All Terrorists are Religious!!!

http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/429/429lect13.htm

excerpt:

Tragically, all major religions can justify violence, and religion has long been associated with terrorism. Ever since there was good and evil, religious people have pondered whether using evil to fight evil is good in the name of justice or self-defense. There may be some kind of connection between attachment to the idea of God and a proclivity toward violence. The most common resort to violence occurs when a religious group feels threatened and thinks of itself as a chosen people. Less common is the compulsion to slaughter others in the name of a deity, and even less common (although not insignificant) is the role of sexuality in the mindset of religious fundamentalists who kill. Religions also spawn sects, cults, and alternative religions, and religious terrorism (terrorism in the name of religion) likewise tends to spawn offshoots and factions. A sect is an offshoot of an established religion (Mormons, for example), and most either die off or expand into a major denomination like the Mormons did. A sect-based religious group is more likely to play the role of the victim, not the aggressor. A cult, on the other hand, is a more dangerous, spiritually innovative group (the Branch Davidians, for example) headed by a charismatic leader who usually has other aims than to become a major denomination. Many cults are harmless, but others are into mind control and some are into mass suicide. Still other cults have a doomsday orientation, and these tend to be the ones which engage in religious terrorism (such as Aum Shinri Kyo). Any sect or cult can become involved in religious terrorism or it can just worship terrorism (a terrorism cult). Their motives can be wide-ranging, from engaging in psychic warfare to expressive behaviors that are homicidal, suicidal, or both. Cults are usually more dangerous than sects (see the Watchman Fellowship's List of Cults for a near-complete list).

There are four warning signs of a dangerous religious group: (1) apocalyptic thinking, or eschatology, that the world is coming to an end, and true believers will enjoy unique rewards at endtime; (2) charismatic leadership where the leader dominates the followers spiritually, emotionally, and sexually; (3) paranoia and demonization of outsiders, accompanied by intentional isolation within a cloistered community; and (4) preparations of a defensive nature, usually indicated by a buildup of guns, poisons, and/or weapons of mass destruction. Many terrorist experts (Lewy 1974; White 2002) regard apocalyptic thinking as the first and most important danger sign. Let's briefly examine some of the major world religions:​

CHRISTIANITY: The most popular religion in the world (33%) and the one with the most historical record of violence, much of it in-fighting. A person becomes Christian by being born again (Conservatives), baptized (Protestants and Catholics), reciting the Apostles' creed (Catholics), or having a personal relationship with Jesus (Liberals). Eastern Orthodoxy rejects the Apostles' creed. The strongest bond involves interpretation of the New Testament, although Fundamentalists (Extreme Conservatives) believe the Bible is inerrant and not subject to modern interpretation.​

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ISLAM: The world's second largest (20%) and fastest growing religion. The word Islam is derived from the word "salam", meaning peace or submission. Allah is a word meaning one true God. Muslim is a word meaning a person who submits to the will of God. A person becomes Muslim by becoming a follower of Islam, attending a mosque (all are non-denominational), reading the Qur'an, holding six beliefs (involving God, angels, messengers, Satan, Day of Judgment, and Jesus was no son of God), and practicing five pillars (reciting a creed, praying 5 times a day, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage). Sikhism is a cross between Islam and Hinduism that rejects elitism and cherishes ceremonial weapons. ​

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HINDUISM: The world's third largest (13%) religion and the oldest organized one. The word Hindu comes from the Persian, from the Indian name for the river Indus - Sindhu. The Persians commonly replaced the S sounds with H sounds, and Hindus to them were people who inhabited the areas bounded by the Sindhu river. It is a religion without a founder, and a person becomes Hindu by reading the sacred texts, recognizing the holy trinity (Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer), and practicing various hymns, incantations, and Yoga to commune your soul with the unity of all reality. Most Hindus (80%) regard Vishnu as the ultimate deity, although there are many sects. Hindus believe in transmigration of the soul, or reincarnation, in judgment for good and bad acts. ​

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BUDDHISM: The world's fourth largest (6%) religion, founded by Buddha in 535 BC. Buddha is a term meaning one who is enlightened or has awakened. In Buddhism, there is no God, savior, heaven or hell, only a state of Nirvana achieved by meditation and avoiding extremes of mortification and hedonism. Southeast Asia practices Southern Buddhism which emphasizes karma. China, Japan and Korea practice Eastern Buddhism, which celebrates festivals and is mostly a ruling class religion. Tibet, Mongolia, and Russia practice Northern Buddhism (the Dalai Lama being the ruler) which emphasizes pilgrimages to sites in Sri Lanka and India. There are a variety of traditions mixed with local culture. Most Japanese (85%), for example, also follow Shinto, an ancient nature worship religion, and Shintoists almost always follow Confucianism (love of family) or Taoism (the force that flows thru life).​

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JUDAISM: Not one of the world's largest (0.2%) religions, but one of the most influential. The history of the Jews is chronicled in the Old Testament, which corresponds to their sacred texts, the Torah being only five chapters of it. Jews believe in an incorporeal God who is monitoring everything on earth. There is no savior in Judaism, and the Jews are the chosen people not because they are superior but because they have received more difficult responsibilities and more punishments if they fail. Synagogues are governed by the congregation, the Rabbi being someone well educated. The main forms are Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative (an intermediate position between Orthodox and Reform). ​

Professor Huntington (1996) in his book Clash of Civilizations makes the argument that religion determines culture and that at least eight separate culture clashes are occurring in the world today. The Middle East, of course, goes without saying, and he points to the Balkan (Yugoslavian) region as a place where clashes between Christianity, Orthodox Christianity and Islam often erupt into violence. Japan is another area ripe for conflict, as is the Indian subcontinent and Hindu region. Latin America and Africa will have emerging clashes, mostly Christian in-fighting, or in the case of Africa (which is 40% Christian and 40% Muslim), an ultimate battle clash. ​

Religion often provides a mantle or cloak of respectability for terrorism. The JUST WAR DOCTRINE is a religious precept, and as old as war itself. Parts of the Bible hint at it, and St. Thomas Aquinas synthesized it in Summa Theologicae. While some argue that nuclear weapons have made the doctrine outmoded, it might be illustrative to review the basic principles here:​

• A just war is only a last resort; all non-violent options must have been exhausted
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• A just war is carried out by an authority with legitimacy; some society must sanction it
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• The only permissible reason for a just war is to redress an injury or wrong suffered
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• A just war should only be fought if there is a reasonable chance of success
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• The ultimate goal of a just war is to re-establish peace
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• Violence in a just war must be proportional to the violence of the injury suffered
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• The weapons of a just war must discriminate between combatants and non-combatants ​

 

"Religion is the underlying source of the divisiveness in the Middle East. To fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used."
Richard Dawkins

 

How does that make a difference?

(btw, last i checked Mcveigh, and clinic bombers were Christians...)

 

What the hell does that have to do with the thread topic?

So one religion currently has more terrorists than another.
What exactly is your point, other than trying to make Christianity look better?

 

Nichols was twice married, first to Lana Padilla then to Marife Torres. Nichols was introduced to the latter woman, who hails from Cebu City in the Philippines, by Paradise Shelton Tours, of Scottsdale, Arizona. She was 17 at the time of their 1991 marriage.

Marife Torres was the mother of an infant son when she married Nichols. The child suffocated in a plastic bag while the couple was residing at the Nichols family farm in Michigan. The November 22, 1993 death shortly followed the birth of a son fathered by Nichols. Nichols and his wife frequently visited the Philippines, where she was working on a degree in physical therapy. He sometimes travelled to the Philippines alone, while she remained in Kansas.

Cebu City at the time was a reputed base for several militant organizations, including Liberation Army of the Philippines, the Communist Huk, and the Al-Qaida affiliate Abu Sayyaf. Stephen Jones, the trial attorney who first represented Tim McVeigh, cited evidence of a meeting in Davao City, in Mindanao in 1992 or 1993, when Yousef members, Abdul Hakim Murad, Wali Khan Amin Shah and a "farmer" met to discuss the Oklahoma bombing. Jones said the FBI was aware of the meeting. Terry always seemed a lil fishy tho..

 

People will kill for a cause and that cause does not have to be religious. Ideologies be they religious or political are potent, belief if it becomes total can be dangerous.

For example corruption’s of communist ideas have caused countless death and destruction as has though that were opposed to the spread of any left wing thought. So you have such things as the left wing Red Army Faction (also known as the Baader Meinhof gang) in Germany or the right wing terrorist conspiracy known as ‘Operation Condor’ (which amongst other things murdered Orlando Letelier with a car-bombed in the centre of Washington DC).

**

As to the recent quietness of ‘Christian’ terrorism the fact is that Christianity is itself going through a rather dormant phase.

In certain history books you will find a chapter on the European Wars of Religion, in which for over a hundred years, religious tensions between Catholics and Protestants caused tension, conflict and war. Even afterwards religious persecution and segregation was common (eg in England you had to be a Church of England to go to university right up until 1826)

One of the reactions to this was a growing secularism for example the period was in the minds of American founding fathers when they made provision for freedom of worship and the separation of church and state.

Rational and scientific thought came to challenge the power of the church and from the French Revolution onward wars in Europe and mainly been fought for ideological or nationalists reasons rather than religion. (Even the collapse of Yugoslavia although it had a religious element was mainly about nationalism).

The Christian element in European society has declined to be the force it once was, for instance I have read that there are more practising vegetarians in Britain than there are practising Anglicans.

But things could change.

It should be remembered that that process was also at work in the middle east, where a number of left leaning, progressive and even secular groups had grown up. For example in Iran there was the government of Mohammed Mossadegh (overthrown by the a anglo-american plot), elsewhere their was the vague socialistic ideas of Nasserism and even Ba’athism -before it became corrupted - was a socialist and secular movement.

Many argue that it was the purge of left wing elements under the Shah - fully encouraged and assisted by the US - that allowed the mad mullahs to so easily get control in Iran after the popular revolution because secularists who mainly left wingers were diminished and weak.

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Many religions are galvanised by feeling under attack and thrive on misery.

If people loose confidence in secular power such as during recessions or under hard undemocratic regimes or those they feel are corrupt or ineffectual, then they are likely to turn to the spiritual for help.

If people feel ‘their people’ or values are under attacked they can become radicalised by that perception.

The invasion of Afghanistan by ‘atheistic’ Soviet forces radicalised many Arab Muslims as did the spread of Saudi sponsored wahabist schools in that region.

An idea has grown up amongst some Muslims that western values (both secular and Christian) are trying to turn Muslims away from ‘true’ Islam that just as the atheistic secular communists physically attacked Islam so to are others trying to attack it with corrupting ideas.

The one thing that could have convinced many that didn’t accept this view was a physical attack on Muslims by the country that most typifies that corruption, the US. Not only does it claim to be Christian with a Born again Christian President that says his Christian god told him to invade Iraq, it also stands up for secular rights and lifestyles like gay rights and pornographers being protected by the constitution that enrages conservative Muslims.

**

It seems at first strange that the US has this duality, a country with ‘liberal’ freedoms life-styles protected by a secular constitution, but one of the few places in the world where fundamentalist Christianity is a growing power.

But is it so strange? The US was a puritan and conservative country the founding fathers with that eye on the wars of religion separated church and state, but the country remained Protestant, generally church going and conservative up to the sixties. But things changed and many of the more puritan and conservative elements feel that ‘American values’ are under attack by the more ‘liberal’ secular ideas. Some have become so radicalised by this process that they are willing to do such things as bomb abortion clinics or try to impose creationist ideas on schools.

 

just because someone who is violent is from a religion doesn't mean their violence is caused by it, that mcveigh thing was pointless


why do I suspect fields medalist ted kaczynsky was an athiest?

 

I meant Eric Rudolph.



Not sure why I put mcveigh, sorry.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_terrorism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_terrorism

http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/joe/reuben.html

http://brneurosci.org/israel-terrorism.html

 

but counter examples then?

btw, the maquis were called terrorists\insurgents by the nazis.....


they were motivated by nationalism, not religion.....

 

It is our fault that some Muslims hate us, as this video demonstrates:

http://switch5.castup.net/frames/20041020_MemriTV_Popup/video_480x360.asp?ClipMediaID=90173&ak=null

 

No, it's cause they're religious and crazy.

 

Slutter: If Islam actually was responsible for a significant amount of terrorism, what would you propose to do about it?

 

I think it would help if the muslim community wasn't pandered to by the anti-war left with their apologies (its OUR fault) and denial (the CIA/Mossad done it). Muslims are the usual victims of muslim terror.

 

Thats vile..and why i have to hate religeon [as it breeds hatred in the wrong hands]... ''Teaching islam'' Rubbish...
I would be removing that young kid from her mother if i had anything to do with it. It seemed this pair [removing the young kid as she knows no better] of religous nutters don't hate 'us' as a whole just Jews wich is a age old dispute..dragging Pepsi into it seems pretty pathetic.

I hope you are having a 'joke' Pointbreak..

 

No, i was not serious.

 

Exactly - there is nothing that can be done about it.

The three options:
1. Genocide (not even contemplatable).
2. Isolation (because they are sitting on mounds of black gold, not even contemplatable).
3. Cultural Homogenization (either through force [which is sort of happening now, especially in Iraq] or through globalization). Unfortunately, this is having the opposite effect; it's creating more terrorists.

Because there is nothing to do, going around blaming Islam is a pointless activity.

*Do not let this post in any way make you think I believe Islam is particularly violent religion.

 

I have no issue with judging another culture. Cultural relativism is bullshit.


By what criteria do you judge a culture?

Do you believe that religion is the only way to identify a culture?

 

Religions = The Opium of the masses.

 

So, agreement or disagreement with the topic of the thread?