Does religion cause war?
Every state, culture, and society in the world has some form of religion. The most popular religions in the world today are Christianity, Buddhism, and the Muslim religions. Members of every religion follow some form of philosophy or ideology that shape their thinking and behaviors. One common thing about the existing religions is the presence of a supreme being. People misinterpret existing religious ideologies serving their personal interests that at times turn out to cause war. Religious ideologies brainwash populations who end up acting violently in different deviant forms (Richardson, 518). Religions use specific ideologies to make people living in a society violent to peaceful members who may fight back in self-defense.
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Extremism manifests itself dangerously in the Islam religion (Palmer, Monte, and Princess Palmer, 37). The Muslim religion has some laws and believes that no one should question their design, origin or application. Good people should punish immoral people in Islam religion without showing mercy to them. In Islam, human beings have no right to offer forgiveness to others that can easily lead to and create peace to oneself in the society. The unforgiving nature makes human rights groups in many ways try to change and support governments that try to overthrow Muslim extremist governments. Such an approach creates a war never ending between the Muslim governments and other governments that fight the extremist ideals. In East Africa, Somalia presents a case example by observing how the Government is not able to control the ever fighting and dreadful Al-Shabaab. The “Al-Shabaab” is an Arab name for Muslim youth who over the years try to use enforce extremist rulers in governing the country and hence controlling the resources. Muslim fighters and rebels arm themselves with arsenals they use to fight groups that oppose them by killing and torturing them. The al-Shabaab launches attacks that kill people and openly claim responsibility for the losses and the deaths they cause. They also punish members who commit sin using the retrogressive laws of the Quran on the people they label sinners. Other extremist …show more content…
The prophet did not show mercy or spare the lives of people criticizing Islam. His views remain a big motivator to Muslims that fight other people for belonging to the different religions. Muhammed orders Muslims to fight the non-Muslims everywhere and ensure that they acknowledge that “Allah” is the only God. The position taken by the prophet is openly one that escalates existing tensions and creates war. People from different cultures in the world have different religions that relate to their cultures. Muslims should use ideologies to convert people to Islam and war as directed by the prophet. The use of force calls for retaliatory attacks from non-Muslims who may be unwilling to join the religion. The prophet also instructs the Muslims to kill those who choose to leave the religion in favor of other religions. Killing those who leave creates an example of Muslims waging war to their fellow Muslims. The prophet clearly illustrates Muslim is a religion that does not promote peace by viewing other members as inferior. According to his teachings of the prophet, it is not a sin for a Muslim to kills a non-Muslim. The heavenly rewards Allah gives for killing non-Muslims encourage the Muslims to follow the teachings of killing peaceful and innocent members of other religions. Often people rely on the prophet’s views and teachings to interpret the scriptures they are not able to
In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, the main character, Lieutenant Fredric Henry, undergoes a dramatic change in perspective over the course of the novel. It is most interesting to see how the Lieutenant's views on religion change as he becomes more involved in the war.
Religion is one of the many factors that define an individual. So, any threat to a person’s beliefs is a threat to his or hers’ very being. The clash between Muslims and Christians is just one of the many groups with distinct differences and beliefs. Therefore, these differences in religion often influence political rivalries as well. Throughout history, someone observing world affairs may note that religion is a contentious issue; however, political tension emerges from this very issue in recent times. Doing so has labeled politics as the core of many conflicts worldwide. These battles between religions also inhibit agitation by one group against another, for gaining reputable land, wealth, and political power. Thus, politics is the primary
Religion, “part of the human experience that has to do with a god or gods, a higher power, or the ultimate values of life” (Cason & Tillman 6-7), is one of the most controversial and interesting subjects for humanity. It has been around for as long as anyone can recall and they have difference and similarities in their founders, beliefs, and history. Religion has served to give some sort of a meaning to life and everything around it. In modern society, some religions have grown and expanded significantly. These larger religions have been classified as world religions. In addition, these world religions have been split into two categories known as Eastern and Western religion.
Religion is considered as a pervasive force in this world. It shapes people as to how they behave and interact with almost everything present in the society. Influencing behavior, character formations, ideals, policies, standards are just among the dimensions and societal perspectives affected and impacted by religion. Because of these applications and implications in human lives and existence, religion should be understood deeply, particularly, on how it affects the world. Looking at the American perspective of the term "religion," it could be simply
Many terrorists believe that their religion is the only true religion, and they use it to justify violence (“Islamic Terrorism”). Most Muslim terrorists follow Jihad. Jihad is an Islamic perception that the way to integrate their religion is by massive force (“Of True Muslims and Terrorists”). Jihad is considered the “sixth pillar” of faith in Islam because it is the constant fight towards good. It is the idea of focusing on God and turning away from those that oppose God (David E. Long, 91). The terrorists believe that their religion is what everyone should follow, so they would naturally require personnel in power in Muslim states to either convert to their religion or resign from their terms. They will first threaten a leader that if they do not change, the terrorists will use violence. Sometimes, violent acts come about without any warning or previous threats (“Of True Muslims and Terrorists”). Islam is a proselytizing religion, which means it uses violence to convert people to its faith. This is because, in the ...
In conclusion it is evident that Islamic extremists groups will continue to conduct acts of terror in pursuit of their goals and persistent attempts to enforce power over the populous under shariah law. The influence of Ba’asyir will continue to be a motivational and spiritual driver of radical organizations and individuals into the foreseeable future, regardless of incarceration, freedom or execution. Persistent efforts to counter religious extremism by Indonesian authorities and regional partners is not only imperative but essential.
The article chosen for this review is by Raymond G. Helmick titled Does Religion Fuel or Heat in Conflicts?. The article discussed how religion does in fact play a role of some type within most all notable conflicts throughout history and continues through into today’s conflicts. The article talks about how religion faith is in itself “an all-encompassing outlook on life, on the world and its meaning” (Helmick, Peterson, 2001, p. 81). Many of the world’s wars and violent acts against others can be attributed to the different religious beliefs. When the topic of religion is brought up in any type of discussion, one must understand that it is viewed in many different ways and that it can at times fuel the fire when for the most part its aim
Religion has many effects in any society. It can either destroy it by proving customs wrong or it can guide it like it guides converts to believe in the religion. Religion creates two different societies and while it guides one to become stronger it will destroy another at the same time. Religion guides societies and destroys them.
Religion is a specific important set of beliefs and practices that aids the purpose of creating rules and values in a society. When studying various religions, it becomes apparent that the principles taught are morally fair. Throughout the era of human history, religion has been a major creator to war, bloodshed, hatred, and intolerance. Most people, from reviewing past events, would say that religions are violent. Each major religion at some point in history addresses violence in some way, and a majority condemn such inhumanity. People who follow a certain religion, should follow the rules and regulations that the religion offers, so that should mean world peace, right? That is not the case, however, a society is always correcting the
Religion is a subject that can be touchy to talk about, which is surprising considering the fact that 84% of the world’s population practices religion. Some may find the statistic to be surprising, but, there are so many religions that are being practiced day after day, year after year. Today, there are five religions that can be titled as “The Five Great Religions.” Those religions are Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Although these religions are all different, having their own special aspect to them, they all share one thing. That one thing is that they all have faith as to what they believe is to be what they should follow to live a prosperous life. By looking at these five religion’s economies, governments, history,
My research has led me to the conclusion that conflict between Muslim groups and the Western societies is purely political, but tinged with misinterpretations of the Quran by Islamic radicals. The false justifications these groups make about the Quran explicitly directing Muslims to attack anyone of a different religion is motivated by a few key instigators political ambitions and want for power. It is because of these few groups of radicals and their own misinterpretation of the Quran that lead Westerners to view Muslims with distrust and suspicion. There is a strong need to practice religious tolerance and identify that the problem lies within a few groups of disgruntled individuals. Islam is a religion that preaches peace among those that follow its guidance and tolerance for peoples of other religions.
Extremism is no longer become a local phenomenon, nowadays it become the global threat that caused a significant pain. It continuously spread its sphere of influence and operation in the world throughout time. Formerly, the term extremism intrinsically used to contribute a lot in the positive movements. Extremism had driven human to enter the new era with better way of thinking. However, nowadays the term of extremism mostly refers to the use of violences, religions, political agendas, or ideological purposes that ended up as a global catastrophe. Going beyond any borders extremism poses a danger to the subjects of international relations and for international security as well. This paper will elucidate the extremism cases—the global issue
Ever since humans formed different societies and countries, conflicts of power and control have centered our politics, but then as the influence of religion grew on individuals many countries gave religious sectors power and influence over the government. This was due to religion's capture of a person's emotional character and the quest to find and follow God's way of life. As the size of population and countries grew, more information was exchanged between different societies and countries. People exchanged values, morals, norms and other factors of living. Throughout history, religions have collided and caused conflicts on disputes over beliefs, norms, and taboos. These conflicts caused intolerance of other religions and culture, thus also leading for people to persecute each other over the belief of being the right religion. Each religion has believed to be the righteous, and the one true religion of god. These believes still have a long lasting effect in our modern day lives. Throughout the world there have been many wars, many were created due to intolerance and secularism of rel...
Religious beliefs can help us answer questions as, ‘Who am I?’, ‘Why do evil and suffering exist?’ and ‘Is there life after death? The answers to these questions can offer a sense of belonging, meaning and community, comfort, and can contribute to the mental health of a society. Religion can also challenge and stimulate change in a society, especially in the face of a social or political injustice. It can also encourage extreme violence when their believers become convinced that their world view is being challenged. (Ibid
The most destructive type of violence is the one instigated by political or religious leaders. Throughout history we can see that leaders have used religion, race and some other issues to wage wars in order to boost their own power. For example, the Muslim leaders led wars against other nations after the prophet’s death. Similarly, the Christians leaders led the crusades; and Hitler led a war that cost 60 million lives. What made these leaders successful in their wrongful deeds was their followers’ igno...