Quote:
Originally Posted by SebC
Religion may not be the root cause of conflict (although I for one believe that it certainly could be), but it definitely makes it harder to resolve them. Give a non-religious person enough of what they want and it's no longer worth it for them to fight you. A religious person is often unable to make the compromises required for conflicts to end.
IMO what needs to happen is that moderate muslims need to marginalize the extremists rather than sympathizing with them.
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Well then you're generalizing religions unfairly. Do we ever see Buddhist suicide bombers? Taoist suicide bombers? ETC? Why not? They are also prevalent in poor, subjected areas of the world.
Religions that claim to the be the sole path to salvation, the sole source of truth, the sole way to live forever, create intolerance. There is a history of intolerance in both Christianity and Islam. It creates a feeling of, "I'm right", and "Those guys are wrong". It can help to fuel hatred. Both Christianity and Islam have spread through the world and not always peacefully or by choice. Colonized countries were basically forced to convert in many circumstances to the technologically superior colonizer.
But like I said, one has to take into account the history of the US intervening (or meddling) in the politics and economy of the middle east. Taking down regimes, supporting dictatorial regimes. Their choice to favour Israel and how that is viewed by Arab countries. The history of colonialism in Africa. The drawing of borders that include several ethnic groups that literally hate each other and want to destroy each other and the problems that can have for any sort of governance over those disparate peoples. If your interests are not being represented, you're going to feel repressed, ignored, etc.
If the USSR was the superpower on Earth right now and was assassinating leaders in Canada and supporting other ones who were favourable to their interests we'd probably be outraged as well.
I'm sure there must be some amazingly enlightening books on the causes of religious extremism and violence that talk about the religious factors, the economic factors, the social factors, the cultural factors, etc.
But IMO often it comes down to power. People who feel completely repressed, who have no global voice, often have no recourse other than violence to make their point, to demand their own self-governance. Religion is a part of it but it usually overstated IMO.