In the course of history, religion has been at the origin of conflicts that caused the death of millions of individuals. The rise of radical Islam has showed, in the past decades, how religious ideologies when fueled by political visions can stir the masses and create a huge potential of violence. But is religion really the cause of conflicts?
Religion is the belief and worshiping the supernatural being that rules everything. Religions have been always recognized as full of ethical values and millions of people around the word, more than one third of the world population agree to belong to a religion. Those who experience sincere nearness to God by applying the core teachings of religion know the taste of true faith and the power of the creator, but every well versed devotee may have his own convictions about his religion. Some people however have been convinced by the scriptures on their own, and every year millions of people travel around the world to visit religious pilgrim sites. More that 10 millions people visit Mecca each year to perform Hajj, the third pillar of Islamic faith, and 10 million people will visit the Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome as well as Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City .
It is also worth mentioning the millions of people visiting Jerusalem and other sites in the world. It is possible that some people just accept the religion of their community, their family, their friends. Others investigate on their own after an existential crisis, and come to the conclusion that a particular religion is true. People argue faith irrationally, and it is difficult to come to a common point. In most cases people will quote scriptures that have been translated and interpreted by various scholars around the world. Indeed religious scriptures and rich of wisdom and spiritual knowledge , but the understanding must have been influenced by group of religious leaders with political ambitions.
For instance Christianity has been used for conquest in during history. “ The defense of Christians and the faith, warriors were promised by the pope, brought a remission of sins and a fast-track route to heaven.” The warriors believed and fought with all their energy.
The crusades remain among the greatest wars that were done in the name of religions. Most of them were organised by popes and Christian western powers to take back the control of Jerusalem and some holy sites from Muslim powers. But in the course of the history of religions, Christian fought other Christians, Jews , Muslims etc…
Between 1095 and 1270 many crusade took place. In the 11th century the byzantine emperor Alexios komnenos wanted to defeat the Muslim Seljuks who were invading him and seek help from Christians. Pope Urban 2 joined him in order to strengthen his papacy. They took back Jerusalem that had been under the control of Muslims for almost 4 centuries. Religion was used as it is the case in Islamic terrorism to stir the conflicts but the main motivation was political.
But crusades were also organized by preachers such as Peter the Hermit who gathered a huge group of people supporting him and there were crushed by the Seljuks Turks who were were military superior. The count Enricho is know to have carried out massacres of Jews in Rheinland in 1096.
In 1849 during religious crusades, the Catholics exterminated almost 230 000 Christian protestants because they did not recognized the authority of the pope. The British protestants also exterminated a lot of Catholics in 1851. But most crusades were between Muslims and Christians but globally there were ruthless massacres of Jews, Christians and non-muslims. Most of the crusades were to extend political empires and authority, religions just being used as a weapon to gather people under the same vision. For instance The byzantine and the Roman empires both used reigion to extend their territories.
And it has also been the case somehow with Islam in the past decades. There is a Hadith that is similar to the argument of the Christian leaders: It reports that the tradition has been narrated on the authority of ‘Abdullah b. Qais. He heard it from his father who, while facing the enemy, reported that the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: Surely, the gates of Paradise are under the shadows of the swords. A man in a shabby condition got up and said; Abu Musa, did you hear the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) say this? He said: Yes. (The narrator said): He returned to his friends and said: I greet you (a farewell greeting). Then he broke the sheath of his sword, threw it away, advanced with his (naked) sword towards the enemy and fought (them) with it until he was slain. (Sahih Muslim)
It is therefore obvious that people are really religious and have the conviction that it is somehow necessary to follow religious teachings.. Whereas faith can be argued rationally by a few religious scholars, it is obvious that the majority of people just hang on what they are being told and on their own understanding of the scriptures. Religious argumentation is a potential of conflict because it is naively seen also just a cultural matter. As no culture can claim to be superior to others, every religion will be considered by his adepts as the most suitable for them and they will have clear argument for it according to their own conviction.
In comparative religions the religion claiming to be the more suitable for mankind always claim to be universal, not limited to a group as most monotheistic religions claim that the true God is one, and that all those who want salvation must follow their teachings. Every religion however will contradicts others in its teachings somehow, especially as far as the condition for salvation is concerned. In our modern secular societies religion is considered as something personal.
For instance the Torah teaches that salvation can be done through through repentance and doing what pleases God, whereas Christianity insists that salvation is through Jesus Christ, the savior, who gave his life to wipe out the sins of mankind. For the Muslims salvation is through tawhid, the conviction that God is only one and has no partner. The different views have always caused a problem for secular societies. Arguing will increase the conflict as every group believe to be right. You might spend years trying to explain to someone who follows the teachings of Christianity for example that Jesus Christ is not God the father, he will sometimes understand but sometimes doubt, and in each case he can quote the scriptures to convince you. And if you were to insult the beloved prophet Muhammad in front of a convinced Muslim it will be dangerous for your life. The Jews on their own are also convinced that they are the chosen beloved of God and that the will have all the favours of their Lord if the follow the law in the Torah as much as they can.
Fortunately the choice of religion has remain personal in many modern societies and it is the role of politics to create a suitable frame for the cohesion and coexistence of the various religious view as far as they do not pose any threat to peace. Religion argumentation is very difficult without a long time practice because literally there are contradictory verses in many scripture. For example , many Christians will claim that Christianity is peaceful but if you were to write an essay about violence in the bible you will still find a lot of passages. For example Jesus, who is known as the most peaceful is quoted in the the Gospel of Luke with the following:
Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to divide people against each other!(luke 12: 51)
“He said to them, ‘But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.'”(Luke 22:36)
On the one hand it is obvious the fact that scriptures are rich of contradictions due to various utterances and verses in different context on another hand there are similarities and universal spiritual teachings in many scriptures. Moreover, it is very difficult to coerce religious beliefs because it is not something that can be directly rejected or accepted. .Religious practices should only be restricted if they interfere with the rights of others. The problem with multiple ideals polling into different directions is difficult to resolve.Judaism does not recognize Jesus as the messiah. Christianity beliefs that salvation is through Jesus. Islam believe that Muhammad is the last messenger of God and that Jesus is a prophet of God. Hinduism beliefs that there are many Gods. The development of secular societies has increased rapidly in the name of democracy, but secularism does not guarantee ethical basics in handling some of the challenges that face mankind. Even-though extremism has created violence and wars, resulting to indignation and disappointment throughout the world, there is no sign that religious belief is fading out. Instead it predictable that in a foreseeable future, Islam will have overtaken Christianity as the world’s major religion and that the number of Christians will increase and that many polytheistic religions will grow proportionally. Politics is therefore condemned to be come more and more tolerant to religiosity while struggling to guarantee a fertile field for secularism.
