Ersta Sköndal Bräcke University Department of Social Sciences
Master’s program in voluntary social work with focus on organizational analysis and development in civil society, 120 university credits
Collaboration of interreligious workers and the perception of help seekers
in interreligious organizations.
Christabel Hellberg
Degree project in voluntary social work at advanced level, 30 university credits Course: SM40, D thesis, Master's degree
Supervisor: Johan von Essen Examiner: Lars Sörnsen
2 Acknowledgement
Foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who participated in my research. I would not have been given the opportunity to do this research without your participation. Secondly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my supervisor Johan Von Essen, professor, researcher and lecturer at Ersta Sköndal Bräcke Högskola for your generosity, support and guidance. I would like to thank Hanna Berg for your plentiful support and encouragement. Furthermore, I would like to thank Johan Gärde, lecture and docent at Ersta Sköndal Bräcke Högskola for your support and guidance. Last but not least I would like to thank my family starting with my niece Patricia Kamwela for your abundant support; my husband Robert Hellberg and my son Nils Hellberg for your generosity, support, and understanding; my parents-in-law Evy Hellberg and Ingvar Hellberg, who made it possible for me to attend the Swedish language classes by taking care of my son; my late mother Grace Mwania and my daddy Joseph Mwania Manyenze, who supported gender equality and made it possible for me to attend secondary school which wasn’t possible for many girls in my home village. Thank you all for your support.
3 Abstract
“if we do not meet with people from another faith or with another knowledge then we will not be able to integrate with each other. The purpose is to be ourselves, not to change one
another but to understand one another…” (No. 1)
The main aim of this thesis was to generate the needed knowledge on how interfaith organizations cooperate in their social work to aid help seekers despite the religious
differences they may have, as well as to identify the obstacles the interfaith workers face in their cooperation. In addition, this thesis will also discuss the help seekers’ personal opinions concerning the help they get from the interreligious organizations. This research is a
qualitative research with a case study design, based on materials collected from eighteen people by the use of semi-structured materials. The eighteen people have been represented by four leaders, two project leaders, one employee, four volunteers and seven help seekers. Both deductive1 and inductive2 methods were used in processing the themes used in this research.
The research ethic has been considered in this paper. Both the social capital theory and the Allport’s intergroup contact theory were used in this thesis. These theories and former existing research helped in choosing the predetermined themes and in analyzing the results from the collected data which are: Religion and Freedom of religion, Common Goals, Respect- Understanding and acceptance, Responsibility and mission’s orientation, Neutral place, Interreligious dialogue, Applicable working platform, Complementary religion,
Political view. The results of this thesis showed that the interfaith organizations can work as a compliment to one another in order to make the society work. This paper showed that
interfaith organizations need to create common mutual norms with different roles in order to make the cooperation work. The common goals need to be very clear for both parties and additionally the structure of the system was very complex to explain to others or to introduce to the new workers. Furthermore, this thesis showed that there are people against interfaith cooperation for different reasons. Some of the obstacles the interfaith workers faced during their cooperation will be described more in the analysis part. Some of the barriers were fear
1 Predetermined themes chosen with the help of theory 2 Themes resorted from the collected data through coding.
4 from both the church members and the Stockholm Mosque on how the organization will run, which changes and consequences the church members will face and so forth. One of the interfaith organization leaders invited someone from outside the organization who gave a speech that didn’t align with their norms. They had cases which were forced to be taken up with the help of lawyers. It requires time to create and implement a functioning common structure. The common goal was not very clear for both parties and the system were very complex to explain to others or to introduce it to the new workers. Given the demographics, the volunteers had more extensive work experience and were mission oriented, which made them tend to focus on their commitments. The help seekers were very thankful concerning the help they got and wanted to do the same for others. The creation of trust through bonding and bridging was the central element or principles in this thesis, which are the keys to making the interfaith cooperation run.
Keywords: Interreligious, multireligious, interfaith, multi-faith, interreligious dialogue, interreligious cooperation, trust.
5 Content 1. Introduction 7 2. Background 8 2.2 Aim 13 2.3 Research questions 14 3. Previous research 14
3.1 Religion for Peace 15
3.2 Changes in the creation of trust and mutual understanding 17
3.3 Interfaith leaders 17
3.4. Factors needed to make social traps work 18
3.4.1 Paradigms for the interfaith relations 20
3.5 The determinant trust 20
3.6 Inclusion of migrants and refugees in the whole society 21 3.7 Migrants view of participating in interfaith organization 22 3.7.1 Benefits and barriers of multireligious organizations 23
3.8 Thesis relation to previous research 24
4. Theory 25
4.1 How the used theories relate to one another 30
5. Method 30
5.1 Material 32
5.2 Notes of the interviewed people 33
5.3 Data collection and the selection of interviewees 33
5.4 The interview process 35
5.5 Coding 37
5.6 Research Ethics 38
5.7 My own pre- knowledge 38
5.8 Reliability, validity and generalization 40
5.9 Analytical method 42
6 The results of the interviews 42
6.1 Religion and Freedom of religion 43
6.1.1 Common Goals 47
6.1.2 Respect, understanding and acceptance 49
6.1.3 Responsibility and mission’s orientation 51
6.1.4 Neutral place 52
6.1.5 Interreligious dialogue 54
6.1.6 Applicable working platform 57
6
6.1.8 Political view 60
6.2 Advantages of the interreligious cooperation 61
6.2.1 Flexibility 61
6.2.2 Being open and objective 63
6.2.3 Complement 64
6.2.4 Common norms 66
6.2.5 Thankfulness 67
6.2.6 Changes and acceptance 67
6.3 Barriers the participants faced 68
6.3.1 Changes in their working form (structure) 69
6.3.2 Acceptance 69
6.3.3 Complex 70
6.3.4 Authorities cooperation 70
6.4 The help seekers’ point of view 71
7. Analysis 72
8. Conclusions 82
9. Discussion 84
9.1. Suggestions for further research 86
10. References 88
11 Interview Guide (appendixes) 93
7
1. Introduction
It is becoming more common to witness different religions unite together in social work in order to help the needy. This does not mean that religions are changing their symbols or religious people are changing their beliefs and faith in order to cooperate with one another, rather that they are finding ways in which they can collaborate in social work and help the needy. This is very necessary because religion can be used to create violence, as stated by several researchers (Gärde, 2014, McGuire, 2002, Geels & Wikström, 2017). The interfaith organizations get together for a mission, not to change one another’s faith, which can cause misunderstanding and conflicts among one another. A number of the religious interviewees were raised in their faith, and chose to follow in their parent’s commitment to their religion because they believe it to be true. Within these interreligious organizations are people of all levels of faith, from the very religious believers to non-believers.In Sweden specifically, the religions of Islam, Evangelical Lutheran church, and Catholicism are coordinating together in social work to help immigrants, which is surprising given Sweden’s traditionally secular society and history. Sweden has moved from being a monopoly state church to pluralism due to different factors 3. The Good Neighbors and God’s House are two organizations that
provide examples of interreligious organizations working together in order to help the needy in Sweden. Their efforts with uniting people from different groups to help vulnerable
populations in society provided a framework on what it takes for interreligious collaboration to make it work. This thesis will therefore generate the needed knowledge on interfaith organizations’ cooperation in their social work to aid help seekers despite religious
differences they may have, as well as identify the obstacles the interfaith workers face in their cooperation. In addition, this thesis will also discuss the help-seekers’ personal opinions concerning interreligious4 cooperation and the help they are getting. The entirety of this paper
will therefore focus on: interfaith cooperation, factors that make the collaboration work and remain sustainable, the difficulties the organizations or the people who work in the
organizations face, and the advantages of interreligious cooperation.
The survey in this thesis was conducted with people working in two different
interreligious organizations known as “Guds Hus5”, which means “God’s House”, and “Goda
Grannar6”, which means “Good Neighbors”. The God’s House organization was founded in 3 The history of Sweden and the role of secularization in Sweden will be explained shortly under point 2. 4 Interreligious and interfaith will be used synonymously which means between religions (Goosen, 2001) 5 I will use the English word in this thesis which is the Gods House.
8 2008 in Fisksätra Nacka, Sweden by the Swedish Church, the Mosque and the Catholic
Church. This organization started a project known as “Källan” which means “source”, which works hand in hand with “Stockholms Stadsmission7” which means “Stockholm City
Mission” to help the immigrants in need.
The Empirical data in this thesis brought up, through both inductive and deductive methods, nine themes as common norms used to make the cooperation work. As situated in the religion’s social capital there is a need for common norms in order to make the cohesion between different faiths work. The themes are: Religion and Freedom of religion, Common goals, Respect, Understanding and acceptance, Responsibility and missions’ orientation, Neutral place, Interreligious dialogue, Applicable working platform, Complementary religion and Political view. These themes resulted from the collected data through coding and even through theory, which means that some of the themes were predetermined. All the themes (i.e. both predetermined and the ones resorted from the collected data) and the used theories had the words “TRUST, BONDING and BRIDGING” as the central elements or principles, which are the keys to making the interfaith cooperation run.
2. Background
I will initiate this chapter with a brief overview of the history of Sweden and the role
secularization in Sweden plays in the social context between different interfaith organizations. It is important to provide a brief background because this is the context in which the social work between different religions is taking place. Is secularization in Sweden an obstacle or an advantage to a functioning cooperation between different religions in the Swedish society? Secularization means religious changes, or in other words means that the new generations don’t have the same faith as their grandparents (i.e. like not attending churches at all). This occurs gradually and can differ from one generation to the other, according to Hagevi
(Hagevi, 2017) At the same time, it reduces political power because the politicians have no so much influence as they had before secularization. Secularization can also refer to the
separation of church from the state in 2000 as stated below (Pettersson, 2011).
In Swedish society’s history, Sweden has been traditionally protestant (Evangelical- Lutheran), creating a state church that was dominant (Pettersson, 2011). The first change in the church-state relationship was made in the year 1862, whereby the local authority
7 Stockholm’s City mission is a non- profit -organization that works to create a more human society for everyone
9 administration was divided in the church administration and civil administration (a.a.). The Swedish church separated from the state in 2000, but the state still collects tax fees from the church members to help the religious community through the collected dues. Sweden today has reached an extremely high level of secularization (Inglehart & Welzel, 2005), having moved from being a monopoly State church system to a neutral religious state with a policy of religious pluralism. This is in part due to the religious changes occurring because of the modification supply in religious markets caused by the changes in religious belief from one generation to another. In addition to the changes happening within the Swedish society, the outward influences of migration have affected the shift towards pluralism. Many migrants who come to Sweden arrive from different countries where people not only have different religions, but practice their religion differently (not secularized).
One can therefore wonder if secularization is an obstacle or an asset to a functioning cohesion between different religions in the Swedish society! In other words, which role does secular society play in an interreligious context? Stark and Finke help answer this question by differentiating between religious supply and the religious demand (Stark & Finke, 2000). In this equation, religious supplies refer to the religious beliefs, belongings and the conducts given by religious organizations and religious demands concerns the individual’s religiosity (Stark & Finke, 2000). Stark and Finke assume that the freedom of religion with many interfaith organizations competing with one another seems to satisfy the religious demand much better compared to the dominant churches supported by the government regulations. Religious monopoly seems to increase secularization, and an open and competitive religious market activates the religious interest (Hagevi, 2017). Secularization promotes the equal value of all religions in a society, but it reduces the political power in many church organizations. Secularization thus leads to religious pluralism, or the belief that different religions can coexist peacefully, and this encourages the creation of alliances for the social good. Religious groups can find commonalities in their views (i.e. like caring for the poor or providing aid when natural disasters happen) and work together to achieve a shared social goal. At the same time, the religious freedom caused by secularization can cause conflicts within the same faith if the members do not agree with one another. Religion, in the context where there is a high level of freedom, can therefore lead to negative consequences like brainwashing effects (to the weak, poor and less religiously knowledgeable members) in both Islamic and Christianity, because people can manipulate others to follow their thoughts (the strong ones with more power, wealth and more knowledge in religion). As religion has certain norms which from religious perspectives need to be followed in solidarity, uniformity can be disrupted by too
10 much freedom of religion. Ultimately there is room for interpretation in one’s personal faith, and as such diversity of opinion will be found on the subject of interfaith collaboration. That’s why there is a need to gain knowledge on how religious people perceive collaboration with people from different faiths like in the Swedish secular society in an interreligious context, despite the differences they may have!
Religion in the Swedish society: The word ‘religion’ is a word that can refer to different phenomena. Religion can have various meanings depending on how individuals understand it and according to the context and environment the people are in. The interviewees found it difficult to define the word ‘religion’ even though the answers had a lot of similarities
concerning religion. I presented the following question to all interviewed people: “What does the word ‘religion’ mean? Several researchers have as well stated that it’s very difficult to define the word religion (Gärde, 2014, McGuire, 2002, Geels & Wikström, 2017) The eighteen participants in this paper were a mixed group of very religious, religious or non- believers. Some of them were born in Christian or Muslim families and were very active in the church or in the mosque when they were young up to today, and some were leaders in the church or in the Mosque. Most of the participants answered that religion helps them to find a way to live, it gives them hope, trust and security, and that religion is a big part of their lives. Other participants responded that they were believers, but they don’t follow the religious rules blindly (i.e. they don’t just follow the religious rules without using their common sense or questioning themselves why things should be like this and not like that), especially the participants practiced Islam. In other words, it means that they decide for themselves what to do and not to do in order to live a good life. According to the empirical data produced from this thesis, religion is a belief people follow as a guide which gives them hope, trust and love. Religion has a lot of flexibility for interpretation. It's not bound to rules, but rather people interpret their religion and act according to their belief. Christianity and Islam have a lot of similarities but also differences. Some Christians say that there are no rules on how you should live your faith and believe and other Christians disagree, and some Muslims say that there are rules which a practicing Muslim has to follow and other Muslims also disagree. This shows that there are both similarities and differences in the interpretation of both Christianity and Islam. I will give some examples of the meaning of religion from different authors; they confirm the definition of religion resulted from collected empirical data in the analysis part. Gärde writes that to explain the word ‘religion’ depends on who is asking the question and in which context it’s being asked (Gärde, 2014). The religion sociologist defines religion in
11 terms of its substantial role8 or from a functional perspective9 (Geels & Wikström, 2017,
Gärde, 2014). Gärde stresses that “religion contributes to intimacy, social and personal affiliation” (Gärde, 2014)
Religion and belief are very important phenomenon. This has not only been stated by several researchers, but also by the participants in this survey. This paper showed that there are people who can’t live without religion because religion has always been a part of their lives. This is because these believers were born as Christians or Muslims and religion has been a part of their culture growing up. Religion helps work as a guide in their lives, gives meaning to life, and so forth. In some countries like Indonesia and Ghana, the importance of religion and belief is clear with 94.4% and 90.4% of their populations attesting faith,
respectively, and is of lesser importance in some countries like Sweden with just 9.3 % of the population who think that religion is very important (Gärde, 2014).
Unfortunately, there is a big problem concerning belief and the interpretation of faith given that religious disputes are one of the factors which cause violence and conflicts between different countries and within different groups. This is due to different issues like bad
experiences, hate among different religions, clashes in cultures, values, thoughts, perceptions, prejudices and more. After the 9/11 attacks in New York, polarization among different
religions increased (Gärde, 2008), which ended up causing hate between different religions. Specifically, in this situation, Muslims in America were targeted, humiliated, and assaulted by American citizens out of anger and fear. Another example of religious conflicts is the terror attack that happened in 2015 at the Garissa College University in Kenya. The aim was to harm and kill Christians as retribution for the wrongs committed against Muslims in the country. Another example is the attack that happened in 2019 in Christchurch mosque in New Zealand which was deliberately done to harm Muslims. These examples prove that religion has the influence and power to cause immense conflict and turmoil in society. Religion is powerful and can be destructive, but can also do equally good work when collaborating together. As imperfect as religion has been in society, there are still certain moral societal norms placed on religious groups. As Smidt writes in his book, religious congregations and the public expects religious institutions to serve the local community (Smidt, 2003). These institutions have the capability to come close based on shared moral principles and identify
8 Refers to what religion is with its starting point in beliefs, values and symbols which can originate from
religion or religions Culture (Gärde, 2014).
12 the needy in the community. This decision to unite in the face of a problem builds trust among different religious groups and helps to reduce prejudice.
Gärde points out that the view on how the state and religion should work together has been changing in the western world since the 19th century (Gärde, 2014). Due to changes in society and the influence of multiculturalism, Sweden has shifted to pluralism,10 regarding
religion and pattern of faith.11 Secularization has taken place in Sweden due to various
factors, one factor being the effect of the modernization of societies and countries, which causes the role of religion to reduce (Gärde, 2014). The major reason for pluralism in Sweden is because of the influx of newcomers from different countries. For instance, in 2015 there were more than 1.2 million refugees searching for asylum in Europe; in fact, it was difficult to give exact numbers because most of them were not registered (Turunen, Jaakko & Weinryb, Noomi, 2017). Most of the refugees in 2015 were coming from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and Sweden was one of the countries that took care of most of them. During that time, an estimated number of 163.000 refugees were attended, according to Turunen and Weinryb. At the same time, there were many new and old organizations-private, government, religious as well as interreligious- that were active in helping the refugees (Turunen, Jaakko & Weinryb, Noomi, 2017). The Swedish State had good cooperation with religious communities
(Lundgren, 2019) at the same time. This is due to, among others, how religion is being interpreted in the Swedish society. The response of the country to the immigrant crisis mentioned above provides evidence that shows it is possible to create religious pluralism, which is ultimately needed to bring trust, unity and coexistence in our society. Unfortunately, there are other immigrants who face discrimination and racism in their host countries due to their religion or culture (Abkr et al., 2019). In this paper, I met one interviewee who felt neglected due to his faith and origin, but I didn't consider this very much in my results since this was due to personal differences between him and another person, and was more so a perception issue.
In a debate on religious extremism, several researchers highlight the need of changes in the creation of trust and mutual understanding in the collaboration of social, religious, and cultural spheres in order to create peace in the whole world (“”Underskatta inte en växande
10 The fact that the modern world brings together many people with many different views, and that modern
societies expect them to behave civilly towards each other with toleration for their differences (McGuire, 2002, p. 288)
11 Secularization means religious changes according to (Gärde, 2014 p.109). Auguste Comte describes
secularization with the claim, that the society had moved from the theological through the metaphysical to the scientific stage where by the scientific stage is characterized by the victory of reasons over dogma and the withering away of religious thinking (McGuire, 2002, p.285).
13 religiös extremism”,” 201812). Partel writes about the importance of developing interfaith
leaders to gain an understanding of different religions (Patel, 2016). Other researchers state that religion can be used as a promoter of peace or as an initiator of violence (Stein et al., 2008, Smidt, 2003). Even though there is both national and international research concerning interfaith organizations, I noted that there is insufficient research on both levels concerning the interfaith cooperation which needs to be developed. Furthermore, there is a need for the comparison of different organizations as to how they work with one another, which would bring an understanding of how each and every organization works. This is because different organizations may have the same goal but different methods as well as norms. Another group that seems to be left outside is the immigrants themselves. Majbritt lyck-Bowen states in her article about the immigrant’s point of view and experiences with participating in a
multireligious integration project in Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom that her research is the first one to highlight the immigrant’s point of view (Lyck-Bowen, 2019). That’s why there is a need for more research and especially that which includes the immigrant’s point of view. I noted that there is a lack of former research (national and international) on the guidelines on how interfaith organizations cooperate with one another.
This thesis will therefore focus on generating the needed knowledge on interfaith organizations cooperation as well as identify the obstacles the interfaith workers face in their cooperation. Lastly not forgetting the immigrant’s point of view, concerning the help they get from the interreligious organizations. This is because, the immigrants need to bridge trust among one another in order to be able to cooperate with one another. I will therefore examine the needed common norms which make the cooperation work with the help of the collected data and the chosen theories.
2.2 Aim
The main aim of this thesis is to generate the needed knowledge on interfaith organizations cooperation in their social work to aid help seekers despite religious differences they may have, as well as to identify the obstacles the interfaith workers face in their cooperation. In addition, this thesis will also discuss the help-seekers’ personal opinions concerning the help they get from the interreligious organizations. I will do this by examining how people from different religions cooperate with one another despite the differences they may have.
Simultaneously, I will examine the perspectives of the help seekers concerning the help they
14 get through interviewing immigrants who received help from the interreligious organizations named above.
2.3 Research questions
This part represents the mail research Question which will be answered through the following semi-research questions.
The main research question is:
● How do religious people perceive collaboration with people from different faiths in Swedish secular society in an interreligious context?
This main research question will be answered through a case study design whereby I will examine eighteen participants presented by leaders, project leaders, workers, volunteers and help seekers. I will answer the main research question through the following three semi-research questions which are:
● How do the workers respective volunteers perceive the cooperation between the interfaith organizations in their working place (between Islam and Christianity)? ● Which opportunities and challenges does the workers/volunteers face during their
work in the interfaith organization?
● What do the help seekers think about the help they get from the interfaith organization?
3. Previous research
In this chapter, I will represent previous research and explain how I searched for the previous research. There is both national and international research concerning interreligious
collaboration, but there is still a need for more research in generating knowledge in interfaith organizations given that there are a variety of interfaith organizations cooperating with one another in different countries. In addition, there is very little research available concerning the point of view of the help seekers which need to be developed. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of research out already explaining the benefits of interreligious cooperation, which is
highlighted in this section from different perspectives. I will therefore in this chapter present different researchers that I found relevant to my thesis and discuss the interfaith organizations from different perspectives. The former researchers will be representing the following themes: The need for changes in the creation of trust and mutual understanding; Importance of
15 interfaith relations; Factors needed to make the social traps work; How immigrants thinks about their participation in the interfaith organizations; Inclusion of migrants and refugees in different areas in the society; Benefits and barriers of multireligious organizations; The determinant trust and Interreligious dialogue13.
I have searched previous research through the following Databases: Diva-common portal, Academic Search Complete, ASSIA, Google Scholar, Libris, SocINDEX with Full Text. The following search words were used: Interreligious, multireligious, interfaith, multi-faith, interreligious dialogue, interreligious cooperation.
3.1 Religion for Peace
Several researchers write that religion can be used as a promoter of peace or as an initiator of violence; within this context they explain how the global religions for peace network aims to grow cooperation among the world religions from the higher-ups in the society to the local communities (Stein et al., 2008, ”Underskatta inte en växande religiös extremism”, 2018). They present different examples of signifying that simple steps can make a big difference. Stein writes about the meeting in the library of Alexandria that was attended by fifteen religious leaders to make bold steps towards preventing conflict, transforming conflict and making efforts to build peace in the Middle East (Villumstad, Stein, 2008). The group was represented by Muslims, Christians and Jews. They agreed that the Middle East Council of religious leaders could be an important instrument to support multireligious efforts to build feasible peace in the religion. They used the Council as a tool to create a plan to be put in action, having the conviction that multi-religious cooperation is needed in promoting peace in the more challenging Middle East (Villumstad, Stein, 2008), (“”Underskatta inte en växande religiös extremism”,” 2018). Stein also writes that religion seems to be becoming more important now compared to recent history, both on an individual and collective level. He adds that the search for identity has made it easy for political manipulation related to religious loyalties. Religion can take the role of a complete framework for social order, if its traditions and laws hold the source of power to shape the way of life and requires allegiance. Religion has been seen as the source of the common moral order in most traditions. The interfaith dialogues have been trying to validate this by identifying the common basic moral tenets of religion in the world. Unfortunately, there are some unethical political actions legitimized by religion which are unacceptable and have to be countered through cooperation. With this
16 cooperation, the spiritual, moral and social assets are the three assets that can be mobilized in religious communities. When different religions cooperate with one another, they have to put the common problems in the middle. Some examples of the common problems are poverty, social and political unfairness, ethics and nationalistic statements (a.a.). Different religions have a diverse interpretation of others behaviors. For example, in accepting one another’s faith behavior or actions (i.e. why Muslim women must wear veil, why Muslim men are not supposed to shake hands with other women’s apart from their own wife’s and so forth). Nevertheless, this may not affect the religions in their search for powerful common principles and values which can lead to a common ground for joint actions. Interfaith cooperation can grow additionally due to urgent needs that require attention on an ad hoc basis. “Creating multi-religious platforms as viable instruments of co-operation is increasingly important to facilitate a sustainable dialogue and joint action” (Villumstad, Stein, 2008, p.4).
A good example is the interreligious councils affiliated with religions for peace which has been established in almost seventy countries and four regions. The interreligious councils, on different levels, can come together to construct an outline of the potential core strength of the religions for global peace network in spite of the differences in the geographical, political and social context through the following points. First, the interreligious council is
multireligious, whereby interfaith cooperation should be seen as obvious through the visible documentations and actions that show different religions are working together. This will counter the tendency of seeing religion as divisive. The fact that different religions and religious leaders are getting together in joint action is not only symbolic but also substantial because it makes the interfaith collaboration visible in small villages and in the highest offices in a country. Secondly, the religious leaders of the interreligious council are selected
according to how well they will represent their respective communities, not randomly. That means that they have no standard way of choosing a representative, but the important qualifier is that the leaders of the council take responsibility for their own faith institutions and
communities. Thirdly, the multi religious actions can be made on a different level at the same time (a.a.). In the interreligious cooperation, there might occur problems or conflicts which need to be sorted out through making a compromise through negotiation by leaders and those working at the grassroots level. Stein points out that religious communities and their leaders complete each other in ethical and political communities. He concluded that: different
contexts require different focuses and actions and a religious platform is a needed instrument in mobilizing the potential communities to reach both the small villages and the highest offices in a community; supplementary or complementary actions can be made possible
17 through a network of multireligious platforms on different levels; and multireligious
platforms need to consist of leaders and personalities with the same political and sociological realities that are not removed from the tensions pressuring their communities, but are invested in local conflict resolution, and through joint actions these leaders can work together towards peace and justice.
3.2 Changes in the creation of trust and mutual understanding
In a debate “do not underestimate a growing religions extremism” (“”Underskatta inte en växande religiös extremism”,” 2018), several debaters wrote that there is a need of change in the creation of trust and mutual understanding in the collaboration of social, religious and cultural spheres to reinforce peace in the world. This is because religion has the power to promote unity in society, but also to incite violence and wars as stated in the article religion for peace (Stein et al., 2008). Ceasing religious violence can be done by finding out the factors which leads to violence and proactively working on them. The prevention of violence can even be facilitated by including religion and the religious extremists in the regular
political discussion. This can be done through using an intercultural approach and creating an atmosphere of mutual understanding, whereby the understanding of religion in the political and social sphere can be analyzed together to see how to prevent misunderstandings on both national and international levels (i.e. include the extremists in the dialogues, which will make them understand more and become more open to accepting the common norms). Therefore, it’s important to consider the intercultural approach and goals of mutual understanding in educational and social development efforts, as stated by Patel in his book capital (Patel, 2016). The leaders and groups in religious organizations have to be invited to participate in the potential work in order to show that religion is a part of the solution and not a part of the problem.
3.3 Interfaith leaders
Patel writes in his book capital (Patel, 2016) the importance of preparing interfaith leaders through vision, knowledge base, and skill set in order to understand religion differently. He argues that faith plays an important role for a lot of organizations seeking to meet the basics of human needs in their work in their society. He tells how volunteers from different religious circles can effectively work together despite the fact that they are unpaid. He quotes the importance of volunteers having the opportunity to practice their spiritual beliefs in their
18 work. He even tells the importance of having religious knowledge in today's work which can help people like doctors or nurses understand their patients much more. Patel writes that religious diversity issues have not been taken into consideration like other factors such as gender and ethnicity in most of the educational institutes and colleges. This should be changed because “interfaith leaders engage in the reality of diversity to achieve a vision of pluralism. Approaching the three parts of pluralism- respect for diverse identities,
relationships between different communities, and a commitment to the common good- helps us realize these five concrete civic goods” (Patel, 2016).
The five “civic goods” are: are as follows. i) To understand the others much more and reduce prejudice which can create barriers between different groups or religions. ii)
Strengthen social cohesion as the wide inclusion for identity- based conflict. iii) Increase social capital and solve social problems. iv) Promote the continuity of identity communities and minimize isolation. v) Create permanent narratives for diverse societies for sub-societies within one society (a.a.).
Patel argues that to be an effective interfaith leader requires a foundation of base necessities, including an appreciating knowledge of other traditions, a theology of interfaith collaboration, and a history of interfaith cooperation (a.a.). It’s important to know about the history of interaction between people with different religions, especially when the interfaith relations have historically been oppressed with conflicts. To know the history of interfaith will even help to understand how others in the past have moved that pendulum of recognition and will create hope for present circumstances. This is because things can and do change. In 1928 Catholics and Jews were not seen as fully Americans in the United States, but by 1955 due to the interfaith movements, a Protestant, a Catholic or a Jew became recognized as full Americans (a.a.). Patel therefore emphasizes that interfaith leaders need skills in order to put the vision and knowledge-base of interfaith leadership into action. He outlines the following four skills as part of the requirements for effective interfaith leadership: “A radar screen for religious diversity, public narrative, curating activities, and facilitating interfaith dialogue” (Patel, 2016).
3.4. Factors needed to make social traps work
Bo Rothstein describes five factors needed to make social traps14 work in his research about
social traps and the problem of trust (Rothstein, 2003). The first factor is found in a situation
14“By a social trap, Rothstein means a situation where, due to a lack of social capital, individuals acting independently, or through the intermediation of an organization, are unable to cooperate to achieve joint benefits that exceed individual short-term benefits… He examines the negative impact on solving social
19 in which every party will profit in the cooperation, so all the parties decide to unite with one another. The second factor is that if there is mistrust that the other parties will cooperate, then it becomes meaningless to move forward because the goal can only be achieved with full cooperation from all participants. The third factor says that it is rational to pull out if there is doubt that the others will also cooperate. The fourth factor is the conclusion that cooperation to reach the common vision can only be effective if one is convinced that the others will also be willing to cooperate. The fifth factor is that, without the confidence, the social trap will inexorably strike again, which means that we will end up in a situation whereby all parties will be worse off than where they began (even though all parties know that they would have much better off choosing to cooperate) (a.a.). This means that the results to be achieved requires the trust that the others will also cooperate and do their best, otherwise the social traps will not work.
Rothstein goes on to say that there are three central problems in rationality and trust. The first problem is that the way someone chooses to act in a situation is more controlled by mental pictures of perception or impression (what they think about the others) rather than personal ideology, values and preferences. The second problem is that people can be controlled by their interests to maximize their self-benefits. The last problem is that individuals have to hope that others will cooperate even if they will not benefit. The trust factor determines therefore the kind of the society we will have. It’s only in societies with strong trust that have the possibilities to succeed in creating common solutions for their problems, but for the societies with widespread distrust among the citizens, the social traps will probably increase. Ostrom in (Rothstein, 2003) describes in her research the importance that standards of trust have, which arises in the local political dialogue about how the
regulation should be designed. So, it’s the situation’s decision itself which can change the individual’s point of view from their own interest to the collective interest hence creating an effective cooperation. This situation’s decision shifts people from a mindset of egoism to cooperation. Putnam in (Rothstein, 2003) argues that democracy functions better in places where the majority of the participants are organized. This is because the citizens' controversy can be built on trust whereby someone dares to cooperate because he/she has the confidence
dilemmas stemming from widespread corruption, labor-management disputes, overuse of natural resources, civic unrest and violence, and many other types of social traps experienced to a greater or lesser extent in all societies” (Ostrom, 2008)
20 that the others will also cooperate. Rothstein presents in his book that trust has been
increasing in Sweden between 1981 to 1996. 3.4.1 Paradigms for the interfaith relations
Antonios Kireopoulos names three paradigms for interfaith relations as follows: Immersion, by which the group interacts with each other through prayer, casual exchange, liturgical and cultural celebrations (Kireopoulos, Antonios, 2008). The main goal of this kind of
collaboration is to create friendships as neighbours within the same community. Interfaith dialogue: which attempts to reach out to one’s neighbour and attempts to understand the faith that motivates one’s neighbors. This kind of paradigm is more on a conceptual international level and requires more time, commitment and openness to bring it to fulfillment. The dialogue can take place in different settings and takes place on different levels. The
motivation of the discussion is focused on this question: “How are we to live peaceably with one another if we don’t rise above our suspicions of one another?” (Kireopoulos, Antonios, 2008). Interfaith collaboration is the third paradigm, and its aim is to encourage a real acceptance of religious diversity on local levels. The methodology of such an organization is to recognize the real theological differences among different religions, build on what the religions have in common, and collaborate on issues with mutual interest (a.a.).
As Goosen writes in his book “Bringing Churches Together”(Goosen, 2001), the aims of interfaith dialogues is not to evangelize nor to abandon one’s own religion or belief, but its aim is: to gain an empathetic understanding of the other religions in order to be able to live in harmony; take away ignorance of others that can create fear or hate; acquire a better
understanding of why others claim the way they do; look for a common perception of the human rights; upgrade the communication between religions; evade words or reactions that would create friction, misunderstandings, offense; bring people sharing common purpose together; help one another in searching for happiness, salvation, the good, the righteous in human beings and strengthen one’s life through listening to the spirits through other beliefs’ traditions (Goosen, 2001)
3.5 The determinant trust
Alesina and Ferrara write in their research paper that both individual experiences and the community characteristics influence how much people can trust one another (Alesina & Ferrara, 2000). They even mentioned that economic benefits could be affected by trust,
21 whereby the areas with high trust have more economic success compared to the areas with low trust. They described the following factors as the strongest ones which reduce trust among the people resulting from their study: i) Personal culture, traditions and religions ii) Length of time person has lived in a community with a stable composition, iii) Current personal history of tribulation iv) Conscious discernment of being a part of a discriminated group and v) Several characteristics of the composition of one’s community, including the rate of trust in the community (a.a.). Alesina and Ferrara pointed out that social interactions in trust can lead to a good- or bad- equilibrium. In a good equilibrium community, which is more homogenous, people trust each other and build more and more trust. In the bad
equilibrium community, which is more heterogeneous, people have low levels of trust leading to even more reduction of trust. Alesina and Ferrara highlight three factors explaining trust in their conclusion which are i) Individual characteristics including education, salary and the occurrence of current tribulation ; ii) Belonging to a certain group which has been historically discriminated like women or black people; iii) And the characteristics of the community whereby heterogeneous have less trust to one another compared to homogeneous because homogenous are similar to one another in terms of ethnicity, social group etc. (Alesina & Ferrara, 2000).
3.6 Inclusion of migrants and refugees in the whole society
“Ask the People” is a consultation report structured by the European Migrant Advisory Board (EMAB), and it conducted research on the inclusion of migrants and refugees in eight
European countries (Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain) in (Abkr et al., 2019). This report highlights the importance of involving refugees and migrants in eight areas which are “integration, labour market access, housing, higher education, participation in decision-making, the situation of unaccompanied minors, access to microcredit, and the Eu Action plan on return” (a.a.). As Anila Noor quotes in her report “Refugees and migrants get fed up when they are not taken seriously. When we reach out to them and actually listen to them, they get excited and share their inner voice with us. That’s what makes the difference” (Abkr et al., 2019 p. 4). This quote explains how important it is to include people in what is being done, which makes the participants feel respected and
included in the decision-making process, and promotes acceptance and democracy. This will reduce the tension or the feeling of being discriminated against, an overwhelmingly common treatment they endure. As the focus group participant in Italy confessed, “Discrimination is a
22 daily experience for me and for my fellow migrants and refugees, whether in schools,
hospitals, on the streets, in trains, buses…In my neighborhood, people will be looking at me and start whispering. Sometimes, they verbally attack me, saying “Why can’t you remove your headscarf and be part of the human race?”. This makes me feel bad in a way I can’t even express.” (a.a. p. 5). This further perpetuates the mentality of exclusion or the perception that the society they enter does not care about them and that they are viewed as minor or less important people in the society. As some participants in Finland expressed themselves: “Political parties are only interested in migrants when the party believes they can get votes” (a.a. s. 7). This report therefore recommends solutions like bolster programs in the local government for social engagement, include refugees and migrants in the structured participation, create platforms to engage both the refugees and the host communities, improve cooperation between national and local employment services, provide language classes and so forth. The overall aim of these strategies is to improve the interactions between the
newcomers and the host community and to promote social cohesion and diversity.
3.7 Migrants view of participating in interfaith organization
Majbritt lyck-Bowen highlights in her article about the immigrant’s point of view and
experiences with participating in a multireligious integration project in Germany, Sweden and United Kingdom
(Lyck-Bowen, 2019), She stated the importance of the multireligious organizations in her research concerning migrants’ point of view. The interviewees in her article said that the interreligious project had been helping them to understand more and bridging the gap to understand their religion/culture, which has been helping them to integrate in the host
country. They felt that they were respected just as they were, regardless of which religion they belonged to. They indicated that the interfaith projects were meeting their needs. This
cooperation made them feel equal and accepted in the host country regardless of the different backgrounds, hence changing the initial perceptions they had coming from their home
countries concerning religion. They felt free to practice their religion. They perceived themselves as a family despite having different religions. They could choose for themselves the clothes they wanted to wear or whether or not to participate in religious issues, unlike in their home countries where traditional religious law is practiced much more conservatively and strictly. The majority of the interviewees connected with people from other religions or cultures which helped them get closer to one another. Although one of the participants from
23 Sweden did complain about the lack of opportunity to create a social network with Swedish people, this has more to do with the context of how individual organizations are run. Lyck-Bowen’s conclusion in her study is that the multireligious projects can help immigrants in different ways to integrate with their host country. She supports the assumption in the literature that religion can have an important role in the integration process. She adds that there is a need for the development of a multi-religious theory that includes more than one faith- based organizations involved in the integration process. The study supports the equality of the FBOs in the implementation of the project, as well as contextual factors such as the place the immigrants are living, or the distance between the place they live and their religious community or place of worship. She points out that more research is needed in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the context-related variables influencing the probability of achievement for multireligious integration projects.
3.7.1 Benefits and barriers of multireligious organizations
Lyck-Bowen and Owen talk in their research about the positive benefits of multireligious cooperation for the easier integration of migrants from the organizational perspective and highlight the reasons why multireligious organizations should be supported (Lyck-Bowen & Owen, 2019). Their research was conducted over four projects in different interfaith
organizations located in Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom and Poland. Lyck-Bowen and Owen advocate that religion can be used as a positive force to help the immigrants in different ways to integrate into the host countries, but it can also impede the migrants’ ability to do so as well. They divided the benefits of what the interfaith organizations can offer for migrants’ integration into three categories: (i) Integration service and Processes: In this category, the interfaith organizations overcome barriers to integration. They improve the available quality of integration, help the host society understand more about the migrants and their desires, reduce prejudice or negative stories by showing that different religious groups can work together. Religious leaders can motivate their congregations to welcome the migrants. They also help the migrants to understand more about the host country, facilitate in how interfaith organizations can cooperate together and create more acceptance and cohesive societies, and reduce the attitude that it’s more important to help people from a specific faith than from others upholding that we are all equal. (ii) Organizational and religious community benefits: Cooperation on integration and in other areas of work, Cooperation in integration with long terms relationship; Cooperation with other religious organizations; Internal dialogues on the importance of human beings working together regardless of their religion; Interreligious
24 cooperation for a common goal; Greater visibility and Challenge dominant secular discourse within the humanitarian work. (iii) Benefits of broader community/Social benefits: Change perspectives on the religious role in the society; Mitigation of racism and radicalism; Believe that interreligious cooperation will promote interreligious dialogues and cooperation;
Coordinating for a common cause/Common humanity/love for everyone, and exchange of knowledge about one another’s religious beliefs. It is therefore for interreligious organizations to search and unite in shared morals, ethical and spiritual ideals in order to change your faith, not disrespect other religions. At the same time, they have brought up some of the evidence that was problematic in religious organizations in western liberal context and narratives, specifically that the religious foundation was seen as a challenge to the fundamental
principles of neutrality and impartiality (Heist & Cnaan, 2016; Rothstein, 2003). Despite this, the evidently negative perception is reducing slowly over time, according to Lyck-Bowen and Owen. Nevertheless, religious organizations have been seen as problematic because they lack professionalism, lack of needed skills and experiences and it is feared that they will see humanitarian work as a new opportunity to evangelize (Mavelli & Wilson, 2017). Lyck-Bowen and Owen concluded in their research that interreligious cooperation can help in solving problems associated with religion acting as a barrier to integration through increasing social networks, changing negative attitudes through providing new opportunities.
Interreligious organizations can benefit from one another. However, they noted difficulties in establishing a contract with organizations from other faiths. They stated that there is a need to establish local, regional, national and international platforms that can guide the religious leaders and representatives in their interreligious dialogue. Having some form of a blueprint or framework can support interested people with the kind of knowledge that gives guidance. Lyck-Bowen and Owen also noted a lack of financial support for the interfaith organizations and lack of a suitable system of including immigrants in the democracy.
3.8 Thesis relation to previous research
In this capital, I will discuss how this paper relates to the previous research which has been presented above underlining the main points which are relevant to my thesis and how I will use them in my thesis.
The first article (“”Underskatta inte en växande religiös extremism”,” 2018) highlights the need creating mutual trust and understanding in the collaboration of social which is one of the major norms that arise in my empire, which is required in the interfaith cooperation. Patel
25 discusses the importance of preparing Interfaith Leaders (Patel, 2016) which is definitely needed to run interfaith organizations and has been mentioned by some interviewees. This gives suitable representatives for religious groups and works as a source of trust creation. Stain in his article indicates that religion has power and can be used to create peace (Stein et al., 2008). In my empirical data, I made the conclusion that interfaith organizations are needed to help the immigrants to integrate in the society. Antonios Kireopoulos represents models which can be used in interfaith cooperation (Kireopoulos, Antonios, 2008), which represents the aim of my research. This gives understanding and trust among one another. Trust is the central key in interfaith cooperation according to the conclusion made in this thesis and even the theories used in this thesis. Rothstein highlights the factors needed to make social traps work and the central problems in rationality and trust (Rothstein, 2003). This has been reflected in my research as one of the main reasons why the Good neighbor’s organization started. Lyck-Bowen discusses the immigrant’s point of view in her research (Lyck-Bowen, 2019). This is relevant to my research given Sweden’s traditionally secular society and history. However, the immigrant's point of view was even a semi part of my thesis aim. Further research was a report from “Ask the People” which is a consultation structured by the European Migrant Advisory Board (EMAB). This highlights the importance of the
immigrants’ inclusion in society (Abkr et al., 2019), which is important in my thesis. Another research has been presenting the benefits and barriers of multireligious organizations (Lyck-Bowen & Owen, 2019) which has been discussed in this thesis. The research about the
determination of trust (Alesina & Ferrara, 2000), explains the factors influencing trust. This is very relevant in my thesis because trust plays a big role in an interfaith organization which can be influenced by different things. At the same time, trust is one of the theories used in this thesis.
Last but not least is the research about the interreligious dialogue which explains the importance of interreligious dialogue. Interreligious dialogue is one of the major norms presented by the collected empire.
4. Theory
In this section, I will present two theories that will be used to prove the research results in the analysis section. I will use Putnam’s social capital theory about bonding and bridging trust because it’s one of the most common theoretical models used in creating integration (Putnam, 2000; Putnam et al., 1994; Putnam et al., 2003).
26 Religion can work as an integrative force in a society or as the vital violence in the creation of social capital (Smidt, 2003). This is because the religious congregations are expected to serve their local community (neighborhood), and they are the institutions which are able to cope with the social ills within the community. These norms of expectations are not only within the actors but also among the public in large. Effective norms may initiate a powerful form of social capital (a.a.). On the other side, religion can serve to deepen the social fractions in the civil society by, for example, lacking knowledge on how to handle the differences among one another or acceptance and so forth (a.a.).
Putman explains how social capital can help in improving democracy, in which trust is one of the main components of social capital. Trust has two dimensions that need to be taken into consideration: “bonding- and bridging trust”. Bridging in this thesis refers to the actions which are used to create relationships between these different religions as well as to assist newcomers in getting integrated into the Swedish society. An example of bridging are the factors which have to be taken into consideration like the common goals, the group equality as well as the agreement the organizations have. Bonding refers to the actions done to bring acceptance of interreligious cooperation within the same faith and the creation of relationships among the newcomers themselves, where they help one another in giving tips and advice. This can be through the complementary services the interreligious organizations provide that support the state (i.e. working together with the government and the activities the
organizations do together with the help seekers). Trust is a very important phenomenon in bonding and bridging because without trust you can neither connect with one another nor construct a good relationship with one another. This theory shows how people from different religions or cultures can get together and create trust among one another through their
collaboration, togetherness, dialogues etc., despite the differences they may have. This creates understanding and acceptance between one another, which leads to being open and creating a trust with one another. When the people from the Katarina Church, Islamic relief and
Stockholm Mosque got together to help the needy, they created “bridging” which resulted in creating “bonding” trust. This means that they connected with one another, ending up creating trust among one another.
They made the newcomers find one another through the activities they did together as well as when they would meet together during the advice-giving project. The help seekers connected with other help seekers who had the same or similar problems they faced and ended up exchanging tips and advice with one another. The organizations cannot work with one another hand in hand without trusting one another. Simultaneously, the help seekers need
27 to develop trust in order to feel free and able to open themselves up to the people helping them. Both help seekers and help givers learned more about one another through their interactions and being open with one another. The social capital in this thesis refers to the trust, norm, and network, which are features of social organizations that can boost the effectiveness of our society through facilitating correlated actions (Putnam et al., 1994, p. 167). A good example is the work being done by the Good Neighbors organization (i.e. interfaith organization with joint partnership of the Katarina Church, Islamic relief and the Stockholm Mosque to help the newcomers integrate into Sweden’s society). A specific feature with the social capital (i.e. norm, trust, and network) is that it’s a public good, not a private good. That means that there are no for-profit benefits. Its purpose is to serve society, unlike the conventional capital which is a private good and usually is meant to serve the interests of the stakeholders alone15. So, an example of the social capital that these Good
Neighbors create is equality in that they directly combat the perpetuation of racism and xenophobia by taking an inclusive, welcoming approach towards the immigrants. As brought up in the interviews, the help seekers were inspired to give back as a result of the help they received, also fostering the capital of reciprocity.
Trägårdh, in his book about trust (Trägårdh, 2013), explains some of the conditions which can lead to trust or mistrust in the society. This can differ from one person to another and from the situations, conditions or environment people are living in. Sweden is among one of the Nordic countries with the highest rated general social trust with around 65% rating, compared to other European countries like Germany with 30% or France with under 20% (a.a. p. 32). At the same time, the social trust in Sweden is characterized by a common national pattern and has significant variation at the local level. This means that the areas where neighbors socialize or talk to one another have high social trust in comparison to the areas where neighbors don’t greet one another or talk to one another when they meet. Trägårdh explains trust in three different forms: general, private and local community trust. The general trust and private trust can differ in social trust depending on the local society the people are living in i.e. the local society trust (a.a.). The majority of researchers agree that trust is
important, but there are other researchers who have noted mistrust in trusts related to the state and even to other institutions, companies or individuals because they don’t want to move from constructive confidence to naivety (credulity). Trust is an instrument that led to the
28 reduction of transaction costs, not only in financial terms, but also in the political systems and even in every day social relationships between people (Trägårdh, 2013).
Social trust in complex modernized settings can appear from two linked sources, which are norms of reciprocity and networks of civic commitments (Putnam et al., 1994). Social norms convey the right to control actions within different actors because the actions have external influences which can be positive or negative consequences to the others, according to James Coleman in (Putnam et al., 1994).Norms can occur when “an action has similar
externalities for a set of others, yet markets in the rights of control of the action cannot easily be established, and no single actor can profitably engage in an exchange to gain rights to control” (Putnam et al., 1994). Norms can be promoted and sustained by modeling and socialization which includes civic education and even retribution. Norms that bolster social trust progress because they lower the costs of transactions and facilitate collaboration. Reciprocity is very important in the social norms which appear in two forms known as balanced16 (or specific) and generalized17 (or diffused) reciprocity (a.a.). The norm of
generalized mutuality is a highly fertile component of social capital. In communities where this norm is applied, they can more effectively refrain from opportunism and sort out problems of collective actions. The norm of generalized reciprocity helps to reconcile self-interest and solidarity18. A good example is how Good Neighbors have been creating their
own norms is how they established a neutral place to meet, discuss, and so forth. While search interfaith organizations can require a lot of time and attention for staff to create a balance within an interfaith cohesion, the end product creates trust which makes it a worthwhile investment.
All societies are distinguished by networks of interpersonal communications and exchange which can be formal or informal. These networks are essentially horizontal19 or
vertical20. Almost all the networks are combined of both horizontal and vertical. A real
network that indicates (characterizes) an organization may not cope with the ideology that inspires it, although different groups may have different types of networks. “Networks of civic engagements are an essential form of social capital: The denser such networks in a
16 Balanced reciprocity refers to a simultaneous exchange of items of equal values (Putnam et al., 1994)
17 Generalized reciprocity refers to a continuing relationship of exchange, that is at any given time unrequited or
imbalanced, but involves mutual expectations that a benefit granted now should be paid in future (Putnam et al., 1994).
18 Read more about voluntary work in (von Essen et al., 2015), (Linde & Scaramuzzino, 2017). 19 Bringing together agents of equivalent status and power (Putnam et al., 1994).
29 community, the more likely that its citizens will be able to cooperate for mutual benefits” (Putnam et al., 1994). There are different reasons as to why the network of civic engagement is so effective. Some of their beneficial side-effects include: They increases the possible costs to a defector in all individual transactions; they reinforce stronger norms of mutuality; they facilitate transmission and refine the flow of information about the trustworthiness of
individuals and embody past success at cooperation, which can serve as a culturally- defined template for future cooperation21.
The second theory which will be used in this thesis is the Allport’s intergroup contact theory (Pettigrew, Thomas F. & Tropp, Linda R., 2005), because this thesis deals with interfaith groups cooperating with one another. Allport’s intergroup contact theory explains four conditions in which a group can reduce prejudice. For these different interfaith groups to get together and coordinate well with one another, the following conditions need to be
considered (a.a.). The first condition is: An equal group status in the situation. This means that both groups need to have equal standing in the situation. In this case, the three
organizations- the Katarina Church, the Stockholm Mosque and the Islamic relief- have to be equal in their status as mentioned in the Allport’s intergroup contact theory (Pettigrew, Thomas F. & Tropp, Linda R., 2005). The second condition is: common goals. This means that different organizations need to have common goals in order to be effective. Some
researchers compare this to an athletic team combined with different people who have to work together and cooperate in order to win (Schofield, 1982; Patchen, 1982). In this case, it’s as a football team combined of people from different cultures, who don’t even all speak the same language but are working together to win, which is their common goal. The third condition is: intergroup cooperation. This condition results from the attainment of the common goals which should be an interdependent attempt based on cooperation as well as encouragement to develop a positive relationship within the group (Sherif, 1988). The fourth condition is: the support of the authorities, law, or custom. When different groups are working together like how the Katarina Church, the Stockholm Mosque and the Islamic relief are doing, they need to be backed up by explicit support from authorities and social institutions in order to have a more positive impact (Parker, 1968).
I therefore, with the help of the above-mentioned theories, created three (predetermined) themes (Religion, interreligious dialogue and Neutral place) used in this research. Farther more, I used these theories and the former research in analyzing the results from the collected
