Abstract
All the three Abrahamic religions are considered as the monotheistic sources of violence around the globe. The Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments are criticized for encouraging radical religiosity, chauvinism and othering leading to violence in the name of religion while the Quran is blamed for promoting highly political religion which encourages violence in the name of Jihad. Both the militant movements affiliated to these religions and their leftist critics cherry-pick the verses of these holy books and demonstrate them as the religious grounds of radicalism leading to violent extremism. The current endeavor highlights such “warm” sources from the main religious books of these religions which can be/are used to promote violence and become sources of conflicts. It is opined that such sources are highly contextual, and not meant to be generalized in every situation. On the other hand, “cold” sources from these religious books are also unearthed as the timeless teachings of these religions which are both eternal and meant to be propagated to general public for the nurturing the society on peaceful and cooperative grounds so that they avoid conflicts in the first place and even if conflicts do arise, resolve them nobly.
Highlights
Into the original textual sources of these religions to identify the warm areas of their teachings which can be used to justify violence and act as sources of conflict
Warm and Cold Sources of Conflict in Abrahamic/Semitic Traditions: The teachings which are used to justify violence in the name of Semitic religions comes primarily from the verses and sources which are cherry-picked by their proponents in order to enhance the impact of their politico-violent claims and strategies
Warm Sources: It has been identified that along with many other vulnerable aspects of the religious teachings of Abrahamic faiths, the following are of utmost importance and are similar in all the three Abrahamic traditions
Summary
Considering the holy books of the Abrahamic tradition and the blatant manifestation of violence in the name of these religions‡, it seems to the modern reader as if the God in these books is primarily interested in war and subjugation of His enemies through human efforts. The same out-of-context selection of the passages from the Quran portrays the Almighty Allah as a god of war too, where He commands His prophet to rouse the believers for fighting[19] and demands utmost sincerity in the religion by being involved in military Jihad[20] All such misconstrued and non-contextual verses of the Bibles and the Quran suggest that the God of Abrahamic tradition is more interested in wars than in peace and prosperity of the humanity. Syed Qutb elaborates that to understand the true nature and position of Muslim nation, they should know that they have been “raised specially for the purpose of assuming the leadership of mankind [at all times]”28 Adds that it is the duty of the believers that they should hold fast to their faith and take pride in it. According to Al-Qahtanienmity for the sake of Allahnot only include verbal denunciation, but practical aggressive actions such as taking up arms against God’s enemies, shunning them, and staying far from them[32]
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