Introduction
Religious warfare refers to violent conflicts with a religious goal, such as protecting sacred places and holy nations. Major religions in the world: under certain conditions, practice violence as a sacred and holy undertaking. Numerous historical instances from various beliefs commend the hypothetical concepts, enlightening that the abolition of the religious battle defies advocates to adopt the highest creeds of their corresponding faiths. Holy war is common in the Islamic religion, which uses terrorism as a form of religious conflict. This essay seeks to understand why major religions support warfare under some appearances such as jihad, crusades, or Dharma despite the diversity in doctrine. This paper aims to take a holistic look at the several causes of religious warfare while recognizing the important role that doctrine plays in religiously endorsed warfare.
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The main question is what increases the vulnerability of the Islamic religion to violence compared to other doctrines. There are several occurrences of conflict motivated by the Muslims, including violence, terrorism, and war, than those of Jewish, Christian, Hindus, and Buddhism. Holy wars are products of doctrine, beliefs, and scriptures (Tor 45). Even though the account and scriptures of the world’s belief articulate stories of harmony, reconciliation, and love, they also speak of violence and war. Some individuals believe in securing holy and sacred places of worship and, therefore, can do whatever it takes to provide protection. Jenkins (45) argues that the holy war is effective in definite situations which are single-sided. Spiritual leaders often condemn this argument and say it contradicts religious teachings and beliefs. They make assumptions that religion can be a means of collecting violent provisions.
Improper interpretation of the scriptures is a major issue in most doctrines. Some believers and even unbelievers come up with inappropriate versions of the Holy Prophet and Quran through written books, articles, journals, and acted movies (Jenkins 52). A good example is a book by David Marshal (1999), which portrayed Islam as a bloody faith with an extracted quote from the Quran. The fact that some Muslim community fails to understand the attitude of the matters of Jihad leads to their dangerous actions (Tor 45). These actions open ground for criticism of the holiness in Islam, which is none other than a replication of the commandments of nature and indicators of the magnificence of the creator.
The ability of Muslims to believe in the Quran’s misinterpretations creates conflict among Mohamed’s followers. The main reason for exposure to religious oppression, violence, extremism, and terrorism is some professors’ wrong interpretation of Jihad (Jenkins 62). According to analysis, the present practices among Muslims, such as a mass attacks, destruction, and killings of civilians, have links to Jihad (Gregg 40). The existence of certain myths that support the need for holy war for self-purification and spiritual peace is a great misguidance to believers. These actions are blasphemy to God’s instructions since they initially start from the destruction of sympathy for humankind. Islamic religion does not require the sustenance of a blade for its promulgation.
Political factors, including leadership and its roles in religion, can cause religious warfare. Both political and religious leaders are significant for the acknowledgment of the holy war. For instance, spiritual front-runners have the gift of translating scripture and preserving religious cultures; these spiritual possessions can be treasured gears for extenuating the application of power and rallying people for war. Political leaders are the managers of public resources, such as the military force, which the country can use to protect from threats (Tor 45). The relationship between the two leading sectors is evitable mostly in spiritually driven violence. Both groups can exploit resources from each side to meet their goals in entanglement cases. The intermixing can be due to religion, political parties, government posts for spiritual leaders, monarchies, and doctrine laws.
Cashman and Leonard (156) argued that religion and politics should be different associations with purely dissimilar objectives. They supported that state leaders need to honor the integrity of God by allowing religious liberties out of federal interference. State leaders cause conflicts through their use of forceful translations of the religion to defy the people in power (Gregg 40). However, separation of state authority from religious leaders can never end the religious war. Some religious authorities use violence to out-smart the state to disturb a revolution. Examples: include the use of jihad by the Islamic organization against their state and the emergence of Christian terrorists in the U.S, whose goal is to overtake the American government and replace it with a Christian theocracy.
The perception of threat is another factor that can motivate an individual to participate in a religious conflict. Gregg (37) explains that leaders plan the religious war in response to perceived and real threats, not as a chance to obtain resources of adherents to trust. Some holy wars do not tend to pose a threat to individuals or nations, but rather, they are for territory expansion, such as the jihad’s fight to enlarge the Dar al-Islam. The frontrunners react to the situation, communities, or territories that oppose the existence of religion. The conflict between Ayodhya and Jerusalem is an instance of spiritual motivation to secure sacred spaces (Jenkins 68). Besides, intimidations that point at terrorizing the social pattern trigger religious responses. They come from occupation, wars, new ideologies, and fresh political systems.
Evolutionary plays an important role in mobilizing a person to participate in religious warfare. The more a religious group possesses numerous properties, the high chances that they can apply force to meet their success. Material, military, and technological resources play a crucial part in initiating conflicts (Tor 58). They include material resources; buildings of institutions, property, and money that can be a major cause of holy war, technological resources; communications technology and transportation, and military equipment; charismatic leaders, social resources, network-educated leaders, and organizations (Gregg 47). The lack of these resources can stimulate the use of soft alternative modes such as hibernating from wars to protect the faith.
There is a significant difference between the war with religion and religious war. General arguments over conditions of spiritual war and conflict with spirits can cause a misunderstanding. The wars of religion come up in situations of separation of societies deemed normal gender roles. Gender is personal, part of everyone’s developing identity and web of relationships, political authority, and religious leaders (Cashman and Leonard 146). It may result in secular conflict with the government. It can also result from intermixing between political and religious goals to achieve both secular and spiritual ends. On the other hand, the holy war is to defend the nation, sacred places, and control over the state through religious rebellions, which allows the groups to implement their translation of faith (Jenkins 53).
Effects of Witnessing Religious Warfare
People who undergo trial for promoting or declining to support a faith or religion are referred to as martyrs (Tor 60). Martyrs gain respect and honor from believers as they consider them heroes. They are significant persons who endured torture, suffering, and even death for their faith in relevant religions. Several people, at one point or the other, witnessed an actual murder attack or watched video footage of a brutal killing. They often respond to the situations differently depending on the degree of the attack or harm and an individual’s exposure to such situations. Some react by screaming, passing out, surrendering, or death (Jenkins 68). Such situations can pose emotional and physical dangers; therefore, such people require frequent visits for spiritual care and group prayers.
Religion War witnesses may end up with mental health complications. The condition affects women and children more than men (Cashman and Leonard 170). Physical torture and psychological manipulation are a great danger to people. The fear of safety, loss of friends and relatives, and witnessing direct slaughtering can greatly impact a person’s sense of control. The result is high depression and unmanageable stress levels caused by frequently distorted memories, disturbed sleep, and nightmares (Jenkins 62). Lack of concentration, poor ability to remember, grief, and high anxiety levels may cause a total mental sickness that may as well take a long recovery period.
The witnesses’ physical abuse results in acute and chronic injuries. Direct beatings or threatening to kill in sequences from inflicting pain to cutting and then slaughtering cause a lot of pain (Tor 45). On most occasions, participants hold civilians in hostages exchange for their demands. They shoot them one after the other as they pose a threat and push for the demanded actions. Another instance is during the mass destruction of an infrastructure or a factory, where civilians get severe injuries as they try to run to their safety. In cases of fire, third-degree burns and death are the main outcomes of the war. According to Gregg (47), these injuries may take time to heal, with some people having a physical disability, apathy, and emptiness.
Religious conflicts such as the Jihad of the Islamic state aim to overtake cities and the government and force people to live according to their twisted Muslim rules (Cashman and Leonard 150). During this war, many people lose their homes and family members, resulting in dislodgment in refugee camps. Immigrants undergo awful situations in camps: sicknesses, death witnesses, lack of medical care, education, and food (Tor 55). Emotional disturbance about the whereabouts of their loved ones is also a major problem. Such undertakings have huge negative impacts on the performance level of daily activities as they cause emotional weakness and mental distortion. The ideal and frustrating conditions in the camps stimulate crime rates among the youths as they live in the belief of violence for personal or group achievement, hence leading to inter-group battles within the camps.
Sexual assault in the refugee camps, especially on children and women, causes fear of strangers and distrust. Most young individuals in these camps lack parental guidance and care since some died during the war, while others are still under trauma and pain (Tor 65). These people are helpless and, therefore, cannot give protection to their children. Sexual abuse results in sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies among individuals. Young people live with low self-esteem, emotional disturbances, lack of confidence, and suicidal memories (Jenkins 62). Fear of threat from strangers and lack of trust may be a long-lasting impact on the assault.
The civilian captive experience exploitations with forceful recruitment into fighting or terrorist groups. First, the religious leaders accept the existing religious beliefs whether twisted or deal with the consequence of death in denial (Gregg 67). As a result, loses faith in their religion and rejection of their land. Then they use them to make video footage showing live killings to threaten the governments in excellent demanding conditions (Cashman and Leonard 140). Some become the recruits of the fighting crew, where they undergo physical torture during training. The chances that these people survive the attack after training are minimal since they lack experience in endurance techniques. Some captives work as enslaved people for the benefit of the attacking organizations.
The witness of religious war requires psychological and physical assistance to recover from the traumas of conflict. The step is to respond to children, youths, and their families by initiating programs that help provide stable housing and support (Tor 45). For instance, young individuals need coordination and support during recovery. It may include the provision of social amenities such as learning and religious institutions in the refugee camps (Gregg 38). Then finally, assist in dealing with disorders of post-trauma by initiating stress management programs and relaxation techniques to help reduce grief and gain emotional strength.
Conclusion
Religious war must have the element of spiritual achievement, the religious reward for the fighters, and should be under the control of a religious leader to qualify as one. Its main aim is to safeguard sacred spaces, retrieve holy countries, avenge blasphemy (brutal killings and slaughtering of civilians), and spread faith and revolution. This essay portrays the difference between religious wars, wars within religions, and their cause. Even though religion spreads the need for peace and love among nations, it can also initiate conflict within and outside the doctrine. These religious wars greatly impact civilians, including physical and psychological trauma, which may take time for recovery. Therefore, the victim often requires first medical and support attention.
Work cited:
Cashman, Greg, and Leonard C. Robinson. An Introduction to the Causes of War: Patterns of Interstate Conflict from World War I to Iraq. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. 145-180
Gregg, Heather S. The Causes of Religious Wars: Holy Nations, Sacred Spaces, and Religious Revolutions. , 2003. 30-45
Jenkins, Philip. The Great and Holy War: How World War I Changed Religion forever, 2015. 20-75
Tor, D G. Violent Order: Religious Warfare, Chivalry, and the ʻayyār Phenomenon in the Medieval Islamic World. Würzburg [Germany: Ergon, 2007. 40-71
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