Peaceful Society

Hashim  A. Pabai

February 20, 2011

RELIGION AND SOCIETAL PEACE

Believed by many Christians as the holiest church in Christendom the church of the holy sepulcher in Jerusalem has also became the place of symbol of religious strife and hostility. According to tradition, the church marks the place ‘where Christ is suppose to have been buried and to have rise from the dead’ however, this holy site has also been the stage for many violent confrontations. Monks and priests from six different Christian denominations have attacked one another over the issue of church usage right; the rivalry has intensified in recent years. Riot police armed with assault rifles have had to intervene and take temporary control of the church.

The events at the church of the holy tomb are part of a long history of bloodshed and carnage link to religious fervor. In a review of recent conflicts in different parts of the world,

The book “violence in god’s name” says: from Indonesia to Northern Ireland, the Middle East to Kashmir, India to Nigeria, the Balkans and to srilanka, Christian, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs justified the use of violence on the ground that they are protecting their religious identity and interest.

yet, most religious embrace peace and harmony as central doctrine through the ages, philanthropic ideal such as love of neighbor and the sanctity of human life have been orderly promoted by religion should not religion ,then exercise its formidable powers in behalf of peace? Sincere worshippers do well to examine this question,

Early 18th century cleric and author Jonathan swift wrote: we have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another many have argued religion is in fact a force for division rather than unity, but not every one agrees.

Considering the conclusion, that was reached by a group of researchers at the Department of peace studies at Bradford University in the United Kingdom. The group was commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation to provide a sound answer to the question of whether religion is a force for peace or war.

In a published report the researchers said: after reviewed historical analyses by a devise array of specialist, we concluded that there have been few genuinely religious wars in the last 100 years.

The investigation team explained that some war often painted in the media and other places as wars over religion or wars raise from religious differences have in fact been wars of nationalism, liberation of neither territory nor self defense

However, many other argue that the clergy, by their actions or by their silence, have condoned and actively supported many armed conflicts, as indicated by the following quotes;

• Religion seems to be connected with violence virtually everywhere….. In recent years, religious violence has erupted among right-wing Christians in the United States, angry Muslims and Jews in the Middle East, and indigenous religious communities in Africa and Indonesia.(Terror In The Mind Of God-The Global Religious Violence)
• Ironically, nations with fervent religion often have the worst social evils… the saturation of evidence of religion has failed to prevent the severe crime level… the evidence seems clear. To find living conditions that are safe, decent, orderly, and “civilized” , avoid places with intense religion (holy hatred)
• Baptist are much better known for fighting than for peacemaking …when the American slave issue and other development divided the denominations and then the nation in the nineteenth century. Baptist north and south supported the war effort as a righteous crusade and assumed that God was on their side; Baptist also identified with the national effort in wars with England (1812) Mexico (1845) and ,Spain (1898) justifying the last two mainly on the grounds of bringing religious liberty to oppressed peoples and opening new area for mission work. The point is not that Baptist desired war rather than peace, but that, for the most part when war became a reality Baptist supported and participated in the effort (review and expositor A Baptist journal)
• Religious  motivation to combat has been located by historians in most eras and among virtually all the world’s diverse peoples cultures, and usually   on both sides was among the earliest and most potent of incitements to battle (violence in God’s name-religion an age of conflict )

Throughout history, the clergy of all the major religions of Christendom (catholic, orthodox, and protestant) have provided an endless supply of pries and chaplains to raise the morale of troops and pray for the dead and dying-on both side of any conflict.

By this support they have condoned the bloodshed and given their blessing to all the military forces.

Some might still argue that religion cannot be blamed for warfare but, the question is, has religion succeeded in any of its efforts to unite mankind?

The New York Times “publication in April 16, 1917 said, The Rev. Dr. Charles A. Eaton, Pastor of Madison Avenue Baptist Church announced from his pulpit yesterday that the parish house of the church was to be turned into a recruiting station for men desiring to enlist in either the army or navy. “He was one a dozens clergymen in the city who preached war sermons at their regular Sunday morning services, and who also urged the men and women to attest their loyalty to the nation and democracy by offering their services in the war at the earliest opportunity. Flag decorated many churches.

Religion has not united mankind; consider some of the reasons why this is true.

The human family is divided by religion with several major religious powers locked in perpetual rivalry. Are there any reasons to believe that Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and Muslim will ever exist together peacefully?

Another sad reality is the fragment action that exists within each of those principal religious blocks. For instance, according to one estimate, Christendom is broken up into more than 30,000 denominations; Islam is also divided by conflicting beliefs. According to a Middle East news agency a Muslim scholar, Muhsen Hojjat, recently acknowledge that “disunity among Muslim is the root cause of problems in the Islamic world” Other influential religions, such as; Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism are likewise fractured into many  conflicting sects.

Religion seems to influence nearly every aspect of secular life. The newsmagazine,(The economist ) observes that “religious people are getting more vocal in all sorts of fields, including business. Religion is also cropping up in economics”

The result in dividing people rather than uniting them, but, a more damaging influence has to do with the long standing history of religion meddling in politics. In a recent report refer to in the preceding article, a group of historians noted that “religion is more likely to be the cause of war when religion and states authorities become closely allied or intertwined” And therein lies another undeniable reality religion has been and is to this day tightly interlocked with political and military entities.

Religion has always been one of the most influential forces in the world. It has been seen as a force for peace and harmony, but it has also served as a cause, if not a genuine reason, for some of the greatest wars. Today, with the growth of Muslim fundamentalism, the Western worldviews religious extremism as the great threat. The events of September 11 2001 proved that such concerns were justified; however, the war on terror led by the West caused bitterness among those for whom Islam was a peaceful source of spiritual stability. So what is religion today? Is it harmful or good? If it can be a source of conflict, can it serve as an instrument of resolution as well?

Religion is extremely dangerous because it can be used to justify brutal actions. Crusaders not only killed many Muslims in their attempts to win control of the Holy Land, they also massacred many Jews and Eastern Christians in the process. The investigation carried out its torture in the name of God. Hitler’s followers, among them the so-called German Christians, were also believers in their Fuhrer. Religion should never be involved in politics because it can be used as an instrument of control or to achieve a ruler’s aims.

Theocratic states become dictatorial regimes because they are based on obedience to a ruler who is seen as God’s representative rather than on a democratic constitution. They may be stable (although huge protests against a rigged election in Iraq in 2009 could suggest otherwise) but they are not essentially concerned with their people’s welfare. By prioritizing religious imperatives over economic development, and by their intolerance of the questioning entrepreneurial types who drive economic progress, states like Iran have become corrupt, authoritarian and poor.

Religions like Islam justify “holy” wars against the “unfaithful”, meaning people of other religions. This can also be seen in the violence of the crusades launched by Christians in the medieval period, and by later wars between Protestant and Catholic Christians in Europe, as well as in the more recent violent attacks by extremist Hindu groups against Christians and Muslims in India. Religious convictions like these paved the way for the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001.

Religion has led to the creation of great art, but it has also caused its destruction. Remember the Taliban’s destruction of the great Buddha in Afghanistan? Still worse, religion can be a source of extreme nationalism. In Islam, Christianity and Judaism, God is described as “mighty warrior”, “just king” or “righteous judge”. He punishes the unjust, the unrighteous and the disobedient. The idea that a nation is the instrument of God’s will has led to war and the defeat of people viewed as ungodly.

Whether religion is a genuine reason for war, or only its pretext is not important. What is vital is that religion can be, and often is used to make people fight in the name of high ideals to further aims of extreme dislike without an appeal to religion, leaders would often be unable to mobilize their people in war. Thus, religion causes more harm than good.

North American nations emerged only because of economic factors: the existence of famine and overpopulation in Europe on the one hand, and the free markets of the United States on the other. The realities of capitalism, not the tenets of religious faith, prompt people to be diligent and thrifty. After all, the USA has a much higher proportion of observant Christians than most European states today, but they share similar political, economic and cultural values. It is believed; when people of all kinds live together separating religion from family or nation they will live in total peace. In Liberia, for example, the formation of the NATIONAL REPENTANT MUSLIM organization in the 1980s brought divisions among some group of Muslims families that resulted to arrest and brutality against rival groups. This situation lasted until the death of the founder of the organization; his follower accused his antagonist for foul play that led his early death.