Wars of Religion
Religion was a factor in 9 of the 21 wars ongoing in 2024:
Israel Palestine: Fundamentalist Judaism vs Hamas (Fundamentalist Sunni Muslim)
Maghreb : Islamic State vs 15 (fifteen) secular Arab/Muslim nations
Syria: Islamic State vs ?everyone
Nigeria: Boko Haram (Islamic State tendency) vs Nigerian state
Somalia : al-Shabab (Sunni Islamist)
Iraq: Sunni-Shia rivalry
Afghanistan: Taliban (Sunni Muslim)
NW Pakistan: Various Islamist militant groups
Nigeria: Islamist-Christian hatred
At the outset, it should be noted that to some, religion is a belief in an unreality, and therefore it cannot be a factor in causing war. This view will re-interpret, say, the Israel/Palestine conflict in terms of foreign intervention, ideology, and ethnic differences. However it remains the case that for religious believers, their faith is sometimes an overwhelmingly important motivation in itself.
It is clear that Islam is involved in all of these wars, and it is tempting to infer from this that Islam is not a religion of peace, as its adherents often claim.
Just to rebalance, the USA is a nominally Christian nation, and has bombed no less than 36 countries since 1945. Moreover, the USA and other “Christian” nations are prepared, by virtue of the nuclear weapons they they possess, to kill millions of children, women and men by crushing, burning and irradiation. Nuclear deterrence is deferred terrorism. Only a few serious Christians have condemned the nuclear deterrence strategy, so Christians (for which read “Westerners”) are in no position to claim moral superiority over Muslims in relation to warfare.
Judaisim has a problematic relationship with the state of Israel, which, although many Jews, observant or otherwise, are vocally critical of Israel’s destructive attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, Lebanon and elsewhere, and its influence on President Trump, persuading him to start the disastrous agression on Iraq, many other Jews are supportive of Israel’s arguably genocidal policies.
Fundamentalist religion does exacerbate hatred by setting up absolute differences between people who hold different beliefs. Ironically, the etymology of the word “religion” indicates that it is supposedly a force that binds the people of faith together, history shows that differences of doctrine within both Christianity (Catholic/Protestant) and Islam (Sunni/Shia) can lead to vicious and protracted wars, and that the supposed binding together does not apply to those who are outside the religious community, the Others.
“Otherness” is an essential part of hostility. The “Other” is different in some way; they may come from a different town, they may be a supporter of a different football club, have a different language or accent, a different skin colour; the causes of otherness are endless, but fundamentalist religion means that the other is actually rejecting God, Allah, or YHVH, the creator of the Universe, and this can be a very potent addition to the mix of motivations that may lead to war.
How can this religious aggression be pacified?
The Passing of Time
Time is an important factor. Only 300 years ago, the British Isles were tormented by wars between Protestant and Catholic brands of Christianity, and the Troubles in Ireland were only ended in 1998.
Wars come to an end when the majority of people become sick and tired of them, and religious fervour itself wanes as the years pass.
It is important not to stimulate religious passions by attacking the religion. Certainly we must defend ourselves against any attacks they may make on us, but to try to defeat a religion by attacking its tenets ideologically, or its adherents physically, will only serve to increase their devotion to their faith, since the holy texts often warn of the likelihood of such attacks.
Possible actions to reduce wars caused by to religion
Here are two possible approaches to this problem:
The first approach that might be tried is that local Muslim, Christain and Jewish communities should all be asked to take appropriate actions to bring about a more peaceful world.
Islamic mullahs should be asked by local people to declare a fatwa against terrorism (defined as the use of violence against civilians for political or religious purposes). This is not a new idea. In 1999, the Muslim Religious Council of North America issued a Fatwa against Terrorism. In 2011 a book titled Fatwa on Terrorism was published by a leading Islamic scholar in Pakistan.
The interesting thing is that it is the responsibility of ordinary people to ask each mullah and mosque to issue their own fatwa until the knowledge is universal and ingrained, since it is specifically not admissible for the fatwa to be requested by Government.
At the same time, Christian leaders should be asked to publicly condemn the strategy of nuclear deterrence, on the basis that deterrence is not infallible, and therefore condoning nuclear deterrence implies condoning nuclear war, which would certainly be an insult to God.
The second suggestion is that a meeting is called where theologians of the Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – spend a day fasting and wordlessly contemplate the following question:
Jewish leaders would be invited to make a public condemnation of the arguably genocidal attack by Netanyahu on Gazan and Lebanon.
Theology and peace
“Do the Names YHVH, God and Allah refer to three different entities, or to one entity with three different names?”
Having spent a day seriously considering the question, without speaking about it, the theologians are then asked to write their answer in less than 10 words.
There is no guarantee that they will all agree that the names given to the Origin of the Universe are of human origin, but if there is agreement that there is One Origin, it might have some effect in inducing a sense of tolerance. If the consensus is that there are three different gods, the world will be no worse off.
This is an approach that could be used by ordinary people in their communities.
These suggestions may seem inadequate responses to a problem that is causing nearly half the wars in our modern world, and any reader who knows of other solutions is invited to put them in the comments.
A More Peaceful World 