CONSTRUCTING SECTARIAN DIVIDE

Sammanfattning: Sectarianism has emerged in the post-2011 era as an essential factor in the politics of the Middle East. It is not realistic to discuss the political unrest of the contemporary Middle East without discussing Sectarianism. Syria today suffers a violent sectarian war that threatens ramification that can be felt everywhere in the Middle East. This study focuses on the political elites that are involved in the Syrian conflict and their role in constructing sectarian divides. Political speeches from Bashar al-Assad, Hezbollah and the Syrian National Coalition are studied carefully to understand their role in constructing divisions between the Islamic sects. The findings in this thesis show that each of the selected political elites is involved in creating sectarian divides to some degree. However, how they created such divisions? And, under what circumstances were these divisions created? are two questions that receive six different answers in this thesis.