Religious Conflicts

Religion as a source of world and regional conflict.

Religion has been the root cause of most of the world’s major conflicts over the last few millennia. This animated map from Maps of War illustrates the rise of the worlds 5 major religions and the conflicts that have been sparked by their collisions.

Joseph Froncioni

Comments

[Joseph Froncioni]

Perhaps I should have written, “Religion has been an important factor in many of the world’s major conflicts…” However, it is my opinion that religion is the knife that divides, the poison that inflames and the tonic that instills righteousness. Richard Dawkins: 'Religion causes wars by generating certainty.' This is not to say that all wars are holy wars but rather to suggest that religion is the ingredient that adds fuel to the fire. Hitler was a catholic (Granted, he was many other things as well.) who, many historians argue, used his strongly held belief that the Jews killed Jesus Christ in order to justify the genocide he perpetrated on them. (This belief about the Jews, some feel, also partially explains the Vatican’s shamelessly slow response to the holocaust.) At a prayer meeting, shortly before the invasion of Iraq, George w. Bush said: "Behind all of life and all of history, there's a dedication and purpose, set by the hand of a just and faithful God." Nearly simultaneously, God's help was being invoked in Baghdad, too. Saddam Hussein told Iraqis: "Fight as God ordered you to do."
Consider some recent conflicts and their major participants: Bosnia - Serbian Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholic and Muslims; Côte d'Ivoire - Muslims, Indigenous, Christian; Iraq - Kurds, Shiite Muslims, Sunni Muslims (and western armed forces); Kashmir - Hindus and Muslims; Kosovo - Serbian Orthodox Christians and Muslims; Kurdistan – Christians and Muslims; Macedonia - Macedonian Orthodox Christians and Muslims; Middle East - Jews, Muslims and Christians; Northern Ireland – Protestants and Catholics; Pakistan - Sunni and Shiite Muslims; Philippines - Christians and Muslims. And this is a partial list.
I take your point but I hope you see mine.

[Andy Froncioni]

I don't think I agree that religion has been the *root* cause of wars. I would say that religion has been the principal justification given for war.

The major cause of wars is greed. Wars are usually caused by contention for one of the world's disputed resources, be it water, land, access to markets, or just plain money.

Religion is one of the tools used to justify those wars.

I don't know how controversial this view is, but let's see...