Religious views
This essay posits to give support to the claim by Juergensmeyer call on the logic of religious violence. The essay will therefore explain the argument by Juergensmeyer that religious violence happens in a manner that suggest theartrical and performance. In the same line again it shall support that the doctrine of cosmic war is one of the causes of religious violence. According to the book which portrays some sort of conflict which occurs as in the line of political conflict and those that occur in thee religious line. With the main view on the religious violence, the cultures of violence are mainly concentrated in the religious arguments where all the religious groupings have some sort of violence being manifested in each.
When stating with the Christianity aspect, it can be considered that the religious conflict manifested itself through the US counter abortion methodologies, some movements which were considered very dangerous and manifested themselves in the form of militia. The same could also be considered in regards to the Northern Ireland Catholics and protestants who [portrayed some form of religious violence. On the Jewish side, the religious violence is mainly seen in the Israeli wets bank settlers who have been in constant conflict for the control of the land they are settling in. this war which is mainly pitting different religions is considered to be a form of religious conflict. The Meir Kahane considers this and gives a constructive review on the same. When considering the religious conflict as manifested in the Islamic line, the Hamas show the best example as they involve in the major fight along the line of religion which has left several people lose their life. It is considered religious violence because the war is pitting two different groups which come from two religious backgrounds. The line of Islam can also have a special consideration on the bombing which took place at the world trade centre, this bombings which was considered to be closely related by the al-Qaeda activities was another violence which involved two sides who were hailing from different religious backgrounds. Being that al-Qaeda is a movement within the Islam religion and the bombing place in America is another place from a different religion it was therefore considered religious conflict as it was involving two different religions. The sikh-hindu can not also be left in this line as they also some conflicts which manifested themselves in the form of religious conflict, in addition the Buddhist had a religious conflicts in the sense of the Aum Shinrikyo which was mainly a religious conflict pitting two different religions.
The logic of religious violence can be considered to be a theater of terror in the sense that it can be considered a cosmic war. Thos is because the terrorists acts which are mainly considered to be in the symbol form should not be considered political or had some strategic planning given that the war can happen not directly for the reason for which it was intended but because there is a reason behind which can initiate the war, in this example we can give the case of the bombing which took place at the twin towers in September 11th 2001, the real target was not the bombed place but the capitalism and the American political involving and the economy were to be the main reason behind the bombings and not the two buildings. This therefore proves that the terrorism act is manifesting itself as what can be considered performance violence and must entail some drama where time and place is a major factor. This is considered to offer some resemblance to the religious rituals. With all those happenings the mind of individuals shall be drawn along with the reasoning that there is some cosmic linage and the activities here can really affect the world when real action is carried out. Terrorists can be considered to be people who can give themselves to die a they explode themselves to make sure that the bombing is carried out and thus according to the Don Delillo who had some prophetic arguments that only those considered strong believers which are known in the Christian context as the martyrs are the ones who can give up themselves to die due to there strong faith are to be given that strong and special consideration.
Terrorism can therefore be considered as a language where some individuals can gain the recognition and the people who shall witness the terrorist act being carried out can be considered to constitute the whole process that goes with it. In one of the interviews which were carried out by the author of this book, he came across one gentleman by the name Mahmud Abouhalima who claimed that one of the greatest danger which affects Islam is the media. He claims that the media is characterized with numerous misunderstanding on the Islam and thus his showed that the terrorism activities are mainly depending on the media which can be seen to be always giving happenings as concerns terrorism which has not even been witnessed.
The images which have been witnessed in the media when associated with the religion understanding with regard to different religious beliefs and other symbols geared towards the cosmic wars portrayed happenings which appeared to be ritual in nature. This is because the presentations behind them could not be witnessed anywhere in the world. It is important though to consider that not all religious representations can be associated with the ipso facto and the real violence taking place. The symbolism which was considered here is intended to outdo any form of violence which can be related to it. This therefore left the question of why the cosmic wars resulting to be the world wars. And how the various religious symbols result into and sustain the violence. This could have some support being drawn in the sense that the different cultures are heading to a condition tat they shall be considered null and void, example at hand being the Sikhism or the Islam which are no longer practiced in some parts of the universe. In the line of not trying to admit the lose of any struggle ventured in the religion discipline or some of the undertakings in the world which cant be achieved given the reason that time and the condition that goes with it doesn’t offer favors and shall therefore be left to the God almighty to offer a ruling and direction on the same and thus coming up with the loser and winner. In this regard therefore the author reasons that the Arab- Israeli religious conflict could not be considered as one of the holy fights from their own views up until the end of 1980s.
The symbolic empowerment had the four main stages main as was described by the author. The martyrs and the Demons gave the special consideration to the process which the two parties involved in the conflict can go through with some symbolic interpretations. The first stage has the view that the universe is “a world gone awrey”. The second phase is considered as the “foreclosure of normal choices” argued that the violence could not lead to any development as concerns the undertakings which resulted into the same. The third part which is considered to the “satanization to the opponent” which is mainly associated with evil spirits and thus the cosmic war can be the ground which can offer some very important lessons the people and the world can learn from. The fourth stage which is considered to be the most unsafe due to the idea that the people who have been associated with this level are mainly considered terrorists where they ca can consider this act to be the main weapon they can use to make sue that the get back the authority they had lost in the activities of the symbolic nature.
The association between the religion which are well established and the activities that goes with them as viewed on the normal public life perspective. In this religion as the case of Islam where only the men are allowed to go to the mosque, they can associate there and in the line of coming together without the females who are always considered t be afraid of war like activities, there then exists the high chances of war crime activities to be argued and subsequently carried out. This has been argued to be the major reason as to why Muslims are mainly associated with the terrorists activities as the women when could have been involved in the church activities, chances are they could oppose most f the terrorist ideas cropping up in the Islam activities which subsequently result into religious conflicts. It is important to note though that the terrorist groups always from a very insignificant portion of most communities and that their activities don’t always get any authority from the arms concerned with the religion activities and regulations. In the best example to support this argument are the Hamas, which mainly based in the Gaza and could therefore get support and recognition from the Muslim clerics, in addition, the Palestine considered to be the main pillar of the “social respectability”. All these can be considered to be some of the social aspects which come up with various groupings forming a very established network resulting to the violence as seen along the religious lines
The escalating levels of religious violence over the past few decades, there have been a significant attention in the possible role that has been played by religion in the propagation of the conflicts. Religions taken on a general context have played a significant role in the violence. Others however perceive the issue to result from strategic calculations with religion contributing to a role of epiphenomenal importance. According to the studies conducted by Juergensmeyer the “terrorists” and “fundamentalists” are actually the people who commit acts of religious violence. This is specifically indicated by the role that is played by the terrorist of Islamic origin who are an actual cause to the security on a global context.
The upcoming of the Islamic terrorism is an innovative phenomenon that has more deadly consequences in addition to being more obtuse in relation to the traditional terrorism that has a close association to the separatist in addition to the nationalists’ movements. This has led to a perception of Islamists among many people as mysterious as well as incomprehensible mutation with characteristics of suicidal fanatics being in a position of making no demands in addition to a failure of taking any credit of the actions related to terror that they commit.
This situation is however not restricted to the Islamist fundamentalists because some distinct similarities have been observed among the Christians as well as the Jewish fundamentalists. There are some traits shared in common among all religious fundamentalists as a result of the motivations observed among them with the engagement of secular dissidents in violence.
The unifying factor among religious fundamentalists is fear, all Christians, the Jews as well as the Muslims have a fear for change, influence loss in addition to modernization. Their fear is for the young to put the church, the mosques as well as the synagogues asunder as a result of physical as well as material gratification. They usually fail to practice the two key features of critical thinking that is open system and objectivity. They have also been noted to avoid the “unreliable thinking patterns” and the “fallacies of reasoning”. Some religions are adamant about their beliefs and they will never try to dilute their beliefs. For example, Muslims will never accept anything against their fundamental beliefs even if the science and technology proved it as wrong beliefs.
The Christian terrorism is usually done by individual groups with motivations that are based on interpreting the bible in a manner that is idiosyncratic in addition to some tenets of the Christian faith. The terrorists have a backing of the scriptures in the Bible in addition to theology which justifies the violent activities.
On the other hand the Muslims commit acts of religious violence in the name of jihad. This is usually a struggle or an effort with a wrong translation of holy war. There are three manifestations of struggle that are associated with the jihad. The first one is the internal struggle of the believer in living according to the faith of the Muslim in the best possible way. The other manifestation of the jihad is building of a Muslim society that is perceived to be good. It is an acceptable fact among the majority of the Muslims that Jihad represents struggling internally and spiritually.
On the contrary most people view jihad as being a military struggle because terrorism remains to be terrorism whether its motivation is rooted in politics or religion. Among the acts that have been associated with terrorism include the airline hijacking, acts of assassinations, kidnapping, mass murder in addition to suicide bombings.
Among the most notable of these acts was World Trade Center destruction in addition to the hijacking of passenger planes significantly attacking the USA. There was a controversy in as far as the event was concerned in connection to the nature of the event. Was it actually a self defense, national self determination, aggression or Islamic supremacy? Can the Muslim be in a position of condoning noncombatants targeting? Are the attacks that are taken as Islamic terrorism be the terrorists’ actions that were committed by the Muslims or did they have a nationalism motivation behind them? What is the extent of support does the Muslim world offer to the Islamic terrorists? Is the support that is given to terror a phenomenon that is temporary?
Juergensmeyer argued that religions not only supplied the ideology, but it supplied motivation and organizational structure also for the religious terrorism. For example, Pakistan is considered as a country which is under the control of Muslim fundamentalists even if a democratic administration is there. Many people believe that Pak spy agency Inter service intelligence (ISI) is acting receiving and executing the instructions they received from the religious fundamentalists rather than the government. Many people believe that Bin Laden is in the safe hands of ISI and America may not be able to trace him out because of the strong backing Laden enjoyed from the Muslim fundamentalists. Muslim fundamentalists believe that America has the hidden agenda of baptizing the rest of the world. They believe that America is trying to destroy Islam from the soil of earth and in order to resist such attempt, terrorism is the only means.
One of the agonizing facts about most of the terrorist activities is the religious elements involved in it. Religious fundamentalism and violence is one of the major headaches of the current world. Even though globalization has taught us the necessity of global cooperation for the betterment of our future life, terrorism seems to be increasing day by day. America has already started the war on terror immediately after the 9/11 and currently engaged in immense battle in Iraq and Afghanistan against the Muslim fundamentalist groups. India and Pakistan were almost started a clash over the Mumbai attack issue, but the international diplomatic efforts prevented them from doing so. At the same time, many people believe that another attack on Indian soil by the Pak terrorist groups may result in third war between these neighboring countries.
