Sense of Community Coherence, Perceptions of Collective Narratives, and Identity Strategies in Intraand Interreligious Group Conflicts

The aim of this article is to develop understanding of intraand interreligious conflicts. We explored the relationships between sense of community coherence, perceptions of collective narratives, and identity strategies in the context of two religious conflicts in Israeli society: The intrareligious conflict between ultra-Orthodox Jews and national-religious Jews and between Muslim and Christian Arab Israeli citizens. Questionnaires were administered to 401 ultra-Orthodox Jews (180 males), 388 national-religious Jews (186 males), 1,321 Muslims (603 males), and 928 Christians (455 males). We hypothesized that the relationships between the sense of community coherence and the identity strategies of integration, separation, and competition would be mediated by the tendency to reject or accept in-group and/or outgroup collective narratives. The mediation model was confirmed with stronger effect among the groups with strong sense of community coherence (ultra-Orthodox Jews, Muslim Arabs). The similarities and differences in cases of intraand interreligious conflicts are discussed in relation to concepts like sense of community coherence, collective narratives, and identity strategies.