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Islamic Extremism And Religious Extremism

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Throughout history, there have been those who take a literalist point of view, interpreting texts and edicts at face value, and acting upon such statements with a very low degree of understanding. This has resulted in what is currently known as “extremism”, and has unfortunately become very prevalent in the world today. This can be seen through the many political and religious groups that misinterpret information and act off of their own beliefs in an attempt to practise a more radicalised version of their faith. While fundamentalism and extremism are possible in every belief and position one holds, religious extremism has become much more common in the present day. Religious groups across the world have been forming terrorist …show more content…

This has given birth to terrorist group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which has a vision to establish a multi-party democracy in Uganda, and to be able to rule the country by the ten commandments. Founded in 1987, this organization has committed multiple human rights violations, as Jamie Stokes, an American journalist states: “For more than 20 years the LRA has engaged in massacres, mutilations, sexual slavery, and the forced recruitment of children, bringing chaos to northern Uganda.”Lead by Joseph Kony, a self proclaimed spokesperson of God and head of the resistance movement, acts of violence are carried out frequently against those who oppose their ideologies and beliefs. Rather than using peaceful political procedures in order to achieve their goal, this group has taken up arms and used violent means to force its message to the people of Uganda. The second Christian extremist group was motivated by white supremacist values, which preached violence against Catholic and African-American communities. Composed of Protestant Christians and founded in 1866 as a result of the downfall of the confederate south, the Ku Klux Klan is responsible for a countless number of bombings of black churches and schools, as well as many arson and lynch attacks. With both political and religious motivations against catholic and left wing sentiments, the nature of this group is accurately described by Edward Queen:“The Klan reemerged in the 1980s, this time affiliated with

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