Abstract
This article is about the religious roots of violence, in particular religious terrorism. The author argues that there is a great reluctance to study this relationship. This is unfortunate because only on the basis of a realistic estimate of the facts can a successful counterterrorist strategy be developed. One of the problems with religious violence is that holy scriptures, in some passages, exhort believers to violent acts. In combination with a theory of ethics that is known as “divine command morality” this is problematic. Even if the holy book contains only a small percentage of passages invoking violence they pose a problem if the whole book is considered to be holy and the word of God.
Highlights
The great scholar in Middle East-studies, Bemard Lewis, wrote: "Terrorism requires only a few
Tions VI and VII deal with objections that may be presented to the analysIs elaborated in this article, while section VIII is dedicated to a comparison between Christianity and Islam as sources of religious violence
What the advocates of religion usually do, is deny that religion has anything to do with violence as perpetrated by e.g. terrorists
Summary
The great scholar in Middle East-studies, Bemard Lewis, wrote: "Terrorism requires only a few. The form of terrorism that requires much attention since 9/11 is, Islamist terrorism This type of terrorism is not primarily about land or aims we would primarily identify as "political", but as "religious" in ·the sense that terrorists themselves present religious reasons for their terrorist acts. This is an unpopular statement it is perfectly true. In this article the relationship between religion and violence will be studied, against the backdrop of the most important manifestation of religious violence: Islamist terrorism. Tions VI and VII deal with objections that may be presented to the analysIs elaborated in this article, while section VIII is dedicated to a comparison between Christianity and Islam as sources of religious violence. In other words: only a sober, objective and balanced view of the roots of violence in the three theistic religions can be helpful in this age of religious tunnoil and rising fundamentalism and fanaticism
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