For the conflicts that happen on a large scale, different reasons are given for their occurrence. But, I have a strong feeling that maybe, it’s a fight for culture.
Religious differences
I see people of my religion fighting with each other, for their sects. Be it the matter of visiting Dargahs, considering green as a ‘holy’ colour, wearing Kurta Pajama or wearing Burkha, most of the time, people don’t fight for the truth, they fight for their ways of life. Because, these or other activities and beliefs define them. And if someone is attacking their beliefs and traditions, or if someone is just following other beliefs which are very different to theirs, they feel that their identity is being threatened.
Same pattern with people from different religions.
Immigrants
In the cases of xenophobia too, people of a particular place (I wanted to say ‘native people’, but then I realised that that is a fragile definition and in some cases, the people whom we consider to be ‘belonging’ to a particular place, themselves settled there after displacing others.) have a sense of hostility to other who migrate there or want to migrate there.
The settled people fear that these ‘new’ people will bring ‘new’ habits and they will destroy ‘our way of life’!
Conclusion
Try to understand and perceive these things using this explanation and maybe, you too will feel that it has been a fight for culture.
I wish I could express these views in a better way. But, this is the best I could do today.