The Myth of Religious Violence - Karen Armstrong - World News - The Guardian
The Myth of Religious Violence - Karen Armstrong - World News - The Guardian
The Myth of Religious Violence - Karen Armstrong - World News - The Guardian
The myth of religious violence | Karen Armstrong | World news | The Guardian
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The popular belief that religion is the cause of the worlds bloodiest conflicts is central to
our modern conviction that faith and politics should never mix. But the messy history of
their separation suggests it was never so simple
Karen Armstrong
Thursday 25 September 2014 06.00 BST
As we watch the fighters of the Islamic State (Isis) rampaging through the Middle
East, tearing apart the modern nation-states of Syria and Iraq created by
departing European colonialists, it may be difficult to believe we are living in the
21st century. The sight of throngs of terrified refugees and the savage and
indiscriminate violence is all too reminiscent of barbarian tribes sweeping away
the Roman empire, or the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan cutting a swath
through China, Anatolia, Russia and eastern Europe, devastating entire cities and
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massacring their inhabitants. Only the wearily familiar pictures of bombs falling
yet again on Middle Eastern cities and towns this time dropped by the United
States and a few Arab allies and the gloomy predictions that this may become
another Vietnam, remind us that this is indeed a very modern war.
The ferocious cruelty of these jihadist fighters, quoting the Quran as they behead
their hapless victims, raises another distinctly modern concern: the connection
between religion and violence. The atrocities of Isis would seem to prove that
Sam Harris, one of the loudest voices of the New Atheism, was right to claim
that most Muslims are utterly deranged by their religious faith, and to conclude
that religion itself produces a perverse solidarity that we must find some way to
undercut. Many will agree with Richard Dawkins, who wrote in The God
Delusion that only religious faith is a strong enough force to motivate such utter
madness in otherwise sane and decent people. Even those who find these
statements too extreme may still believe, instinctively, that there is a violent
essence inherent in religion, which inevitably radicalises any conflict because
once combatants are convinced that God is on their side, compromise becomes
impossible and cruelty knows no bounds.
Despite the valiant attempts by Barack Obama and David Cameron to insist that
the lawless violence of Isis has nothing to do with Islam, many will disagree. They
may also feel exasperated. In the west, we learned from bitter experience that the
fanatical bigotry which religion seems always to unleash can only be contained by
the creation of a liberal state that separates politics and religion. Never again, we
believed, would these intolerant passions be allowed to intrude on political life.
But why, oh why, have Muslims found it impossible to arrive at this logical
solution to their current problems? Why do they cling with perverse obstinacy to
the obviously bad idea of theocracy? Why, in short, have they been unable to
enter the modern world? The answer must surely lie in their primitive and
atavistic religion.
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A Ukrainian soldier near the eastern Ukrainian town of Pervomaysk. Photograph: Photograph: Gleb
Garanich/Reuters
But perhaps we should ask, instead, how it came about that we in the west
developed our view of religion as a purely private pursuit, essentially separate
from all other human activities, and especially distinct from politics. After all,
warfare and violence have always been a feature of political life, and yet we alone
drew the conclusion that separating the church from the state was a prerequisite
for peace. Secularism has become so natural to us that we assume it emerged
organically, as a necessary condition of any societys progress into modernity. Yet
it was in fact a distinct creation, which arose as a result of a peculiar
concatenation of historical circumstances; we may be mistaken to assume that it
would evolve in the same fashion in every culture in every part of the world.
We now take the secular state so much for granted that it is hard for us to
appreciate its novelty, since before the modern period, there were no secular
institutions and no secular states in our sense of the word. Their creation
required the development of an entirely different understanding of religion, one
that was unique to the modern west. No other culture has had anything remotely
like it, and before the 18th century, it would have been incomprehensible even to
European Catholics. The words in other languages that we translate as religion
invariably refer to something vaguer, larger and more inclusive. The Arabic word
din signifies an entire way of life, and the Sanskrit dharma covers law, politics,
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and social institutions as well as piety. The Hebrew Bible has no abstract concept
of religion; and the Talmudic rabbis would have found it impossible to define
faith in a single word or formula, because the Talmud was expressly designed to
bring the whole of human life into the ambit of the sacred. The Oxford Classical
Dictionary firmly states: No word in either Greek or Latin corresponds to the
English religion or religious. In fact, the only tradition that satisfies the
modern western criterion of religion as a purely private pursuit is Protestant
Christianity, which, like our western view of religion, was also a creation of the
early modern period.
Traditional spirituality did not urge people to retreat from political activity. The
prophets of Israel had harsh words for those who assiduously observed the
temple rituals but neglected the plight of the poor and oppressed. Jesuss famous
maxim to Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars was not a plea for the
separation of religion and politics. Nearly all the uprisings against Rome in firstcentury Palestine were inspired by the conviction that the Land of Israel and its
produce belonged to God, so that there was, therefore, precious little to give
back to Caesar. When Jesus overturned the money-changers tables in the
temple, he was not demanding a more spiritualised religion. For 500 years, the
temple had been an instrument of imperial control and the tribute for Rome was
stored there. Hence for Jesus it was a den of thieves. The bedrock message of
the Quran is that it is wrong to build a private fortune but good to share your
wealth in order to create a just, egalitarian and decent society. Gandhi would
have agreed that these were matters of sacred import: Those who say that
religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means.
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A US army soldier shoots at Taliban fighters on the outskirts of Jellawar in the Arghandab Valley, Afghanistan.
Photograph: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images
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private quest over which the state had no jurisdiction, would be the foundation of
the modern secular ideal.
But Luthers response to the peasants war in Germany in 1525, during the early
stages of the wars of religion, suggested that a secularised political theory would
not necessarily be a force for peace or democracy. The peasants, who were
resisting the centralising policies of the German princes which deprived them of
their traditional rights were mercilessly slaughtered by the state. Luther
believed that they had committed the cardinal sin of mixing religion and politics:
suffering was their lot, and they should have turned the other cheek, and
accepted the loss of their lives and property. A worldly kingdom, he insisted,
cannot exist without an inequality of persons, some being free, some
imprisoned, some lords, some subjects. So, Luther commanded the princes, Let
everyone who can, smite, slay and stab, secretly or openly, remembering that
nothing can be more poisoned, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel.
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children beneath the hooves of our horses, and massacred the women The
roads are littered with corpses.
Ironically, no sooner had the revolutionaries rid themselves of one religion, than
they invented another. Their new gods were liberty, nature and the French
nation, which they worshipped in elaborate festivals choreographed by the artist
Jacques Louis David. The same year that the goddess of reason was enthroned on
the high altar of Notre Dame cathedral, the reign of terror plunged the new nation
into an irrational bloodbath, in which some 17,000 men, women and children
were executed by the state.
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liberty, modern secular versions of ideals which had been promoted in a religious
idiom in the past. The structural injustice of the agrarian state, however, had
made it impossible to implement these ideals fully. The nation-state made these
noble aspirations practical necessities. More and more people had to be drawn
into the productive process and needed at least a modicum of education.
Eventually they would demand the right to participate in the decisions of
government. It was found by trial and error that those nations that democratised
forged ahead economically, while those that confined the benefits of modernity
to an elite fell behind. Innovation was essential to progress, so people had to be
allowed to think freely, unconstrained by the constraints of their class, guild or
church. Governments needed to exploit all their human resources, so outsiders,
such as Jews in Europe and Catholics in England and America, were brought into
the mainstream.
A candlelight vigil in 2007 at the Arlington West Memorial in Santa Barbara, California, to honour American
soldiers killed in the Iraq war. Photograph: Sipa Press/REX
Yet this toleration was only skin-deep, and as Lord Acton had predicted, an
intolerance of ethnic and cultural minorities would become the achilles heel of
the nation-state. Indeed, the ethnic minority would replace the heretic (who had
usually been protesting against the social order) as the object of resentment in the
new nation-state. Thomas Jefferson, one of the leading proponents of the
Enlightenment in the United States, instructed his secretary of war in 1807 that
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horror upon the travesty of Isis, we would be wise to acknowledge that its
barbaric violence may be, at least in part, the offspring of policies guided by our
disdain.
Karen Armstrongs Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence is
published today by Bodley Head. She will be appearing on 11 October at the London
Lit Weekend at Kings Place
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18 Sep 2014
16 Sep 2014
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MikeDrew2101
218
Karen Armstrong ignores the fact that religion is based on misunderstanding (to use the mildest
term I can think of). Morality cannot be based on a wrong understanding of human nature.
Seculism may not have been perfect but it able to progress. Living on the basis of religion cannot
progress unless it is towards the the one true religion- and as far as I can tell from a limited reading
of Karen Armstrong's work she doe not believe there is a one true religion.
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errovi
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MikeDrew2101
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creativity1976
MikeDrew2101
83
The issue here is the political interference by religion. While personal religion can be about
about love and peace, their political versions are generally not. Islam and State needs to be
separate; just as any religious church and state.
While the idea of uniting religion with state needs thwarting, it is a journey that the citizens of
middle eastern countries need to undergo and evolve. We can't instil that with bombs.
Reply
adognow
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MikeDrew2101
168
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The myth of religious violence | Karen Armstrong | World news | The Guardian
The corporate class of America brainwashes over a hundred million right-wing evangelical
American morons to continue voting for pro-corporate, pro-war politicians who do everything
for the pursuit of corporate profit and greed in endless wars under the guise of "doing the
Lord's good work". Ruling (rightwing) politicians in Canada and Australia invoke "god" at
every opportunity to whip the sheep among the population up into a fervor.
Religion is simply a tool for insidious ends. And the earlier religion is banished from politics (it
should be forbidden for any politician to invoke his "god" in public) the better. Pity that in this
century there are still people who are willing to believe in fanciful tales in order to justify
voting for "religious" politicians who then use the political mandate to commit war crimes.
Reply
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Mike Lawn
242
It is simple. Religion is just another form of human tribalism. Knuckle dragging football supporters
is another one. Fundamentally we like forming into groups and fighting one another. Such is
humanity
Reply
Report
JoshCarter1
Mike Lawn
109
Gembar
Report
JoshCarter1
24
It explained that religions are a source of conflict because they define groups and generate
sacred values.-------------------------------------------------A sources is just that - a (1)
source. Religion is not the singular source of conflict though, never was and never will be.
Reply
Topher S
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Gembar
103
Monotheistic religion most certainly has been and is a source of conflict. When you have a
belief that says "this is the only correct belief", invest that belief with that faulty belief it is
the source of morality, and mix it with authority over people's lives it's going to be bad. At
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