Terrorism as the Forms of Religious Life - Essay Example

Running Head: TERRORISM Terrorism Name Institution Date Introduction Terrorism refers to a systematic use of terror mainly as a means of coercion. It is achieved through violent acts which are aimed at creating fear in people with the aim of achieving a certain goal. Terrorist is a great security threat since it does not pay attention to the safety of the nationals. The vice has been masterminded by political organizations, religious groups, and the governing bodies. The goal of most of these groups is directed to their opponents for the purpose of gaining popularity for their groups or an individual. The freedom of religion that is offered by the constitutions of many nations of the world has been abused by people. This freedom has lead to rise of many religions with different and conflicting faiths. The conflict of beliefs has led to religious rivalry and hence conflict among people and groups in different religions. Religious conflicts has led to war and threatening of human lives. Every individual feels the superiority of his or her faith over the others and this they translate into violence to win the other people into their beliefs (Durkheim, 1995). Some religions have laws which justify crimes against humanity in the struggle to coerce the other person to follow the beliefs. Terrorism has also been used by some groups in order to impose changes which are un-acceptable by the members of a nation. It has been used as a way of forcing one group of people into the other group’s likes. Most acts of terrorist result into massive deaths that leave the people with no option but to accept the imposed changes. The many religions that arose due in search for the freedom of religion also led to power struggle where one religion feels that it should dominate the governing of a certain state. This struggle for power has led to terrorism which is on increase among the countries where most people belong to religions that do not abominate killing or innocent take away of another person’s life. The Association between Terrorism and Religion Terrorism has however been highly associated with the religious groups. Religious radicalism and prejudice has been spotted to be a major cause of several acts of terrorism. This has been high between religious groups or between one religion and the members of a certain country. For example in a country where some groups of people practice Islamic, several cases of terrorism have been reported where Muslims fight the Christians in order to force them accept certain practices that favour their beliefs. Other examples were seen in North Ireland where Christians killed each other in the struggle between the Catholics and the Protestants between 1970s and 1980s. Even within the major religious groups, there have been war outbreaks due to religious prejudice within the various sects that are found in the religions. The wars are often placed on justification facts referenced on sacred manuscripts that are used to clear the guilt in people. These texts are often interpreted out of framework, removed from their general meaning and given meaning that the parties want in order to favour their stand. Violence mostly begins with religious intolerance which leads to misunderstanding among religious groups (Abrahms, 2008). The extremely rebellious groups in any religion are the source of most scenes of most religious disagreement. These disagreements are the ones that lead to rise in violence within the religious groups or between the religious groups. Religious militants results from fundamentalisms which means strict and faithful interpretations of the passages in the Bible for Christians and the Quran for Muslims. The fundamentalists who read the passages make strong agreements with them and take very strong stands which are in most cases against the acts of modernity. After the interpretation of the passages is when the religious extremists resort to violence in defense for their position and they later become militant. The militants try to avoid texts in the religious books that are against the acts of violence that they have set their minds on. For example if the book says that one should not kill, the religious militants will try to find another passage that justifies the act of killing. Religion has been seen as the major drive to today’s terrorism. Mark Juergensmeyer, a professor of sociology in New York sees religion as critical since it offers moral validation for committing murder and provides images of immense wars that makes the protesters to believe that they are paying for spirituals acts. The sociologist also says that even if most people consider that religion should offer calmness and not terror, all the religions are naturally revolving and becoming innovative and therefore they are capable of offering ideas for a different observation of the public order. He also says that religion gives people a motivation, justification, and the union to make possible the acts of terrorism (Laqueur, 1999). Most religions use tactics that promote violence by lowering their  followers approval and appreciation for life   by giving high value of life in hereafter therefore disqualifying the thought that are directed towards safeguarding life. The thought that believers have in a heavenly path that is achieved through fighting against non believers of a certain faith is an encouragement towards the act of terrorism and life destruction. Taboos that exist in certain religions also lead to rise in criticisms over other religions that do not observe them. This is also another contribution to justification of the fights against non followers. Observers of certain believe therefore clears guilt that is associated with violence against non believers by associating the act with sacred coercement. Religious believes strongly convinces people to act in violence and can easily change one from doing well to bad. Power in religion is also a contribution to its association with terrorism. Terrorism is a way that is being used by the religious groups to express their dissatisfaction. Where there is power struggle in a religious group, there is a likely rise of violence which results to terrorism (Ganor, 2005). Most of the religious based terrorism is practiced by the Muslims. Muslims practice their holy war which they term as “Jihad”. They do not consider it as violence but it is however a fight directed towards non Muslims. In Jihad, they believe that the fight is holy since it fights against acts of injustices that are directed towards the Islam religion. The fight is also used when they want to spread Islam where they coerce people to follow their way of life. During their fight, they assume that by killing a non Muslim, they are adding onto their holiness and if they die during the war, they will go to heaven (Bruce, 2003). Such believes have increased their courage into terrorism rendering them merciless and could kill a large number of people. Groups as well as individuals persons who are in search for political and other powers use the religious groups in acts of terrorism. Those whom they misuse a lot are the ones with little religious knowledge and they can be easily taken advantage of. These people are often fed with false religious concepts that convince them into acts of violence and terrorism. There are two hypotheses that give evidence of the existing association between religion and terrorism. One is the religious beliefs and practices that support terrorist acts where they give a justification taking away lives of innocent people through the bombs that are used by terrorists. This is suicide terrorism that is done to people of similar religion or an ethnic group. Suicide terrorism brings out a planned life loss that includes the perpetrators of the act since the bombing takes away even the bombers. In such a scenario, a group like Muslims believes that if it is done in protection of the Islamic religion, the perpetrators go to heaven and it is not considered a sin. Suicide terrorism is therefore done by an individual who has dedicated his or her life to die with the opponents. Strong religious believes especially on life after death and issues such as martyrdom gives the bombers such great courage to participate in the act that will go with own life. Such acts are planed and funded by other people or groups who have political and other interests. Those used are those with little religious knowledge and are easily taken advantage of. Most of those who participate in the acts are also due to the concepts of group religiosity and not personal. Strong commitment to the group’s rules and beliefs may render a person into such decisions. The other hypothesis that explains the association between religion and suicide terrorism is based on the joining characteristics of a religion rather that personal beliefs. This hypothesis does not consider it to be a subject of a person’s commitments into the religious beliefs and personal support for suicide terrorism. It argues that it is a subject of a person’s commitments to collectivity and support for collective or group religious practices. The cooperation between members of the same religion will therefore lead to a person’s support for terrorism, an act that one relying on personal decisions a person would not do. Also in such a situation, the politicians and those others in search for power try to encourage commitments to communal acts so as to win for themselves a large number of followers (Irons, 2001). Religion has been considered as a moral guide to the people where it cautions against acts that can lead to other people suffering. People therefore consider acts by religious groups to be morally upright and are followed by those without clear understanding of the religious books. The Quran, the religious book of the Islamists has teachings that allow violence and use of a sword in order to conquer. The sword has been defined by the Quran as the main tool of evangelism. This means that a sword can be rightfully used to a person who rebels or who does injustice to Islamic. The faster spread of Islam in the regions of Mecca to Medina, and some regions along the eastern borders of China took a very short time. This was not used by word of mouth persuasion with friendliness, but by use of a sword and violence (Gellner, Ernest, & Plough, 1988). The teachings of Islamic explain that the world is divided into a region of war, and a region of peace. The region of peace is where Islamic dominates. Any other region outside Islamic is a region of war and never ending conquest. Some verses in the Quran support the killing of non Muslims and hence the many Muslim terrorists. A case of a terrorist faction that is religious based is the Al-Qaeda. This is an international network of terrorist that is headed by ‘Osama bin Laden’. This group recruits and trains fighters from different countries to spread the holy war beyond Afghanistan in resistance against Soviet Union. The main aim of the Al-Qaeda is to chase away the westerners from the Islamic countries and to ensure that they govern the multi religious countries especially where they are the majority. The activities of the Al-Qaeda group include assassination, bombing, kidnapping and suicide attacks (Gunaratna, 2002). These crimes they achieve by use of nuclear and chemical weapons. This group is purely composed of Muslims and this contributes to the relationship between religion and terrorist. Their fight is usually heard on non Muslims where they want people of their religion to dominate the countries. It is also clear that in the world today, most of the countries where that is war are those that the majority are Muslims. Most groups that have one in a while been caught in the acts of terrorists are mainly Muslims. Another terrorist group also in the Islamic religion is the Al-Jihad. This is an extremist group also among the Muslims that was founded in Egypt in the late 1970s. The main goal of this group is to remove from power the Egyptian government and substitute it with their own Islamic government. Their other aim is to attack the United States and Israel and end their interests in Egypt. This is a purely religious group since its fight is directed towards the non Islamic nations, the United States and Israel. The operations of this group are specialized in attacking the personnel in the high rank in the Egyptian government. Activities ties that are geared towards their objective include bombings directed towards the members of the cabinets and their vehicles. Terrorism has also been found to be high among the Muslim countries especially in the Middle East. However, there are other non Muslim terrorist groups for example the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Colombia which is an anti U.S activist group. This is composed of people from different religious background whose goal is not religious based. Conclusion Religion has been known for moral guidance against acts that are defined as unacceptable in the society. This role has however been despised in some religions especially in those that support terrorism. People tend to believe more on those issues that are supported by the holy book of the religion that they follow. They therefore take with strong position such acts which are justified by the holy book. An association between religion and terrorism is therefore being on increase and clearly showing out due to political manipulation of the religious groups into terrorism. The freedom of religion has therefore been misused by people to hurt others and to impose their views forcefully. References Durkheim, E., (1995). The elementary forms of religious life. New York: The Free Press. Gunaratna, R., (2002). Inside Al-Qaeda. New York: Columbia University Press. Irons, W., (2001). Religion as a hard-to-fake sign of commitment: The evolution of commitment. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Laqueur, W., (1999). The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction. NewYork: Oxford University Press. Ganor, B., (2005). The Counter-Terrorism Puzzle: A Guide for Decision Makers. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. Bruce, L., (2003). Holy Terrors. London:The University of Chicago Press. Gellner, G., Ernest, M., & Plough,D., (1988). Sword and Book. London: The University of Chicago Press. Abrahms, M., (2008). "What Terrorists Really Want: Terrorist Motives and Counterterrorism Strategy". Cambridge: MIT Press.   Read More