Ericson  

Timothy Ericson

Ms. Glassman

World Literature II

November 25, 2003

Religion and the Causes of Terrorism

Today in America when we think of terrorism we think of the Muslim religion and how Osama Bin Laden uses those teachings as support for recruiting and inspiring his terrorist group. But we seem to overlook the fact that many religions, even Christianity, are at the root of terrorism. Activists such as Eric Robert Rudolph use Christianity to support their anti-abortion idealism while ironically killing the doctors who perform the operations. We must also not forget the very religious Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East. Extremists use religion as a means to justify their political and non-religious causes while some religious teachings, because of its prospects of rewards and various interpretations of text, encourages others to perform violent acts, therefore making religion a primary cause of terrorism worldwide.

        Leaders of many terrorist organizations often have an anterior motive such as political issues and use their religion to support their cause and recruit followers. An Al-Qa’ida spokesperson interviewed about September 11 said, "What happened to America is something natural, an expected event for a country that uses terror, arrogant policy, and suppression against the nations and the peoples, and imposes a single method, thought, and way of life…” This was one of his strong points on why Al-Qa’ida has a Jihad against the United States. Although within his reasons for hating the United States there was no mention of religious suppression or anything to do with religion. But later on in the interview when he was asked about how the Islamic religion related to the Jihad he said, "Allah said, 'He who attacked you, attack him as he attacked you,' and also, 'The reward of evil is a similar evil,' and also, 'When you are punished, punish as you have been punished.'" This is a perfect example of how leader’s of extremist groups use the words from religious teachings to backup and support their violent acts.

Join now!

        In an interview with Osama Bin Laden in 1998 about why he has targeted the United States, he ironically said:

”Through history, American has not been known to differentiate between the military and the civilians or between men and women or adults and children. Those who threw atomic bombs and used the weapons of mass destruction against Nagasaki and Hiroshima were the Americans. Can the bombs differentiate between military and women and infants and children?”

Again there is no mention of America attacking the Muslim religion; in fact there was no mention of religion at all in his ...

This is a preview of the whole essay