Religion and Violence

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An examination of the complex relationship between religion and violence, including religiously motivated terrorism, state violence against religious groups, and religious conflict.

Religious Conflict: This topic refers to the conflicts that arise among religious groups or communities due to differences in religious beliefs, practices, and values.
Religious Extremism: Religious extremism is the belief in and support for extreme or radical religious ideas, often including violence or other extreme measures, to advance a certain religious agenda.
Religious Tolerance and Pluralism: This topic refers to the recognition and acceptance of religious diversity and the attitude of peaceful co-existence among different religious communities.
Religious Fundamentalism: It is a belief system that seeks to return to traditional, often conservative religious practices and values, often resulting in rejecting other religious and cultural beliefs.
The Role of Religion in Politics: This topic refers to the influence of religion on political decisions-making, policies and laws, and the effects of religion on politics at a local, national, and international level.
Religious Identity and Nationalism: This topic explores the relationship between religious identity and nationalism, focusing on how religion can be used to further political or social goals.
Religious Terrorism: It involves the use of violence, intimidation or force by religious groups or individuals to advance their political or ideological objectives.
Religion and International Conflict: This topic is concerned with the role of religion in international conflicts, focusing on how religious factors shape the dynamics of global conflicts and their resolution.
Religion and Social Justice: This topic explores the contribution of religion to social justice and examines how religious teachings influence the approach to social justice issues such as poverty, inequality, and discrimination.
Religious Ethics and Morality: This topic examines the ethical and moral teachings of different religions, ethical systems that guide ethical decision-making and moral dilemmas within religious contexts.
Terrorism in the name of religion: This is the most common form of religious violence. It involves acts of violence that are carried out by individuals who use religion as their justification.
Ethnic Conflict: Ethnic conflict can often be caused by religious differences. This type of conflict can be between different ethnic groups or between members of the same group who belong to different religions.
Holy Wars: Holy wars are conflicts fought between different religions or religious groups. These wars are usually fought with the argument that God has called one group to defeat the other.
Faith-based War: Faith-based wars are fought for religious reasons. They are usually waged with the belief that God has called one group to destroy the other.
Religious Persecution: Religious persecution is another type of violence where individuals are targeted because of their religious beliefs. This can involve harassment, imprisonment, torture, or murder.
Sectarianism: Sectarianism refers to the division of society into different groups based on religious beliefs. This can often lead to violence as different groups try to assert their dominance over the others.
Religious Identity Politics: Identity politics are concerned with the mobilization of groups on the basis of their identity. When this identity is based on religion, it can lead to religious violence.
Cultural Wars: Cultural wars involve conflicts between different religions or different religious sects over cultural issues. These can include issues related to gender, sexuality, or lifestyle choices.
Religious Nationalism: Religious nationalism is the belief that one's religious identity should be the basis of one's national identity. This type of nationalism can often lead to violence against those who do not share the same religious beliefs.
Religious Extremism: Extremism refers to the belief that one's religious beliefs are the only correct ones. This can often lead to violence as extremists try to impose their beliefs on others.
- "Religious violence is violence that is motivated by, or in reaction to, religious precepts, texts, or the doctrines of a target or an attacker."
- "It includes violence against religious institutions, people, objects, or events."
- "Religious violence does not exclusively include acts which are committed by religious groups, instead, it includes acts which are committed against religious groups."
- "Violence' is a very broad concept which is difficult to define because it is used against both human and non-human objects."
- "Furthermore, the term can denote a wide variety of experiences such as blood shedding, physical harm, forcing against personal freedom, passionate conduct or language, or emotions such as fury and passion."
- "Though there is no scholarly consensus over what a religion is, today, religion is generally considered an abstraction which entails beliefs, doctrines, and sacred places."
- "Decades of anthropological, sociological, and psychological research have all proven the falsehood of the assumption that behaviors directly follow from religious beliefs and values."
- "In general, religions, ethical systems, and societies rarely promote violence as an end in itself since violence is universally undesirable."
- "There is a universal tension between the general desire to avoid violence and the acceptance of justifiable uses of violence to prevent a 'greater evil' that permeates all cultures."
- "Religious violence, like all forms of violence, is a cultural process which is context-dependent and very complex."
- "Oversimplifications of 'religion' and 'violence' often lead to misguided understandings of causes for why some people commit acts of violence and why most people never commit such acts in the first place."
- "Violence is perpetrated for a wide variety of ideological reasons and religion is generally only one of many contributing social and political factors that can lead to unrest."
- "Studies of supposed cases of religious violence often conclude that violence is strongly driven by ethnic animosities rather than by religious worldviews."
- "Due to the complex nature of religion and violence and the complex relationship which exists between them, it is normally unclear if religion is a significant cause of violence."
- "Religious violence does not exclusively include acts which are committed by religious groups, instead, it includes acts which are committed against religious groups."
- (no direct quote in the provided paragraph)
- "People's religious ideas are fragmented, loosely connected, and context-dependent just like all other domains of culture and life."
- "The term can denote a wide variety of experiences such as blood shedding, physical harm, forcing against personal freedom, passionate conduct or language, or emotions such as fury and passion."
- "In general, religions, ethical systems, and societies rarely promote violence as an end in itself since violence is universally undesirable."
- "Violence is perpetrated for a wide variety of ideological reasons and religion is generally only one of many contributing social and political factors that can lead to unrest."