Running Head: Religious extremism

Religious extremism

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 Religious extremism 2

Religious extremism

Introduction

Modern life has been affected greatly by the vice of terrorism. In the global news

networks globally, terrorism is the main topic of today’s lives. Everyday there is news of

indiscriminate killings including mass shootings, suicide bombings, hostages taken, planes

crushed and many more. Generally, the perpetrators have been taken to be religious fanatics and

extremists who follow their ideologies to do the terroristic acts (Willis, 2011).

Many people believe there is an enmity between Christianity and other religions with the

Muslims. Verses and chapters from the holy books have been used to show how terrorism is a

God’s calling. Terrorists have been said to talk of religion and chant religious ideologies before

they do these barbaric acts. However, evidences show that religion has nothing to do with

terrorism. Terrorism is a crime against humanity, all religions included (Burleigh, 2007).

Thesis statement

In the book Contemporary Debates on Terrorism, the authors state that religious

extremism is not a major cause of terrorism. This paper tends to agree with the authors in that

religion is just an ideology that is used to cover other ambitions by the terrorists or else their

masters. Religion is just used as a cover of hidden agendas by the terrorists or their masters.

Terrorist are not religious and that’s why counterterrorism targets the main leaders of terrorism

or their terrorist groups. Additionally, foreign occupation of territories, external interventions and

state of these territories are also major causes.

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Discussion

The main planners of these terrorist attacks are actually following their greedy ambitions

of political superiority. The false martyrdom is used to show that these terrorists’ attacks are

fueled by religion. In the book Contemporary Debates on Terrorism, the authors show how

counterterrorism strategies by countries like the US, Russia and Israel use targeted assassinations

as response to terrorism. This clearly shows that though most of these terrorist claim to be a

certain religion, the terrorists are actually certain groups of people away from that religion. If it

was all about religion, then these attacked nations would start by members of that religion in

their backyards. These nations however do not target religions but individuals and groups of

individuals who are mass murderers covering themselves in sheep’s clothing of certain religions

(Jackson & Sinclair, 2012).

Religion is not the problem that causes terrorism. Religion is just a factor in the explosive

brews of psychology, politics and culture that leads to innocents being targeted. In fact most of

these extremists are mostly about foreign military occupations in their territories. Most terrorists,

especially the suicidal ones, are all about strategic logics to compel democratic states to

withdraw foreign forces from territories that they believe they own. Scholars and researchers

have discovered that contrary to populations’ beliefs that most terrorism attacks are strongly

related to religious extremism; they are actually strategies to force out military forces from other

countries. The mainstream media’s focus on religious extremism makes it hard for people to

understand that most of these attacks are not religious motivated but are actually political. Most

of the attacked countries have their soldiers in the territories of the perpetrators. From Israel in

the Second Intifada, to Russia in their war against Chechen fighters and to the war on terror by
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the US, their forces are in the perpetrators territories. As long as these countries occupy foreign

territories, the attacks keep on erupting each and every day (Burleigh, 2007).

The real driving forces of terrorism are humiliation, revenge, altruism, politics and

retaliation. These are brought about by ethnic divisions, dysfunctional political systems, poverty,

failing states and external interventions. In combating terrorism therefore, the US and its allies

should consider fighting these vices in order to counteract the political violence. People believe

that religion extremism causes terrorism but it is only used to shield the political reasons from

the public eye. The leaders of the terrorists groups take people from poor social economic

statuses and radicalize them using religion mastery and make them believe that they are fighting

for God. Many terrorists according to studies are promised many rewards after they die to them

and their families. Their leaders, who are politically motivated, will however never be involved

in the acts themselves (Burleigh, 2007).

The ideology of religion being a major factor of terrorism is therefore wrong. It is

however the global phenomenon though terrorism is registered in places where there are no

different religions, or parts of religions. Terrorism therefore is all about being extreme about

something else but not religion. Almost all religions of the universe teach about peace and

humility and no matter how many verses or chapters of a holy book give violence as a subject,

the whole religion will always preach hope, love and good life to all mankind (Willis, 2011)..

Opposing viewpoint

This is because most people join terrorists groups because of religion. But religion is just

an excuse for most terrorists groups to be extreme and to get new members. They say that they

do what they do because they are God sent and so the recruits and most civilians who believe
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them follow them blindly afraid to question their God or their religions (Jackson & Sinclair,

2012).

Conclusion

Terrorist groups misinterpret the religion ideologies in order to get recruits and to follow

their political ambitions. Religion is also used to cover other grievances that the terrorist have

against their victim countries. Religious extremism is therefore not a major cause of terrorism

but basically a cover up for the devastating acts and the political motivations.
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References

Burleigh, M. (2007). Sacred causes: The clash of religion and politics, from the Great War to

the War on Terror. New York: HarperCollins.

Jackson, R., & Sinclair, S. J. (2012). Contemporary debates on terrorism. London: Routledge.

Willis, L. (2011). Extremism. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.