Roles of Religions in Conflict Crusade vs. The Holy War

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Roles of Religions in ConflictCrusade vs. The
Holy War

• Sridhar LakshmiNarasimha
• ECE 510
• EDGE Dr. Bruce Lusignan

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Outline

• Introduction
• Religion
• Definition
• Origin and Development
• As a social construction
• As progressively true
• As absolutely true
• World Religions Demographics
• Holy Wars
• The History
• Crusades
• Jihad
• Countries in Conflict
• Present Day Situation
• Conclusion

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Introduction

• If there is one word that separates humans from
  humans, it is religion.
• From time immemorial, humans have been at war
  against their own brethren with religion almost
  always being the lone cause.
• Religion also plays a completely opposite role of
  bringing people together at times. For instance,
  the largest gathering ever in world had a
  religious motive to it.

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Introduction

• Why use religion?
• As social construction
• Spiritual and Philosophical Guide
• To hypothesize unsolved scientific mysteries
  The end of science is the beginning of
  philosophy/religion.
• Attach a non materialistic meaning to life.
• Idea of the Holy.
• Higher, objective truth.

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Introduction

• The situation in the middle east today is a
  rather fragile one. The level of violence in the
  countries around has only been aggravated by
  external invasion.
• The political tension in Lebanon, the presence of
  coalition forces in Iraq, Israel Palestine
  conflict are all examples of current situations
  holding the world in delicate balance.

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Introduction

• While there have been wars on the basis of
  religious grounds, the modern wars seem to have a
  hidden agenda.
• Is the motive behind the wars more of a contest
  to claim control in regions rich in depleting
  natural resources?
• Or is the war motive a joint effort by the world
  superpowers to bring in peace?
• Or perhaps all of them?

O I L
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Religion Definition

• What is religion?
• It is a system of belief adopted by a set of
  people that usually prescribes a way of life
  for it followers in many aspects.
• The Encyclopedia of Religions defines it as
• Religion is the organization of life around the
  depth dimensions of experience varied in form,
  completeness, and clarity in accordance with the
  environing culture. Winston King

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Religion Origin and Development

• Models have been used describe they way religions
  come into being and develop.
• Models which see religions as social
  constructions
• Models which see religions as progressing toward
  higher, objective truth
• Models which see a particular religion as
  absolutely true
• Religions with their complexities do not
  completely fit in one single model.
• Multiple models may be seen to apply
  simultaneously, or different models may be seen
  as applying to different religions.

Dome of the Rock Jerusalem Ancient and sacred
city of key importance to the three major
Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam.
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Religion As a social construction

• Models religion as a social construction rather
  than referring to supernatural phenomena. (i.e.,
  anything that cannot be measured/proven by
  scientific methods)

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Religion As progressively true

• Within these models, religions reflect an
  essential Truth.
• For instance, the Bahai model of prophetic
  revelation holds that God has sent a series of
  prophets to Earth, each of which brought
  teachings appropriate for his culture and
  context, but all originating from the same God,
  and therefore teaching the same essential
  message.

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Religion As progressively true

• This "progression in religion" is true within
  most of the religions.
• Judaism accepts a series of Prophets,
  progressively leading the Jews, from Abraham down
  through Moses down to Malachi.
• Christianity accepts the same and adds Jesus.
• Islam accepts those of Judaism and Christianity
  and adds Muhammad.
• The Bahá'í Faith accepts the series of Prophets
  of other Abrahamic religions and Krishna, Buddha,
  Zoroaster among others from the non-Abrahamic
  religions and adds the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh.
• Hinduism identifies a series of Avatars (or
  incarnations) from Brahma through to Krishna.
• Buddhism identifies a separate series of earlier
  Buddhas.
• Zoroastrians also delineate earlier Saviors, or
  Saoshyants, who came progressively leading the
  people forward.

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Religion As absolutely true

• This model prescribes religion as absolutely or
  unchangingly true.
• This category includes Jewish and Christian
  models which holds that God relates to humanity
  through covenants. (e.g. The Ten Commandments,
  New Testament)
• In this model, all other religions are seen as
  either distortions of the original truth or
  original fabrications resulting from either human
  ignorance or imagination, or a more devious
  influence. (rival supernatural entities such as
  Satan)

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World Religions Demographics

• Christianity 2.1 billion
• Islam 1.3 billion
• Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist 1.1
  billion
• Hinduism 900 million
• Chinese traditional religion 394 million
• Buddhism 376 million
• primal-indigenous 300 million
• African Traditional Diasporic 100 million
• Sikhism 23 million
• Juche 19 million
• Spiritism 15 million
• Judaism 14 million
• Baha'i 7 million
• Jainism 4.2 million
• Shinto 4 million
• Cao Dai 4 million
• Zoroastrianism 2.6 million
• Tenrikyo 2 million
• Neo-Paganism 1 million

Courtesy www.adherents.com
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World Religions Demographics
Courtesy www.wadsworth.com
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World Religions Demographics

• Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism are
  the largest world religions today.
• Approximately 75 of humanity follows one of
  these four religions. Christianity is the
  religion with the largest number of professed
  religious adherents, followed by Islam, Hinduism
  and Buddhism respectively.
• However, the third-largest "group" of
  approximately 1 billion people adhere to
  irreligious approaches which include Humanism,
  Atheism, Rationalism, and Agnosticism.

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World Religions Demographics

• In ranking religious denominations, the Roman
  Catholic Church is the largest single
  denomination within Christianity, Sunni Islam
  within Islam, and Vaishnavism within Hinduism.

Kumbh Mela Prayag, India (2001) Largest
gathering of humans on Earth. (70 million)
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Religious Wars A History

• Religious War A war justified by religious
  differences.
• It can be a faction motivated religion in
  attempting to spread its faith by violence.
• Undoubtedly, there have been many wars fought
  primarily on religious grounds. But most them
  have multiple and complex causes.

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Religious Wars A History

• Even when wars have not used religion as a
  primary motive, there have cases in history where
  places of worship have been attacked probably
  done to weaken the morale of the enemy.
• The cause for the war happening in todays world
  is again a very debatable perspective.
• The West vs. Middle East?
• Christianity vs. Islam?
• The Wests conquest for oil?
• War on Terrorism?

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Crusades

• A series of military campaigns. (usually
  sanctioned by the Papacy)
• Occurred during the 11th through 13th centuries.
• The objective originally was to capture Jerusalem
  and the Holy Land from the Muslims and to support
  the Byzantine Empire against the Muslim Seljuq
  expansion into Asia Minor.

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Crusades

• Western and Eastern historians present variously
  different views on the Crusades.
• One set portrays "crusade" as a valiant struggle
  for a supreme cause, and the other portrays
  "crusade" as a byword for barbarism and
  aggression.
• This contrasting view is not recent, as
  Christians have in the past struggled with the
  tension of military activity and teachings of
  Christ to "love ones enemies" and to "turn the
  other cheek".
• For these reasons, the crusades have been
  controversial even among contemporaries.

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Crusades

• The Crusaders' atrocities against Jews in the
  German and Hungarian towns, later also in those
  of France and England, and in the massacres of
  Jews in Palestine and Syria have become a
  significant part of the history of anti-Semitism.
• The distinctly worsened the social position of
  the Jews in western Europe and legal restrictions
  were increased during and after the Crusades.

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Crusades

• In a broad sense, "crusade" can be used in a
  metaphorical sense, to identify as righteous any
  war that is given a religious justification.

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Jihad

• The Islamic term "jihad" (literally "struggle")
  can refer to religious war ("lesser jihad"),
  though historically, the concept refers to an
  inward striving for perfect faith ("greater
  jihad").
• However, over time the term "jihad" has come to
  refer more to a physical war.

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Jihad

• Muslim scholars explain that there are five kinds
  of jihad fi sabilillah (struggle in the cause of
  God)
• Jihad of the heart/soul (jihad bin nafs/qalb) is
  an inner struggle of good against evil in the
  mind, through concepts such as tawhid.
• Jihad by the tongue (jihad bil lisan) is a
  struggle of good against evil waged by writing
  and speech, such as in the form of dawah
  (proselytizing), Khutbas (sermons), et al. It is
  one weapon in the jihadi arsenal.
• Jihad by the pen and knowledge (jihad bil
  qalam/ilm) is a struggle for good against evil
  through scholarly study of Islam, ijtihad (legal
  reasoning), and through sciences (such as medical
  sciences).
• Jihad by the hand (jihad bil yad) refers to a
  struggle of good against evil waged by actions or
  with one's wealth, such as going on the Hajj
  pilgrimage (seen as the best jihad for women),
  taking care of elderly parents, providing funding
  for jihad, political activity for furthering the
  cause of Islam, stopping evil by force,
  espionage, and the penetration of Western
  universities by salafi Islamic ideology, in
  numerous Middle East Studies departments funded
  by Saudi Arabia.
• Jihad by the sword (jihad bis saif) refers to
  qital fi sabilillah (armed fighting in the way of
  God, or holy war), the most common usage by
  salafi Muslims and offshoots of the Muslim
  Brotherhood.

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Jihad

• The major imperial Muslim dynasties of Ottoman
  Turkey (Sunni) and Persia (Shia) each established
  systems of authority around traditional Islamic
  institutions.
• Part of this incorporation involved various
  interpretations of jihad.
• For example, in the Ottoman empire the concept of
  ghaza was promulgated as a sister obligation to
  jihad. The Ottoman ruler Mehmed II is said to
  have insisted on the conquest of Constantinople
  by justifying ghaza as a basic duty.
• Later Ottoman rulers would apply ghaza (war) to
  justify military campaigns against the Persian
  Safavid dynasty.
• Thus both rival empires established a tradition
  that a ruler was only considered truly in charge
  when his armies has been sent into the field in
  the name of the true faith, usually against
  giaurs or heretics
• The 'missionary' vocation of the Muslim dynasties
  was prestigious enough to be formally reflected
  in a formal title as part of a full ruler style-
  the Ottoman (many also had Ghazi as part of their
  name) e.g., Sultan Murad Khan II Khoja-Ghazi.

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Countries in Conflict

• Israel/Palestine
• The root of the conflict can be summarized as the
  degree to which each side recognizes the other's
  right to exist, and the degree to which it feels
  the other side respects its own right to exist.
• The Oslo peace process was based upon Israel
  ceding authority to the Palestinians to run their
  own political and economic affairs. In return, it
  was hoped that Palestinians would promote
  peaceful co-existence, and promote recognition of
  Israel among their own people.
• It is widely felt among Israelis that
  Palestinians did not in fact promote acceptance
  of Israel's right to exist. Furthermore, many
  official Palestinian media outlets aired much
  footage inciting hatred of Israel.
• Palestinians respond that their ability to spread
  acceptance of Israel was greatly hampered by
  Israeli restrictions on Palestinian political and
  economic freedoms. They feel that their own
  opposition to Israel was justified by Israel's
  apparent stifling of any genuine Palestinian
  political and economic development.
• US/Iraq 2003 Invasion of Iraq
• The 2003 invasion of Iraq, codenamed "Operation
  Iraqi Freedom" by the United States, officially
  began on March 20, 2003.
• The stated objective of the invasion was "to
  disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to
  end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and
  to free the Iraqi people".
• In preparation, 100,000 US troops were assembled
  in Kuwait by February 18. The United States
  supplied the majority of the invading forces.
• Supporters of the invasion included a coalition
  force of more than 40 countries, and Kurds in
  northern Iraq.

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Countries in Conflict

• Israel/Lebanon Conflict
• On July 12, 2006 Hezbollah captured two Israeli
  soldiers in a cross-border operation, killing
  three others, and simultaneously launched a
  missile attack along the border. The operation
  was considered "an act of war" by Israeli Prime
  Minister Ehud Olmert.
• That night, after a failed rescue attempt that
  resulted in the deaths of five more Israeli
  soldiers, Israel launched a massive military
  operation on Lebanon, with the stated goal of
  eliminating Hezbollah and retrieving the captured
  soldiers. The operation quickly developed into
  "open war" as Israel continued to bomb large
  areas in Lebanon and Hezbollah launched thousands
  of rockets into Northern Israel. One of the first
  targets of the Israeli bombings was the Rafic
  Hariri International Airport in southern Beirut.
• Diplomatic action eventually resulted in the
  release of UN Security Council Resolution 1701
  which called for an immediate cessation of
  hostilities, and an international embargo on
  supplying arms to Hezbollah. Three days later, on
  August 14, 2006, the partial cease-fire came into
  effect.
• However, Israel continued to impose a naval and
  aerial blockade on Lebanon, in an attempt to
  prevent arms from reaching Hezbollah. By
  September 8, 2006, both blockades had been
  lifted. During and after that period, several
  breaches of the cease-fire have been recorded.
• The level of destruction that hit Lebanon has
  been described by the country's Prime Minister
  Fouad Siniora as "unimaginable." Much of
  Lebanon's infrastructure was destroyed, mainly
  bridges and roads, and estimates of the overall
  damage approached 15 billion.
• As a result of the conflict,
• 1,191 Lebanese civilians were killed and 4,409
  injured.
• 1,000,000 Lebanese were displaced and forced to
  flee to safer areas.
• On the Israeli side, 44 civilians were killed and
  approximately 1,350 injured.
• Estimates of the number of Hezbollah fighters
  killed range from 80 to 700,
• While 119 IDF soldiers were confirmed killed and
  approximately 400 injured.

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Countries in Conflict

• Lebanon
• The opposition to the standing government
  recently spiked in an uprising reminiscent of the
  Cedar Revolution and the events that precipitated
  the 1975-1990 civil war.
• Hezbollah, currently the single most powerful
  militia in Lebanon, the Christian Free Patriotic
  Movement (FPM), and Amal joined forces, demanding
  more seats in the government in order to gain
  veto power over all government actions.
• They claim that the current distribution of seats
  in both the Parliament and the Cabinet does not
  reflect the true will of the Lebanese people,
  demanding the immediate resignation of the
  current government as well as early elections.

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Why the struggle?

• Why do religious beliefs conflict?
• Why would one direct their entire life towards
  pressing their religious opinion?
• Does the fight always have to be believers vs
  non-believers?
• Why would anyone or any religion prescribe war
  to their followers?
• Is it human ego?
• Will religion personify as the doom of the
  intelligent race?

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Present Day Situation

• In the context of modern day terrorism, militants
  have put forth the argument that they have
  rightfully devoted themselves to the pursuit of
  justice using whatever means necessary.
• To understand the sources of extreme activities
  such as terrorism, the problem must be traced to
  its root by looking at the circumstances
  surrounding religious fanaticism.
• The primary cause probably that would help
  explain the zeal exhibited by the religious
  fanatics comes from their belief that severe
  wrong has been done to them.
• Moreover, they see themselves as either ignored
  by the international community or that the help
  provided by the other nations is inadequate.
  They feel obligated as conscious Muslims to bring
  justice to a group of severely battered people.
• And since the general population lacks the
  necessary military means to combat the invaders
  they resort to suicide bombings and surprise
  attacks.
• To a suicide bomber, he/she is showing the purest
  devotion to justice by doing all that he/she
  could personally do to defeat the enemy so that
  those being harmed could be set free.

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Conclusion

• The modern wars taking place on the basis of
  religion seem to also have a hidden agenda for
  claiming land rich in oil and other precious
  natural resources.
• Considering the long history of struggle among
  the above mentioned nations, a immediate peaceful
  solution seems a little far in the future.
• In spite of the major religions of the world
  having a common origin, the interpretation of the
  followers seems to have changed for the worse in
  the years that have passed.
• The answer to resolving conflict is not raising
  another but by peaceful settlements. The goal of
  the superpowers nations should be to reunite the
  world as a single, whole and tolerant nation.

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Questions/Comments/Discussion?
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Thank you!