Religious Conflict - A Way of Life

Religious Conflict

One might be tempted to respond affirmatively to the bloody events seen opposing groups and communities, claiming, in the world, their religious beliefs to defend and promote political interests. International news consistently evokes latent or declared these wars in which Christians are against Muslims in Nigeria, Sudan and the Philippines, where Buddhists and Hindus are struggling, Sri Lanka, where Muslims and Hindus clash in India, where Catholics and Protestants are in confrontation, in Northern Ireland, where Muslims and Orthodox continue fighting started between the communities of the former Yugoslavia. Common sense interprets these conflicts as religious clashes. A more nuanced analysis must lead relative, however, such a perspective and to better distinguish what belongs to the realm of politics and what belongs to religion and its use for political purposes in very complex situations also (Bercovitch, 113-129).

For, in conflicts that have been hastily called "identity" to differentiate them from classic interstate rivalries or dominant ideology of the era of the Cold War, cultures and religions are particularly present and serve as a backdrop that issues to deadly clashes. Often to explain these conflicts, it uses the story supposed to reveal the deep roots of conflicts and explain the recurrence of such a misfortune in the form of an implacable destiny. It is true that where the divisions wrought by history opposing groups and communities, the memory can play an important role and maintain positions of mistrust and hostility. Analyzing the conflict in Ireland in the second half of the nineteenth century, Karl Marx, very suspect of culturalism, wrote that in Ireland the memory of the dead weighed heavily on the minds of the living. But memory does not mean that conflicts are a perennial face. In reality, even if they are analyzed in their temporal continuity and identified under the same name: the "Irish conflict", the "Arab-Israeli conflict," "the Balkans" etc, Conflicts change. The mistake is to believe the immutable, even though their environment is changing, as generations pass and, with them, is altered and transformed the perception of conflicts and their issues (Curle, 279-290).

Crusades and the Inquisition

The Crusades and the Inquisition are the two main spots in our history. Stains that embarrass the true Christians and those who call themselves "tolerant" no longer throw in so intolerably expensive.

I have nothing to do with Torquemada and with Calvin (Calvin, the leader of Protestant Calvinism has the "record" of murders of all Christian churches), I do not know what I accuse those who do when they say this "for you.” It is ironic that the vast majority of those who profess to accuse other "faith" that has taken the lead in the twentieth century more than 100,000,000 people in Russia, China, Eastern Europe occupied North Korea , Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Africa, etc., etc., etc. "He who is without fault cast the first stone". And obviously there are some who would do better not to accuse others without looking in their closets. There are ...