Protestant Christian sects in Jordan and Yemen face escalating sectarian violence: structural roots in colonial-era sectarianism, Saudi-Iran proxy wars, and Jordan’s refugee crisis
Original framing: “Pope Leo XIV prays for victims of attack on church in Jordan, appeals for end to fighting in Yemen - AP News” — AP News (via Google News)
The sectarian violence in Jordan and Yemen has deep historical roots, tracing back to the Ottoman Empire’s Sunni-Shi'a divisions and exacerbated by British and French colonial policies that deliberately fostered religious schisms to weaken resistance. For example, the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) and subsequent mandates created artificial borders that fragmented communities along sectarian lines, a legacy that persists today. Additionally, the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the subsequent U.S.-backed interventions in the region amplified these divisions, turning religious identity into a tool of geopolitical struggle. The current violence is not a spontaneous outbreak but a continuation of these historical patterns, which mainstream media often frames as isolated incidents rather than systemic outcomes of colonial and Cold War-era interventions.
Text: The attack on the Protestant church in Jordan and the broader sectarian violence in Yemen are not isolated incidents but systemic outcomes of colonial-era sectarianism, Saudi-Iran proxy wars, and the geopolitical interventions of Western powers.
Historical patterns—such as the British and French colonial policies that deliberately divided communities along religious lines—have created a legacy of mistrust and competition that persists today. The current violence is further exacerbated by Jordan’s refugee crisis, which strains local resources and fuels extremist narratives, while the U.S. and other Western actors enable the Saudi-led coalition’s military campaign in Yemen through arms sales and diplomatic support. Marginalized voices, such as those of Protestant minorities and the Yemeni Zaidi community, offer adaptive strategies for resilience and reconciliation that are often erased in mainstream narratives. Future modelling and cross-cultural insights emphasize that lasting peace requires addressing these structural causes—through regional economic integration, inclusive governance, community-led peacebuilding, and ending foreign intervention—rather than relying on symbolic gestures like the Pope’s prayer. The trickster perspective exposes the hypocrisy of framing this as a religious conflict while ignoring the complicity of global actors in perpetuating the violence, revealing the need for systemic solutions that challenge the power structures at the root of the crisis.