Ethnic and Religious Conflicts in Asia and the Pacific

Backgrounds and Features According to recent annual reports by both Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and Londonbased International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), twenty to thirty armed conflicts and local wars in various forms take place every year in the world since the 1990s.

The Role and Influence of Plato’s Ideas in Religious Cinema

In contemporary society,film,as a significant form of cultural expression,bears profound ideological connotations and cultural significance.Religious films,as a distinct genre,serve as crucial avenues for humanity to explore and contemplate religious beliefs,moral concepts,and the essence of existence.Plato’s philosophy,as a significant pillar of Western thought,exerted profound influence on the conception and depiction of religious films.This thesis aims to examine Plato’s philosophical impact on religious cinema,elucidating its significance and value via comprehensive analysis of his ideas and their manifestation in religious films.Platonic ideas transcend the realm of emotions,inciting moral conflicts and dilemmas in religious films,thereby probing the dynamics between good and evil,justice and injustice.Plato’s political concepts offer profound sociopolitical reflections within religious films,stimulating discourse on matters like authority,governance,and liberty.Additionally,it catalyzed inquiries into aesthetics and emotions.Plato’s appreciation and pursuit of beauty resonate extensively in religious films,guiding viewers into a transcendent aesthetic realm through depictions of beauty and emotion.This holds immense theoretical and practical significance in deepening individuals’comprehension of Plato’s philosophy,fostering cultural exchange and discourse,and augmenting the artistic merit and societal impact of religious films.

Religion Conflicts in Indonesia Problems and Solutions

Religious perspectives which place religion as a source of conflict have initiated various attempts to reinterpret and accordingly find some common ground at a certain level which hopefully may reduce conflicts among religious communities due to the existence of mutual tolerance. At the exoteric level, religions are different, but at the esoteric level, religions are not similar. All religions are viewed as equally valid paths toward God. However, in many ways, the reality shows that the tension among religious communities is closely related to the factors that are beyond the scope of religion. It is important for all religious believers to keep the peace among them. As far as the record of religious conflicts in Indonesia is concerned, it shows three major patterns： conflicts among adherents of different religions, conflicts between one religion with a group accused as heretical, and internal conflicts of the same people of faith with those who have different understanding of the religion. In any point of views, however, such conditions would be so detrimental to the human race in general, and society and the state of Indonesia in particular. This paper examines intensively about the issues and attempts to uncover the nature of the root-causes underlying them.