Conflict Management: Does Islam promote violence?

This essay analyzes how people can manage themselves in the outside world to avoid conflicts that might be triggered by their utterances especially to Muslim community. It also evaluates the conflict management styles used during the CNN interview of Camerota, Lemon and Aslan.

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Conflict Management: Does Islam promote violence?
Introduction
Conflict management is the ability to identify a conflict and handle it accordingly. The
main aim of managing conflict is to enhance outcomes especially during an interview. In order to
be able to handle a conflict effectively, one has to consider a lot of aspects like for example listen
carefully to each other to avoid misinterpretation that might aggravate the topic into a more
serious matter. Another important thing to consider is that one should not focus on the
personality but the behavior. There are different styles that can be used to manage conflicts well.
Islam religion has been criticized a lot due to some of Islamist actions of massive killings
around the world. Most of the groups that commit these inhuman crimes have associated
themselves with Islamic religion like the ISIS, Al-queda and others. Despite all these unfortunate
events from the so called Islamic groups, some people have come forward to defend Muslims
and their religion. Some leaders and groups that advocate for peace has claimed that Islamic is
just a religion just like Christianity or Buddhism.
They argue that although people claim that women are marginalized in these
communities, it’s not about the religion but out of lack of knowledge. The focus of the essay
therefore is to analyze how people can be able to manage themselves in the outside world to
avoid conflicts that might be triggered by their utterances especially to Muslim community.

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Transcript Analysis
The participants of the interview are the Camerota, Lemon and Reza Aslan. Camerota
and Lemon are news anchors at CNN while Reza Aslan is a religion scholar, professor at
California University, Riverside and he is the author of Zealot: the Life and Times of Jesus of
Nazareth.
The objective of Camerota and Lemon is to interview Raza and get to understand his
stand after the controversial comments of comedian Bill Maher who claimed that Muslim has too
much in common with ISIS and their religion does not value women or respect gay people. As a
scholar, Reza have always defended the Islamic religion from criticism. His purpose during this
show was to give his stand that would help manage any conflict that would have emerged from
the comedians words.
Professor Raza seems to defame the Africans during this interview especially on the issue
of female genital mutilations. He claims that that FGM is not an issue in the Islamic religion but
it is in Africa (1.40m). Another act of vilification is when Reza refers to P.M Netanyahu’s
statement as propaganda therefore undermining his leadership.

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During the interview, both Camerota and Lemon feels threatened at some instances by
Aslan. Take for example an instance where Aslan thinks that FGM is an African problem; it is
his stand and they can’t argue with him as they are not supposed to take any side. Their job is to
conduct the interview and at the same time avoid any comment that would bring conflict. At
another point, the journalists have to avoid any comment and just give in by saying “ok” and fair
enough as they don’t want matters to get out of control on live television (7.01m).
Opinion can be seen too during the interview. Why would Lemon ask if Islam promotes
violence? Are there facts to back his claims? There is not any fact therefore he asks the question
out of opinion. Aslan also in some instance claims that Pakistan should be criticized for stoning
women to death but he does not give supporting facts to show that it is something that has
happened before and therefore Pakistan is at fault.
Conflict Management Evaluation Report
Introduction
When dealing with managing a conflict, the following styles should have been effective
during the CNN interview of Camerota, Lemon and Aslan; competing, communication,
collaboration and compromise. Below is a discussion of the effectiveness of these styles in
details.
Discussion
During the interview at CNN where Camerota and Lemon were hosting Aslan, the
interview would have been effective if they would have used the style of competing where both
parties would have pushed each other until they get their way into a heated debate. This was not
the case as conflict management styles are often influenced by power distance and individualism

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(van der & Hofhuis, 2017, p, 1-9). The two journalists should cut the power barrier with their
host in order to be able to compete with professor Aslan during the interview.
Compromise is another style that is efficient when managing a conflict. It involves two
parties agreeing to make a decision that is acceptable if not agreeable. In using the style of
comprise, both parties stand to lose something but at the end the results will be worth the loss
and it will be a long term solution. This is because when interviews are about intergroup
conflicts, the other party should ensure to maintain cohesion and be able to solve the conflict
(Fisher, 2012, p, 5-7). This way, it is easy to differentiate ones opinion from others and make the
interview interesting but avoiding further conflicts (Cahn & Abigail, 2014, p, 14).
Communication is one tool that reduces conflicts and especially where one does not have
to use the language of what another person said. It also reduces conclusion that are arrived at
instantly (Hener, 2010, p, 132-141, Spaho, 2013, p, 103-118). Direct communication is the best
way to rely message during interview. Communication is seen when there is togetherness and co-
operation (Hsu, 2017, p, 5). Therefore, to ensure that the interview was highly effective, the
participants should have show cooperation instead of attacking each other throughout the
interview period. The public should too be encouraged by such communication and they would
have role models to look up to even when problems arise among themselves.

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The participants of the interview should have looked at the future and assured the
listeners that tomorrow will be a greater day than today is despite which religion they followed.
In order to ensure that there are no more conflicts especially in the Islamic communities the
journalist and the guest would have assured their viewers that tomorrow is greater than today. Its
one style of handling conflicts that is effective (Saeed, 2014, p, 214-225,). Assurance would
make the participants be seen as responsible to the people they are conveying information to so
that they can be able to maintain peace. This is the first goal of ensuring further conflicts does
not arise due to mishandling of information.
Accepting responsibility would have been another style to make the interview more
efficient. This means that both parties should have agreed that everyone is responsible in what is
happening in the Muslims’ community as the only thing people have been doing is criticizing
them but no solution has been found up to date (Rahim, 2017, p, 38). People should also accept
that passing biased information or distorted information is what makes the conflict aggravate
(Jehn et al, 2013, p, 352-373). The participants of the interview should have avoided being
biased therefore (Caputo, 2013, p, 374-398).
Collaboration is another efficient style when it comes to conflict management. This
means that the involved parties decide to brings their ideas together and come into a one decision
suitable for everyone’s interests at hand (Bakhare, 2010, p, 6). This is known as the strategic
planning approach where all parties win (Behfar, 2011, p, 127-176). In this interview, the
participants should be about collaborating ideas together to ensure it is not just about asking
questions and answering. This style is also referred to as the co-operative style (Somech et al,
2009, p, 362). This method is problem solving, integrating everyone’s ideas and it is a win-win
solution even in an interview.

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If managed properly, the conflict interview about the Muslim community could have
made the CNN get unbelievable benefits. This is because when conflicts are managed well can
bring benefits to the organization (Hempel et al, 2009, p, 41-65). This is because conflict is
divided into two theories; competitive conflict and cooperative conflict. CNN anchors could
have opted for cooperativeness rather than competitiveness, the earlier has the ability to earn
benefits.
Conclusion
In order to ensure that a conflict is handled well, one should ensure there are proper skills
in communication. Emotional intelligence and empathy are also crucial skills when managing
conflict and they should be applied. It should also be noted that Islam does not promote violence
in any way as it is only a small group that has been associated with acts of violence just like there
are Christian groups who are committing crimes. Therefore, all Muslims should not be criticized
just because of crimes committed by few inhuman groups that want to associate themselves as
Islam. On another note, people and especially in the media should avoid giving comments that
might trigger conflicts and threaten other religions. Last but not the least, Muslim should be
respected and their religion as it is a religion like any other in the society and they have a right to
being Muslims as Christians do have their rights too.

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