Reasons for intensified distance between the followers of different religions and sects in Sistan and Baluchestan Province

The study emphasizes the exacerbated areas of conflict and distance between religions and sects in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan. Within the framework of a qualitative study and based on the grounded theory, interviews were conducted with 25 residents of the province over a six-month period. Following the principle of theoretical sampling, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants. The findings were coded and analyzed through the Strauss and Corbin method. In open coding, the interviews were read multiple times, resulting in the extraction of approximately 95 meaningful concepts. These were then synthesized into 7 main and abstract categories as well as 16 subcategories. Finally, a core category "conflicting forces and disintegration of interactions between religions and sects," which is comprehensive and concise, was extracted capturing all the main categories and narrative of the data. This research demonstrates that factors such as discrimination, non-acceptance of others, lack of wisdom among some religious scholars, and the absence of free discourse in a socio-cultural context shaped by economic problems and influenced by geographical factors as well as the intervention of factors such as extreme ethnic and religious prejudices, led to the formation of an extremist and biased network with internal and external interests, which work towards preventing interaction between religions and sects. The outcome of this process is humiliating and insulting actions of people, as well as a change in their perception of religion.