Is Religion The Cause Of War?

By Anaya Pawar

The most difficult and often frustrating to understand questions are those of religion, followed by its linkage with politics. These questions are seldom settled through debate. Religion being a sensitive topic requires an individual to possess the ability to look at a situation from different perspectives. This facilitates the process of analyzing and ensures rationality too. Open-mindedness is needed to comprehend the hierarchy of events and draw relevant conclusions.

Napoleonic Wars, World War 1 and World War 2 are some of the deadliest wars to have happened in the history of mankind. During French Revolution, revolutionary authorities adopted various practices to enlighten people with respect to traditional religion and beliefs. This caused religious disunity and finally led to religious war. Napoleon, then, tactfully used the Catholic religion to stir people’s emotions and orchestrated reconciliation of the religious divisions. This highlights the intersection and interconnection of religion and politics. Deadly combination of this later proves to be one of the major causes of outbreak of war.

A deep insight into Stalin and Mao’s stories reveals both of them were anti-religious and had disaffiliated from their religions in the early stages of their lives. Mao, as a matter of fact, was known as a persecutor of religion. In a nutshell, over many years, religion has been used as a means to create political angst and division among the various sections of society. This results in an increased political tension and leads to what we call armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country – war.

Hitler and his religious beliefs have always served as topics of debate for atheists and theists. Atheists claim that Hitler was a Catholic devout and the major reason behind the holocaust was his hate towards ‘The Jews’ for killing Jesus. This Christian anti-Semitism, no doubt, falls in the category of religious disputes and led to the murder of millions of Jews representing the most horrifying side of human evil. Theists counter this claim by stating that Hitler, like many of his contemporary dictators, was using religion just for the sake of people appeasement and to fulfill his political agendas.

Studies and researches, however, put an end to these claims by revealing that Hitler was neither a Christian nor an atheist. He wasn’t an occultist or Germanic pagan either. The motive for the genocide had nothing to do with the Christian anti-Semitism. Hitler, in fact, didn’t believe in any of these things and called them ‘unscientific’. He was devoted to science and followed pantheism which states that god is nature. The ‘nature’ here does not refer to trees, oceans or rocks but to the universe, the system in which we live. This proves that the term ‘religion’ cannot be associated solely with traditional beliefs or idol worship. It has several aspects and meanings attached to it and for the majority of the time misapprehension of one of these forms has been the ultimate cause of war.

The Crusades that started in the 11th century and went on till the 13th century is a perfect example of how religion is misused to perpetrate atrocities. The main aim here was to recapture the territories (the Holy land) that were formerly ruled by Christians and stop the expansion of Islam. People who fought in the name of god were awarded the title of ‘knight of Christ’. The war resulted in massacre of Jerusalem and forceful conversion of survivors into Christianity. On the outside it would seem that all this was influenced by religion and carried out under the name of god. The truth, however, does not seem to align with these theories whatsoever. The Crusades had very little to nothing to do with religion. It majorly concerned with preserving the European land by establishing territories and exercising power. These motives along with some economic concerns were bundled together and sold under the name of religion restoration.

The mastermind of September 11 terrorist attacks and various other horrendous acts, Osama Bin Laden feared the growing dominance of the West and believed that Islam was being attacked aggressively. He initiated numerous resistance movements to protect his religion and establish it as the “official” religion of the middle east. According to his beliefs and ideology it was important to eradicate non-Islamic believers in order to progress towards Jihad. Religion, once again, paved the way for brutal attacks, carnage and abduction of peace.

Taking a closer look at the teachings of various religions helps us in identifying various points of commonality that exist within them. One of the most important ones being the golden rule which is a principle that states, “one should always treat others as he would like to be treated himself”. To avenge, cause pain or sufferings to others have been condemned as acts of peace demolition by all the religions. An important conclusion that can be drawn from this is, religion in its true essence cannot be held responsible for war and destruction. Problem arises when core beliefs and teachings are twisted and misinterpreted to mislead vulnerable sections of the society.

The protests that were initiated against the CAA act passed by the Parliament of India provide a perfect example as to how religion is used to satisfy propagandas and cause political disturbances. The CAA act is an amendment to the citizenship act of 1955 which states the various methods by which citizenship can be acquired in India. CAA aims at providing citizenship to illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who have faced persecution based on religion minorities and migrated to India on or before 31 December, 2014.The act, however, does not include Islam in its list of minority religions. It therefore received widespread protest from Muslims of different parts of the country. Some claimed it as government’s move to protect the Hindu religion and establish “Hindutva”. Others blamed political leaders for brainwashing the Muslim population. Political tensions like these, if remain unresolved for significantly long amount of time, possess the potential to cause agonistic war. Inspection of these protests provide a better understanding of the link between religion and politics.

From the examples stated above, it is quite evident that people conveniently mould religious teachings to justify their violent acts. Major conflicts are not caused by religion alone, economic factors and political imbalance play important roles too.

By Anaya Pawar