Religion and Violence
Dmitri June 3rd, 2007
Is religion synonymous with violence? You might think this is a silly question considering the present common ‘wisdom’ that all religions are inherently peaceful. Religionists among Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and the like have never failed to assert that their religions are based on non-violence and truth. When some uncomfortable facts relating to the present state of Islamic extremism or the past incidences of Christian Crusades and Inquisitions are raised, the issues are quickly brushed under the carpet or overturned by emotionally charged statements. Let us do a reality check of the violence caused by religious groups around the world since the advent of humanity.
“But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.” - [Luke 19.27, The Holy Bible]
Massacre and torture during the Spanish Inquisitions (1299 AD)
Christianity, as claimed by the clergy and pope ‘is a religion of love, tolerance and peace’. But reality and history says otherwise. The three Crusades and two Inquisitions took a toll on at least 10 million human lives all of which are conducted by the clergy and presided over by the the then Popes (leader of Catholic Christians). Coming down in history some of the worst massacres in history were in the name of Christian God, like the massacre of Native Americans before the American Revolution which killed at least 2000000 natives . The history of Christianity is painted in red, full of bloodbath which the Christian apologists of today keep under the carpets from which there is no escape.
“Fight and slay the Pagans whenever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)” - [Sura Tauba. (IX:5), The Holy Quran]
Coming to Islam, it is not all about peace and brotherhood as it looks. Violence was rife during the period of Muhammad both against Jews, idol worshipers of Arabia and inside the fold of Islam itself. At least 100000 Jews, Christians and nature worshipers have perished under the numerous genocidal wars led by Muhammad and/or his followers before and after his death - in Turkey and most of Central Asia. Those who spoke out against these cruelties were charged with apostasy and beheaded. Today Islam, under the funding of petro-dollars have once come back to its true colours in Europe, America, Chechnya, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan and Nigeria to name only a few. In its 1400 years of history, except briefs periods of inaction, Islamists carried violence and bloodshed wherever they could, from Turkey to China.
There is growing violence in Hinduism too such as the pogroms against Christians and Muslims by Hindutva and other extremists in India which is just the start. If these religious zealots come to power the results would be as devastating as that of Islam or Christianity. Jews who never had the opportunity, are showing their violent streak in their genocidal aggression in Palestine and Lebanon. It is only the Buddhism, Jainism and other non-theist religions which are still free from violence. Indeed, the worst crimes committed ever in history are in the name of God.
- World Culture , Ideology , Religion
- Comments(11)
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This is why I choose no religion. They just try to make us believe by preaching lies and hiding truth now when they can no longer force us.
The Crusades did not do enough to Islam; they stopped short of eradicating a brutal race of people hell-bent on anihilating the entire world. The Crusades were right and just, but they should have finished what Islam started in the 7th century and Europe refused to fight against for 300 years, allowing themselves to be slaughtered because they wanted to show “Love Thy Neighbor,” and “Turn the Other Cheek.” That is only for personal, not governmental. When your country is attacked by an enemy, you fight back. Islam is more than an enemy, it’s a vile religion containing vile sub-human thinking that needs to be destroyed if the world is to continue existing.
There’s no such thing as a good Muslim or moderate Muslim; it does not exist. The only good Muslim is one which converts to Christianity or gets the snot blasted out of him or her for what they’ve been doing to the world for 1,400 years–not to mention 5,000 years since Abraham cavorted with a whoring maid.
@Dmitri
I don’t know my friend whats wrong with you, why do you always made strong allegations against Islam and even more aggressive against Islam, Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). During all your discussions regarding religions I found hypocracy in your words, whenever you produced something about Islam that was nothing but false informative and things out of context.(Best way of Christian Machineries)…
Dear Dmitri I don’t want to use rubbish wording for you but I would deeply appreciate if you correct your statements…
Rebuttal:
“Fight and slay the Pagans whenever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)” - [Sura Tauba. (IX:5), The Holy Quran]”
Actually , the verse you have referred was revealed during the period when the pagans of made a treaty with Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)…Here is the full context of Surah…..
9.1.. An (offer) of agreement from Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad), to those of the pagans (idolaters) with whom you have a treaty (obligations of mutual
alliances):
9.2. Then, you (the pagans) go for four months, backwards and forwards, all through the land, but you know that you cannot frustrate Allah but (it is) Allah, Who will cover with shame those who reject Him.
9.3. And an announcement from Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad), to the people
(gathered) on, the day of the great pilgrimage, (the Tenth of the month of Zul-Hajjah)- That Allah (and His Messenger Muhammad) give up (the treaty and the) obligations with the
(distrusted) pagans. If then, you repent, (and join the believers) it will be best for you; But if you turn away, you know that you cannot frustrate Allah. And declare a painful penalty
to those who reject Faith.
9.4. (But the treaties of mutual friendship are) not given up with those (trusted) pagans with whom you have entered into alliance (of friendship), and who have not later on (broken them and) failed you (believers) even a little bit, nor helped anyone (of the enemies) against you. So complete your agreements with them to the end of their time: Because Allah loves the righteous.
9.5.. But when the forbidden (four) months are over then fight and kill the (distrusted) pagans wherever you find them, and catch them, attack them, and stay waiting for them in
every stage (of war); But if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then make it easy for them: Verily, Allah is Often Forgiving (Ghafoor), Most
Merciful (Raheem).
9.6. If one of the pagans asks you for place of safety give it to him, so that he may hear the Word of Allah (the Quran); And then take him to where he can be safe. That is because they are men without knowledge.
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“”At least 100000 Jews, Christians and nature worshipers have perished under the numerous genocidal wars led by Muhammad and/or his followers before and after his death - in Turkey and most of Central Asia. Those who spoke out against these cruelties were charged with apostasy and beheaded.”"
Though , I never rely upon encyclopedias however for sake of arguments I am advising you to correct your information though this link
i know americans justify every crime. they r the real experts.
killing for no reason is justified, raping women is justified, keeping weapons of mass distruction and bringing terror as far as they r concerned is justified. defacing one nation’s history in creating movies blockbusters such as 300 an so on. till usa is in power every thing is justified but when the day it perishes it will plead for human rights violation is its homeland for civil war and internal breakup, and the other nation in its place say china or middle east will be doin the same thing.
theres a proverb in urdu
“gis ki laathi us ki bhains”
trans: ” the mighty is always right others r always wrong”
Lisa the American needs to study true history. I don’t blame her as she comes from the US, where people don’t know what lies beyond their borders.
Your mind is very wicked and then you accuse muslims of being bad.
Read up more and try to learn more about your countries make up, its history and its foriegn policy. You will be surprised to know that the axis of evil stems not from Iran as Bush dictates but from the US.
@Lisa
“There’s no such thing as a good Muslim or moderate Muslim; it does not exist. The only good Muslim is one which converts to Christianity or gets the snot blasted out of him or her for what they’ve been doing to the world for 1,400 years–not to mention 5,000 years since Abraham cavorted with a whoring maid.”
West wake up you too have extremists amongst you!!!!!!!!
Lisa I agree to the extent that there is no such thing as muslim or moderate muslim… yep there isn’t but a true muslim the one who has firm believe in ALLAH (God), his holly books, his prophets and that Muhammad peace be upon him as the last prophet, his angels, and the day of judgement. And believing in all this bounds me not to force someone to accept Islam. Its all about faith I won’t be rewarded for forcing some one to follow Islam but sure I will be rewarded for that I invite you to study Islam thoroughly and then if you find its preachings true please accept it.
P.S: And please be sure Islam is not about some particular sect, individual, race, nation its for everyone and all the humanity and ” Killing an innocent individual is equivalent to killing whole Humanity” “Al-Quran”.
My Best Regards,
Imran
@ Lisa Richards
I have read your polemic blogs and must admit that you’re very much all [abusive] talk, and no substance. Let me take a wild guess as to who your idols are: Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingrahm, Monica Crowley, Bill O’Reilly, and Sarah Palin. Did I miss a few? Oh, yes, Fred Phelps.
I won’t apologize for the sarcasm, which is neither very sarcastic nor untrue. Muslims have extremist, but they seem almost Godly when compared to a Christian extremist. Let’s draw a few comparisons. Sarah Palin said that the Americans are doing God’s will in Iraq — a crusade, if you will, the same way that Muslim jihad is frequently cited. Now, we could get into a variety of definition battles where you will say that Muslims are bad, Christians are good. But you said it was O.K. to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. At least, no Muslim nation has been known to commit such atrocities in such a short period of time. If you don’t know, the Japanese are not Muslims. The men responsible were Christian.
Turn the other cheek — Gandhi preached that; he was assassinated. MLK preached that; he was assassinated. Malcolm X preached otherwise; even he was assassinated.
There is only the real.
Read your Bible quietly, as you seem incapable of participating in a civilized discussion.
As for the topic, every religion follows this good-evil routine and consequentially, there lies some rationale that “justifies” violence as means to a religious end. Christianity has had its share when it committed a genocide for religious (not political) motivations. Islam’s hands are equally dirty. To say one is better than the other is a discussion that has no end. But the connection between the two is self-sufficient.
thank God and Allah for leaving china along “““for so many years in the past
but maybe I should thank confucianism?
essentially confucianism was a super religion, tolerating those who shares the same value while repelling those who goes the opposite way.
and its core was strong enough to win a war of culture influence and keep our ancestor free from the hands of God and Allah
The enduring triangle of confucianism , buddhism and daoism spare our ancestors the reailgious war in the past, but how can they integrated christianity and islam to form a new pentagon and spare our generation the religious conflict is still questionable( christianity and islam is just too tough!)
I agree with Ever4244
All Chinese are familiar with the 3 religions/ideologies Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. Confucianism and Daoism were ideologies formed during turbulent times during the Eastern Zhou period to try and come up with ways to restore order and eliminate chaos. Confucius focused on the morals, behaviour, and responsibility of the citizen and government to the family and the state, along with filial piety and emphasized the qualities of ren 仁 loosely translated as benevolence, and li 礼 which is more or less an abstract ideal of following protocol, etiquette. The Daoist ideology was created with the same intention of avoiding chaos but focused more on the model of nature, and how society should mimic the precision and order of the natural world to achieve harmony. These two ideologies were and still are today, widely accepted by the Chinese people and have reached a level of reverence, like you would find in religions. The amazing thing is, while the two ideals preached different things and were known as rival schools of thought, there was NEVER any bloodshed as a result of the rivalries. No holy war waged upon the other, in fact the Daoism and Confucianism complimented each other. An imperial governor may run his province following Confucian values and ideals but would indulge himself in Daoist literature and art in his spare time. The one thing that these two ideologies don’t address is the question of the afterlife, which buddhism came in to fill the role. In my personal opinion, the reason why confucianism and daoism, two contrasting ideologies, didn’t come to trading blows is because they were formed during a time of turmoil and strife and the intention of both was to create harmony and unify a people and empire. In comparison, Christianity and Islam were created during relatively peaceful times if you look at the situations regarding the Arabs and Romans and contrast them to the Eastern Zhou Chinese, so the primary focus of Christianity and Islam wasn’t to create social harmony, but addressing concerns about the afterlife, societal harmony came in second.
@Sin
However, the those three are too moderate that they lack the fighting spirit like christianity and islam“““
Meanwhile as a teenage, I find the traditional value of confucianism is just ” unjust, uncompetitive undemonratic therefore unbearable
so we must integrate the fighting spirits and the equality thoughts of other religion into it.
Budhhism is most peaceful of all religions
Islam - the most violent