Relating Terrorism to Religion – Is It Justified!?

In this informative article, Knowledge Unrestricted attempts to find the true answer to the question posed in the title.

Introduction

It is an established fact that no faith or religion preaches, promotes, teaches or propagates terrorism of any kind and in any form. Similarly, no faith or religion permits, allows or condones terrorism of any kind in any form. In that case, the question which immediately comes to mind is; why some individuals or groups relate terrorism to religion! Is it justified relating terrorism to religion? Read the following lines to get a detailed answer.

What Terrorism Actually Is

First, let’s take a look at the terms “Terrorism” and “Terrorist” in a totally impartial manner.

"Terrorist is a handy word of abuse for your enemies. As such it is often loosely used or misused.” (Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1555265.stm)

“There is no single, universally accepted definition of terrorism. It is defined by the Code of Federal Regulations as “The unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” (Source: 28 C.F.R. Section 0.85)

“Britain's Terrorism Act 2000 defines terrorism as an act or threat "designed to influence the government or to intimidate the public or a section of the public''; and which involves (a) involves serious violence against a person, serious damage to property, endangering a person's life, creating a serious risk to public health and safety, or is designed to seriously interfere with or disrupt an electronic system.”

(Source: http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2006/07/06/70087.htm)

Argument

So much for the definition of the word!

Coming back to our main topic, the term “Religious Terrorism” is a misnomer and a misconception. It is being wrongly used to identify some terrorists who just happen to belong to a certain faith or religion. For example, if a white person commits robbery, we cannot cal it white robbery or if a black person steals cars, it is not justified to call it black auto theft. Similarly, if the most number of crimes are committed by people of a particular nationality, we simply cannot name it after that country for instance; “American Crime” because the crime rate is highest in America or “British Criminals” for that matter. Criminals or terrorists cannot be attached to any particular faith, religion, nationality or race. A criminal is a criminal and a terrorist is a terrorist and that’s it.

Upon meticulous study of various major religions, it has been established that no religion favours or encourages killing of innocent people and any kind of violence as the first and last resort. In actual fact, it is the individuals or groups who commit heinous crimes against humanity by using (read misusing) religion as a scapegoat. The name of religion is wrongly used to achieve personal, political, financial and other types of usually illegal objectives. No faith or religion allows murder or killing of humans for any reason unless it is justified by the law and carried out by proper authorities such as the government or state and that too on highly justified and legal grounds. Having said that, many countries have even legislated to ban capital punishment from being carried out.

At this point, we will take murder and killing as it is part and parcel of terrorism and ascertain what the major religions of the world have to say about murder and killing especially when the victims are innocent people. Below is how various faiths and religions of the world view the act of murder.

Murder According to Religion

Judaism

The Ten Commandments, for example, prohibit murder, adultery, theft, lies and coveting.

Christianity

There is no place for murder in Christianity and the Bible prohibits from murdering humans.

Islam

In the teachings of Islam, it is said that if a person kills one innocent human being, it is equal to killing the whole of humanity.

Other faiths and religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism also prohibit murder of humans and even killing of animals without any just cause.

In addition to that, there is also this tendency to justify criminal activities and atrocious acts of violence by posing as victims of others’ terrorism. The only thing to say here is that one wrong cannot be undone by another wrong. One must stick to the law of the land wherever he/she happens to be in order to receive justice and even if justice is not properly served in this world, we can always make the most of it in the afterlife.

Findings

The notion strongly seems to be correct that people, who commit atrocious acts of terrorism by their actions, are in reality disobeying the true teachings and core principles of the faith or religion which they claim to follow. Religion is a sensitive subject and should be seen in line with their own rules and not by the evil deeds of a minor group manipulating the name of the religion as an excuse for their actions.

Conclusion

If we take an unbiased look at what is stated above, it will ultimately prove that whoever commits acts of terrorism and kills innocent human beings in the name of The Creator or any religion, is actually not following the teachings of any religion but in fact violating them. The actual reasons for acts of terrorism whether committed by individuals or groups as non-state actors, or certain government administrations themselves are quite far from being religious. These reasons may vary from political to ideological, and personal to financial for that matter.

Terrorists use the human tendency of falling for anything that is “Hot” in a particular society. This means that if “Women’s Rights” is a hot issue in one country, the terrorists will capitalize on that and in case religion is strictly followed and a sensitive matter in a particular society, then it is religion that is going to be used or should I say, exploited to commit heinous acts of terrorism for personal, social, political, ideological or financial gains.

Owing to the effect of religion on people and society and the sensitivity involved in the subject, religion simply becomes the easiest tool for terrorists to use for justifying their acts and achieving their ulterior motives. In fact, a true believer and follower of any particular religion would not resort to violence and murder or any kind of wrongdoing in the name of religion at any cost and under any circumstances.

Hence it is proved that in reality, there is no such thing as “Religious Terrorism” but rather a misnomer and misconception. Terrorism is just terrorism. It is a heinous crime and an evil act. The fact that some particular terrorists are followers of a certain religion does not mean that religion promotes terrorism. As a matter of fact, religion is only exploited by certain individuals, groups or even government administrations in order to accomplish their evil objectives. It is not the right thing to attribute terrorism to any specific group, nation or religion. For that reason, relating terrorism to religion is by no means justified.

References

http://www.vipis.org/isThereReligiousTerrorism.pdf

http://www.eurasiareview.com/201007094743/studying-relationship-between-terrorism-and-religion.html

http://www.islam-guide.com/ch3-11.htm

http://www.answering-christianity.com/laws_of_murder.htm

http://www.mohammad-pbuh.com/3/terrorism.htm

http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?passage=Exodus+20%3A13

http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?passage=Revelation+21%3A7-8,

http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?passage=James+2%3A8-11)

http://www.unification.net/ws/theme060.htm

http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/420,2271681/What-does-Judaism-say-about-human-rights.html,

http://www.torah.org/learning/ravfrand/5762/yisro.html,

http://www.jewfaq.org/cgi-bin/search.cgi?Keywords=murder

http://www.terrorism-research.com/

http://www.nationmaster.com/article/Crime-Rates-Around-the-World

http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/countries-with-highest-reported-crime-rates.html

http://www.helium.com/items/843325-does-religion-have-anything-to-do-with-terrorism

http://www.helium.com/items/768699-does-religion-have-anything-to-do-with-terrorism

http://www.helium.com/items/436292-does-religion-have-anything-to-do-with-terrorism

http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/countries-with-highest-reported-crime-rates.html

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_tot_cri-crime-total-crimes

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P.S. This article has been written on the basis of extensive research and also contains some personal views of the author. Any disagreement, comments or questions will be more than welcome.