Religion and Violence

Religion and Violence What is religion? Religion is the belief in a god or in a group of gods, or an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods, or it can be an interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group. How does religion and violence coexist and why are they connected together? Since September 11th, 2001, the United States and possibly the world have put these two categories together. For some of the hard-core people in the world, like Chris Kyle, they say “God, Country, Family.” These words could be used in almost any country when it comes to war and/or violence. Kyle was a highly decorated Navy Seal sniper; he served in four tours to Iraq. In his book American Sniper (2012), Kyle says, “My shots saved several Americans, whose lives were clearly worth more than that woman’s twisted soul. I can stand before God with a clear conscience about doing my job.” Myself included, I have seen and done thing in the heart of battle that would make the normal civilian person say, what the heck! These people that Kyle had to kill posed threats to his fellow comrades. But does religion make violence okay to commit? First, lets look at what George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden both said after the September 11, 2001 attacks. According to Osama bin Laden, “Fight in the path of Allah, you are not charged with the responsibility except for yourself, and urge the believers, lest Allah restrain the might of the rejectors, and Allah is stronger in might and stronger in inflicting punishment” (Pallmeyer pg. 1). This is pretty much what President George W. Bush said in his September 20 press speech. Bush said, “As long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror. This will be an age of liberty here and across the world… Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail…. The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them. Fellow citizens, we’ll meet violence with patient justice, assured of the rightness of our cause and confident of the victories to come. In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may He watch over the United States of America” (Pallmeyer 2). These statements are from two completely different people with two completely different Gods and yet they practically say the same thing. With God on our side we are protected from the enemy. President George W. Bush became a born again Christian at the age of 40. He publically announced that himself and God had numerous conversations. President George Bush has claimed he was told by God to invade Iraq and attack Osama bin Laden 's stronghold of Afghanistan as part of a divine mission to bring peace to the Middle East, security for Israel, and a state for the Palestinians. Evidentially, the former Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath says Mr. Bush told him and Mahmoud Abbas, former prime minister and now Palestinian President: "I 'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. ' And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George go and end the tyranny in Iraq, ' and I did." Could it be that God really spoke to George W. Bush or could it be that since there was a plot to kill W. Bush’s father, that the voice he heard was maybe that of his dad? W. Bush could have just hiding behind God and using him as a means for support.
Osama bin Laden made a videotape on October 7th, 2001 stating, “Here is America struck by God Almighty in one of its vital organs, so that its greatest buildings are destroyed. Grace and gratitude to God. America has been filled with horror from north to south and east to west, and thanks be to God. What America tastes now is only a copy of what we have tasted. Our Islamic nation has tasted the same for more than 8o years of humiliation and disgrace, its sons killed and their blood spilled, its sanctities ties desecrated. God has blessed a group of vanguard Muslims, the forefront of Islam, to destroy America. May God bless them and allot them a supreme place in heaven, for he is the only one capable and entitled to do so. When those have stood in defense of their weak children, their brothers and sisters in Palestine tine and other Muslim nations, the whole world went into an uproar, the infidels followed by the hypocrites (Lincoln, 102). This is just a fragment of what Osama bin Laden said in his videotape. It seems that he was using god to justify his actions against America and every non-Muslim nation. Bin Laden’s final words in the video were, “God is the greatest and glory be to Islam.” If you look at the religions of Jews, Christians, and Muslims there really is no difference in interpretations.
Jews, Christians, and Muslims encourage violence because they refuse to fully challenge the authority of “sacred texts” that overflow with violent images of God and stories justifying human violence in God’s name (Pallmeyer 98). Looking into the bible you come across many acts of violence being committed. In Genesis alone there are 23 acts of violence done by God and by others. “I will destroy…. both man and beast” Gen 6:7, God was angry and decided to destroy all humans, beasts, creeping things, fowls, and “all flesh wherein there is breath of life.” He plans to drown them all. In another verse God sends a plague on the Pharaoh and his household because the Pharaoh believed Abram 's lie (12:17). These are just a couple verses where God brings down his wrath upon animals and mankind. Why would people even question God and why he wanted to strike down mankind and animals, especially when God created all. People look to God for guidance and if that guidance is violence, then you would expect people to commit acts of violence. Understand that this God is merciful and just, but when God asks Abraham to offer his son up for sacrifice, Abraham did just that. God was just seeing if Abraham was obedient and right before he was going to slit his sons’ throat God stopped him and had Abraham sacrifice a goat instead. This is very disturbing that God would put any man through that, even if it were just a test. Lets take a look at what Jesus said to the moneychangers as he drove them from the temple, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword” (Mt 10:34). So what could be said about this? This is one of many versus that could be altered to fit the means of violence. Jesus didn’t bring an actual sword, but yet these words could give people the wrong idea; that Jesus was promoting violence. The terrorist of 9-11 recited versus from the Qur’an, not the whole Qur’an, but pieces of the Qur’an to justify that they were protected by God for committing those acts of terrorism. Some of the verses used out of the Qur’an to help the hijackers of 9-11 include: “Obey God and His Messenger, and do not fight amongst yourselves or else you will fail. And be patient, for God is with the patient” (Sura 8:48). This is just saying be patient in your tasks and don’t fight with your fellow comrades. Another verse used is, “And the only thing they said Lord, forgive our sins and excesses and make our feet steadfast and give us victory over the infidels” (Sura 3:141). Infidels? What are infidels? Infidels are those who do not believe in a god called ‘Allah’ and a messenger of him called ‘Muhammad’. Since four fifth of the whole world do not believe in this Allah and in Muhammad, they are all infidels. But does this make since? These are the three Abrahamic Faiths; they all pretty much believe the same thing. This so called Allah is actually God. Muslims aren’t the only people carrying out acts of violence in the name of religion. Lets look at Christianity. On August 10th, 1999 there were shootings at a Jewish day care center in California. In 1996 there was the bombing of the Atlanta Olympic Games and in 1995 we had the Oklahoma City federal building that was bombed. Lets not forget about the rash of abortion clinic attacks throughout the decade. All these incidents had the same passion of religion and that religion happened to be Christianity. Why on the other hand is all our focus on the Middle East when we have our own problems to worry about? The people committing these acts of violence consider themselves “Soldiers for Christ”. I take that as they are acting in the name of God as somebody sent to destroy the evil in the world. Another huge event that happened in the world was the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community. Adolf Hitler was baptized as a Catholic and in 1941 Hitler told his army adjutant General Gerhard Engel: "I shall remain a Catholic forever." The holocaust was meant to be and eradication of anybody that practiced the Jewish faith. On the night of November 9, 1938, the Nazis destroyed synagogues and the shop windows of Jewish-owned stores throughout Germany and Austria (an event now known as the Kristallnacht pogrom or Night of Broken Glass). The passivity with which most German civilians responded signaled to the Nazi regime that the public was prepared for more extreme measures, which culminated in the Holocaust. To me this was much more than political or racial difference. This seem like a religious issue and Hitler seen the Jews as infidels. “We declared jihad against the U.S. government because the U.S. government is unjust, criminal and tyrannical. It has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal, whether directly or through its support of the Israeli occupation,” Osama bin Laden.
What is actually meant by Jihad? Jihad actually means, “to struggle in the way of Allah”. There are two common accepted meanings of jihad: “greater jihad” and “lesser jihad”. Greater jihad is the inner struggle by a believer to fulfill his religious duties. This non-violent meaning is stressed by both Muslim and non-Muslim authors. Lesser jihad is the concept that jihad will always include armed struggle against persecution and oppression. This ties into Islamic (sharia) law and sets very strict rules for the conducting of war or violence. Self-defense is always the underlying cause for war or violence. Some permissible reasons for military Jihad include: self-defense, strengthening Islam, protecting the freedom of Muslims to practice their faith, protecting Muslims against oppression, punishing an enemy who breaks an oath, and putting right a wrong. A couple other legitimate rules are that the opponent must always start the fight, innocent people should not be killed, and women, children, or old people shouldn’t be killed or hurt. These are some very strict rules that the Qur’an has set in place. The so call terrorists that bomb buildings in the name of jihad are actually committing crimes against their own faith. But the word jihad is a misconception of what a terrorist is, a true jihad follows their faith and obeys the religious laws. Everything I discussed in this paper could be avoided. No one religion is the set religion. We as humans have the right to believe whatever we want. The problem we have is when people try and throw their religion on everybody else. If you allow people to practice their religion in peace and how they want, and be respectful of that religion, then there is not any reason why we as a country cannot stop the violence. The violence is was it going to level this world!

Bibliography
Juergensmeyer, Mark. Terror in the Mind of God. 2000.
Lincoln, Bruce. Holy Terrors: thinking about religion after September 11. Chicago, 2003.
Nelson-Pallmeyer, Jack. Is Religion Killing Us? 2003.

Bibliography: Juergensmeyer, Mark. Terror in the Mind of God. 2000. Lincoln, Bruce. Holy Terrors: thinking about religion after September 11. Chicago, 2003. Nelson-Pallmeyer, Jack. Is Religion Killing Us? 2003.