunni ideology is supported by sacredness of the Jordan Hashemite Royal Family, descendent of Prophet Muhammad, this ideology is very characteristic compared with the other Sunni countries such as Saudi Arabia. It means that there is also rivalry within Sunni Conservatism. The Amman Message is designed not only to advocate the need for peaceful unity but also to very aggressively seize the initiative in the Islamic world in religious way. Naming this aggressive act as the Religious-Rapprochement Strategy, this paper investigates the Sunni moderate thought of Jordan in the 21^st century.

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This article attempts to analyzes the issue of amendment of the civil retirement law in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which, as of 2011, is yet to be settled, to examine the issue of consensus making among the ruling elite in Jordan. It traces political development of the law over the course of two parliaments―the 16^th parliament and the 17^th parliament. It argues that, when parliamentarians were structurally urged to pursue their self-interests, the King had no choice but to take the political risk of choosing to distribute the national wealth, under the democratization process which the monarch initiates. The study’s findings are twofold: First, that pro-regime parliamentarians side with the ruling establishment in the case of controlling oppositions, but tend to deviate when it comes to national wealth distribution. Second, consensus making is fundamentally difficult in Jordan’s current institutional setting. This study implies the importance of in-depth research on the interactions of the ruling elite with focus on the legislative process for deeper understanding of contemporary Jordanian regime. In addition, this study implies that the Jordanian king functions as a representative of national interests in the legislative process, which would contribute for elucidating the role of a king in the contemporary era.

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This article examines the determinants of tolerance attitudes of the Japanese people toward Muslims, within the context of “Non-Muslim Studies,” through statistical analysis. Attitudes were investigated by a questionnaire, in 232 university students. The questionnaire contained questions to measure images, perceived threat, sex, and contact experience. Additionally, in terms of discussions of “globalization,” the stability of identity, general trust, and psychological essentialism were also examined. At first, to construct a detailed structure of images toward Muslims, we constructed image scales by factor analysis. As a result, it was found that there were three factors of images named “the positive image factor,” “the negative image factor,” and “the piety image factor.” Secondly, we considered tolerance attitudes through structural equation modeling, which made it clear that the stability of identity, perceived threat, the positive image factor, and the negative image factor had statistically significant and direct relationships to tolerance attitudes. Additionally, general trust, psychological essentialism, and contact experience had indirect relations. Conversely, the piety image factor and sex did not exhibit any relationships. In conclusion, it became clear that tolerance attitudes are determined by complex and multi-layered relationships among several variables.

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