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Terrorism
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| No | 29% | 232 votes | Total: 810 votes | |
| Yes | 71% | 578 votes |
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Add to FavoritesThe misconception that terrorism and religion are strongly related is rooted in another misconception that terrorism is a product of the Muslim world. If one only attempts to understand terrorism in the modern sense it would be very easy to come away with the conclusion that religion is strongly ensconced in its existence. However, if one takes a deeper look at the history of terrorism it becomes possible to see beyond the erroneous belief that it derives from the Muslim world. It is much clearer at that point to understand that Terrorism, while sometimes definitely derived for religious reasons, may also be the product of political factors or of the two combined. It requires a deeper study to be explained clearly.
A deeper look at the history of terrorism will reveal that terrorism is not new to the world. In fact terrorism in some form or other has been around for thousands of years but was not actually termed "Terrorism" until the French Revolution during the 1790's. Continuing back through time we can find that the Assyrians implemented a very effective form of terrorism in the conquering of their empire. They would ride into a village and kill and inform the occupants that they were now Assyrians who must accept the Assyrian king as their leader, the Assyrian language as their language, and all other customs of the Assyrians would become theirs as well. The new subjects were to forsake their own leaders, religion, language, and customs immediately. It was a simple choice. Submit or die. Those who did not submit (many at first) were put to death immediately. Sometimes entire villages were killed. As news spread of the Assyrian brutality the number of those refusing to submit decreased. The Romans used a similar method.
Under the Romans in Judea a group called the Zealots (Sicarii to the Romans) conducted their attacks on Roman political figures and other Jews whom they believed to be Roman sympathizers. An interesting aspect of the Zealots is that they were no trying to force their religion or customs on anyone but believed that the roman way of life was in conflict with the ways of Judaism. The Romans eventually massacred by the Zealots at Masada.
In the Muslim world the first group to engage in terroristic acts was the Ismailis of Iran. Known as the Assassins they served the "old man of the mountain" their leader who ruled from the mountain fortress Alamut. Much like terrorists of today the assassins were too few to engage in open warfare with their enemies who were other Muslims who had different beliefs on Muslim leadership both political and religious.
Coming closer to modern times lets not forget acts of terrorism conducted by the American government against the Native Americans by spreading blankets infected with small pox throughout the tribes. This is definitely a case of terrorism that stemmed not from religion or politics as much as the desire for land.
There are surely many other examples that could be sited, all similar to those above but those listed thus far should suffice to address the original question.
Does religion have anything to do with terrorism? The answer is no, not as its primary cause and not in every case, although it sometimes plays a smaller role. In most cases it is for political reasons disguised with religious motivation. There are few religions in the world that openly accept murder and destruction, therefore we have to remember that all religions have one imperfect aspect-Humans. It is humans who chose to participate in Terrorist acts, not the religion to which they belong.
Terrorism is a complex phenomenon of which religion is only a piece of the puzzle. As stated above the Assyrians and Romans used it for conquest, much like the United States did against the Native Americans. Religion played only a small role if any in these scenarios. The Zealots of Judea acted because of religion but only because they would not submit to Roman rule and the Ismailis mainly for conflict within their own religion of Islam.
The misconception that religion plays such a large role in terrorism comes partly from the media but mostly from the terrorists themselves. The religion of Islam was founded to bring an end to wars among the Arabs. Murder and other acts of violence are not accepted. Terrorists have distorted their religion and make it apply to their needs. True Muslims despise the terrorists for this very fact. It has become a form of propaganda to recruit new people and to motivate them to give their lives in the destruction of others. It is born of hatred that has to do with much more than mere religious dogma. Religion, more often than not, takes a backseat to political philosophy, racial issues, and ambition for power or control over others through the use of fear.
Learn more about this author, Steve Miracle.
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Yes
Whether an organized religion is the driving and inspirational force behind acts of terrorism, or whether personal religious faith is the last thing that a terrorist would admit to having as an inspiration, there are religious beliefs, values and norms involved in much of everyday thinking. Either religion, itself, or the rebellion against past abuses by religious parents or socializing forces is in the mind of almost every person who is living today.
A deeply religious person who has taken an extremist or deviant religious path has had influence from some source that combines religious and secular absolute thinking in order to justify killing and destruction as a divine imperative. In many cases, the charismatic individual who encourages others to do violence against "the enemy" professes to be religious, but could not care less about any religion. Such a charismatic individual simply knows that religious references, rhetoric, and professions of faith carry enormous power in motivating or convincing others.
When anyone takes a deviant or extremist path in political life that involves incorporating terrorist acts into their definition of what is acceptable, that person is likely to have modified their religious thinking into justifying whatever actions that they decide to take. While we focus only on Muslim terrorists these days, there are terrorists and potential terrorists who are of other religions, from Judaism to the newest forms of Christianity.
Terrorism, itself, involves highly destructive and horrific acts which are designed to show enormous power to strike at any place and at any time. This form of activism is, by necessity, from a passive/aggressive position, as the terrorist is often an outsider, is not supported by the majority of people around him or her, and will never gain widespread support or approval for their beliefs, actions or policies. As a result, the terrorist is not viewed by many as a "freedom fighter", or as working to make life better for a large population of the oppressed or mistreated. The terrorist is viewed as someone who is out to force a repulsive, unwanted, and heavily resisted way of life onto others; or who is out to destroy one society and replace it with another, regardless of the fact that the members of the targeted society do not want their society destroyed and replaced.
The religious terrorist expands his or her religious beliefs to apply to secular matters, and violates the precepts of his or her religion by declaring others to be the enemy, and therefore worthy of killing by whatever means possible. The religious terrorist finds deviant perspectives and justifications for using religious justifications for killing not only specific enemies to the religion, but for killing innocents and destroying and disrupting life for everyone in a hated society, in order to gain power, some supernatural reward, to gain the favor of a divine entity, or to carry out a twisted understanding of a divine imperative.
In some cases, the religious understanding extends to the idea that others have no purpose for existing at all, or that others only exist to serve those who have incurred some higher standing as dictated by a divine entity. In other cases, there is some incredible, eternal reward that comes after the terrorist has sacrificed his or her live in carrying out a horrific act, committing voluntary suicide in the process. Divine law replaces secular law in the minds of religious terrorists. Secular law is viewed as not only illegitimate, but as evil. The unjustified killing of massive numbers of humans is viewed as some form of divinely inspired "cleansing" of the evil from the world.
When religion has such a deviant and pathological perspective, there is generally a charismatic leader, a cult like "processing" of individuals, and the ability of the leadership to isolate and work on people who are vulnerable in their ability to be "brainwashed". The individuals who are vulnerable begin with a state of conflict between where they are spiritually, and where they want to be spiritually, and have already rejected any normal or healthy alternatives for resolving their conflict. As a result, they are either recruited or lulled into a state of acceptance of increasingly deviant and pathological beliefs and religious understandings.
And, while the Muslim religion has been the most active in exercising the religious/terrorist interface throughout the world, other religions have extremist elements that show increasing willingness to resort to terrorist acts in order to control society from a religious perspective, or to return society to some former way of living where their particular form of religion dominated both secular and religious life.
Learn more about this author, Elizabeth M. Young.
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