Understanding the link between religion and violence within contemporary culture is quite important because this issue has become so rampant in recent years. The violent conflicts caused by religion are more prevalent in all the religions in the world, for example, Buddhism and Christianity. Moreover, conflicts are happening across many world regions, with North Africa and the Middle East being the most affected parts. The world is hence getting divided because of religion, yet this should be the other way around because religion should be a uniting factor. There is indeed no religion in the whole world that is linked with evil; however, religion can cause a lot of suffering in the world that is expected. Rather than uniting people, the major religions have perhaps affected humanity in a negative way since these religions have caused more conflicts and violence across the world.
Whenever religious groups directly participate and support conflict and violence, the stereotypes and ethics linked with religion are brought into question. Buddhism religion does not, however, support violence since it hurts humanity and causes more pain to people. Buddhist monks in Myanmar are indeed a sign of source of defiance and hope however participated in the attack on Muslim businesses and homes back in 2014 (Myanmar’s Anti-Muslim Monks 01:26). This brings up the question as to why Buddhist monks are indeed portrayed as a sign of hope, yet they participated in such violent attacks. The revolutionary Buddhist monk who was in support of such attacks claimed that “Muslims are breeding so fast, and they are then stealing our women and raping them. They want to occupy the whole country; however, I will not let them. We must keep Myanmar Buddhist” (Beech 2). This is undoubtedly hate speech, but it is untrue since the Muslim population makes up just around 5% of the total population and cannot, as the monk claims, dominate the whole nation (Myanmar’s Anti-Muslim Monks 00:31). This implies that religion can indeed be a diving factor and can cause conflicts. The Buddhist commander was thus one of the motivating factors, and in the end, he directed his followers to engage in violence and hostilities with Muslims not only in Myanmar but also throughout the entire world. Through some of these concepts, conflicts tend to grow beyond the boundaries and hence affect the Buddhists and Muslims outside the nation, something that can even result in conflicts between the two religions (Arnold 159). Due to the complexity of these teachings, designed to preserve humanity, people started associating certain religious organizations with conflicts and violent behaviour.
The religious differences and conflicts portray it as being evil and not how people expect religion to be. There were some conflicts that happened between the Muslims and the Christians in Egypt in 2011, and this was because of a church bombing that left twenty-one people dead (Clashes in Egypt 01:00). As a result of this, the whole country was left divided by such conflicts, and for some time the entire country was under tension and fear. This was ironic because the Islamic and Christian laws teach people about the evils associated with war, murder and violence. The people, however, did not want to adhere to such teachings, and instead, they embarked on conflicts and violence (Arnold et al., 162). Some militant groups, for example, Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram and Isis, tend to carry out terrorist attacks in the name of religion.
The religious conflicts have gradually become modern warfare as various countries, religions and tribes are becoming more divided and getting into war because of the difference in their spiritual practices. The Jihadist combatants went ahead and beheaded their victims, as they quote in the Quran book. This demonstrates another modern concern associating religion with societal conflicts and violence (Arnold et al., 164). It is indeed through religious faith such militant groups get the motivation and the strength to engage in violent attacks.
Religion carries a violent undertone that ultimately renders any conflict more radical since warriors who feel God is on their side find it impossible to negotiate. There are bound to be divisions along religious lines since no religious group intends to give up its ideas and acknowledge the superiority of certain other religious groups. Nevertheless, nothing permits terrorism and hostility between such societies because people can live in harmony and peace whether they practice a religion or not. To help in restoring humanity, individuals should separate politics from religion; however, this is a difficult concept to understand because there are laws in some countries that are based on religious doctrines. Comprehending all the traditions linked to various religious groups becomes a big challenge when there are conflicting religious doctrines, making it much more difficult to settle on a common understanding. Spiritual teachings are considered ineffective in helping combat conflicts and violence as some religions intentionally are against their doctrines to protect their social and political interests.
However, religion cannot be claimed to be violent or perhaps peaceful. This is so because even though religion has in the past been involved in some violent activities, religion has helped transform the world and make it a better place. Religion is not the cause for the major wars that have happened in the world in the past because the World Wars and Genghis Khan campaigns did not have any motivations propelled by religion. Religion might not have caused such historical wars, but religion could be essential in some way which has undoubtedly transformed the whole world in a negative way. There are many waves of goodwill that religion has brought to the world. These include; hospitals, help centres, orphanages and schools that would otherwise not have come into existence if it were not for religion (Martin 113). Religions have also been at a pole position towards advocating for hope and peace across the world, fighting against discrimination and racism, and advocating for children’s rights, immigrant rights, human rights and also the women’s rights in the world.
Religion also has a long history and has committed many bad things that cannot be approved under its name. Religion has also been accountable for the many goodwills and human advancement that have happened in the world. Thus, arguing that religion is predominantly violent or perhaps peaceful makes no sense. This makes it more difficult to classify religion based on the two concepts. Both the positive and negative aspects linked with religion are all because of the various decisions made by people and the individual free will. Therefore the desirable and the undesirable decisions committed in the name of religion do not pertain to the inherent nature of religion (Martin 114). The various religions across the world tend to hold certain strengths and weaknesses, and because these religions are not built on similar doctrines, that means that there is nothing common in the religions that could result in either peace or peace. Therefore, the various ideas of peace and violence are all founded on individual choices and have nothing to do with the founding principles of any particular religion. The various terrorist attacks that happen across the world are linked with religion through terming religion with the terror activities; however, religion cannot be regarded as inherent because the terror activities are not done by all the individuals who subscribe to a certain religion (Martin 114). This means that one cannot conclude that Muslims or perhaps Christians are peaceful or violent.
In conclusion, there is a significant connection between religion and conflict and violence around the world, yet religion cannot be said to be intrinsically violent. Religion cannot be inherently peaceful because it actively participates in several of the world’s major wars. The Western part of the world conflicts with the Islam religion because they believe that the associates are the ones who commit terror attacks across the world. The general public need to view the violence and conflicts happening in the world from a political sense and not from a religious point of view because not all the people who subscribe to Islam or Christian religions are indeed terrorists. This is so because religion has contributed to many positive things in society, for example, the development of major institutions in the world, for example, hospitals and schools, and that have ultimately helped transform the world positively. Religion over the years has been considered to be a dividing factor instead of a uniting factor, but people need to understand that such evil happening in society is committed by people who have bad intentions, and such people can either be part of a religion or even not. Therefore it is indeed unfair to claim that religion is predominantly violent or perhaps peaceful.
Works Cited
Arnold, Dan, and Alicia Turner. “Why Are We Surprised When Buddhists Are Violent?.” KNOW A Journal on the Formation of Knowledge 3.1 (2019): 159-166.
Beech, Hannah. “The Face of Buddhist Terror: How militant monks are fueling anti–Muslim violence in Asia.” Time Magazine. July 1 (2013): 2013.
Clashes in Egypt as a church bombing kills 21. HX21T6QV0f4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX21T6QV0f4
Martin, Craig. “Why do people fight so much over their religious beliefs?.” Religion in five minutes (2017): 112-114.
Myanmar’s Anti-Muslim Monks, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtAl9zJ3t-M
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