Religious extremism

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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.

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 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 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.

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.