5 Understanding Conflict

Suggested Duration: 60 minutes

► To understand what conflict is and how people respond to it

Key Words

► Conflict, differences, hatred, greed, selfishness

Islamic Values

Islam teaches us to be kind and polite, and to resolve personal conflicts in a peaceful manner.

Citizenship Values

Good citizens are expected to deal with conflict in a peaceful and law-abiding way.

Resources

Pupils' Activity Sheet 2.0501: Case Studies of Conflict

Activities

Ask some quick questions to recap the last lesson.

Share the lesson objectives.

A Starter Activity

This activity has been provided courtesy of the IHNA Education Programme, developed by Building Bridges Pendle.

Introduce the term 'conflict'.

Ask pupils what the word 'conflict' means to them.

Suggested answer: Conflict means a disagreement, a fight or a dispute.

After taking responses from the pupils, try and tease out the differences between the causes which underlie the conflict described - for example, fighting can be caused by hatred, greed, an individual's/a group's interest or selfishness.

B Development

Activity 1: Conflict

Ask pupils to give some examples of conflicts. Encourage them to think about any local, national or international cases of conflict - for example, arguing, fighting and war.

Write suggestions on the board/flip chart for everyone to see. Then discuss some of them one by one.

Note: It is important that the pupils are given the time/opportunity to share their experiences. There may be recent local events, killings, stabbings, and so on, that the pupils have been affected by. Use this time to explore what happened - giving pupils a safe space for discussion.

Activity 2: Case Study of Conflict

Use Pupils' Activity Sheet 2.0501. Divide the class into small groups. Ask pupils to identify causes of a conflict, to describe the event and to say what type of harm was caused.

Ask representatives from the groups to come forward and present their answers.

Tease out the causes of conflict - for instance, how we behave (such as teasing, bullying), lack of responsibility, not seeing things from other people's point of view, media and misinformation, misunderstanding of religion, prejudice and racism.

Activity 3: Islamic Guidance

Ask a pupil to recite the following verses. Explain the meaning.

ظَهَرَ الْفَسَادُ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ

أَيْدِي النَّاسِ لِيُذِيقَهُم بَعْضَ الَّذِي عَمِلُوا

لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ

'Chaos has appeared on the land and sea because of what the hands of the people have done, so that He (God) makes them taste some of what they have done, in order that they may return (to the right way).' (Surat al-Rum 30:41)

Question: What does 'make them taste some of what they have done' mean?

Suggested answer: All our actions have consequences. Sometimes the consequences can also be natural disasters. In English, we sometimes say 'have a taste of your own medicine'.

C Plenary

Summarise:

There are many different things that cause conflict.
The basic reason of a conflict is differences of views.
There are many types of conflicts and many ways to respond.

Suggested Follow-up Work

Ask pupils to think about a time when they were involved in a conflict or argument. Ask:

What caused the conflict and how did you deal with it?
Was it the right thing to do?

Ask pupils to write about it and bring their writing to the next lesson.

Pupils' Activity Sheet 2.0501

Case Studies of Conflict