The war on terror is not a cosmic war. A cosmic war is about religion; evidence shows that despite these extremists claiming that their sole cause is to establish a worldwide Islamic state, the ulterior reason behind their actions isn’t purely religious.
In an article from The Atlantic, the author, Simon Cottee argues that the actions of ISIS retain no correlation with radical Islam. Cottee utilizes various analyses and readings from experienced scholars to reach a conclusion. Cottee states from one reading that the reason why ISIS gains power easily is because of the failing Iraqi government. He also summarizes the view of American-Egyptian scholar Dalia Mogahed, that the ideology of Islam seemingly justifies the violence ISIS has caused.
…show more content…
As summarized of what Juergensmeyer states in the Minnpost, “religion is a tool used by violent activists who are driven by political or personal reasons.” Juergensmeyer explains that terrorist leaders will use religion to get people to listen to them. When someone adds a religious point of view to a violent crime, it makes the atrocity sound more justifiable. Juergensmeyer shows this by using a suicide bomber for an example. While everyone initially sees this as a violent attack, when put into religious terms, it makes the bomber sound like a martyr, rather than a dangerous extremist. In other words, religious views make violent crimes less horrifying to the perpetrator and others, and is used as a form of protest as well. This reasoning and answer is reasonable, due utilizing the connection between the actions and the fundamental core of radical groups, and providing a potential and possibilities of more reasons; thus analyzing in more depth of why radical groups are formed and why they cause destruction among …show more content…
Juergensmeyer has also won two awards, and was elected as the president of the American Academy of Religion. This information provides evidence that he has a reliable reputation and experience in religious studies. Juergensmeyer is also religious himself, and despite that, he was able to criticize a subject that he himself is involved with, proving his
Introductory Paragraph Everyone has read books or seen a movie that has had your eyes glued to your book or screen. In this story, the narrator uses plenty of suspense. In “The Black Cat”, Edgar Allan Poe uses suspense in three different points. The abuse of the cat, the killing of his wife, and the discovery of his wife’s body.
First of all I don’t really know much about Dr. Seuss. All I know is that he is a famous book writer that died years ago. I read If I Ran the zoo in the 1st grade so I forgot about it. That was the only book I have read out of Dr. Seuss. My dad didn’t really like him but I never knew why but I will ask my mom why he didn’t like him and so that is all I know of Dr.
In the reading from Terror in the Mind of God, the author Mark Juergensmeyer aims to explain to the reader what religious terrorism is and dig deeper into why violence and religion seem to be tied, searching for “how terror could be convinced in the mind of God”. The chapters we read for class had a main focus of what terrorism is, what it is not, who is committing these acts of terrorism, and what is they are trying to achieve through the acts of violence. In the last chapter of our reading, Juergensmeyer reflects on how effective previous attacks have been and outlines the only options he sees available in response to our modern global terrorism.
In class we have been reading an article from “The Atlantic” about the coddling of the american mind and how teachers are having to censor all the learning material because some of the students get offended. The problem has mostly been in colleges where students are asking their teachers to skip some topics because it brings up bad memories or makes them feel uncomfortable and to give them “trigger warnings” a warning so people know that there is going to be some inappropriate material. When students asks for a trigger warning or asks their teacher to skip over some information they are missing very important material that could later help them in their future profession. If you are scared or have issues with what you are learning then you
One reason that religion becomes a source of political violence is the hostility some have to changing times. Some believe that modernization has led the world down an evil path away from religion. Another reason political violence is linked to religion is that there is a belief that modern states try to suppress believers. Radicals even think that others wish to exterminate believers. They don’t see violence as violence against civilians, but instead violence of good versus evil. The third reason religion can be linked to political violence is that some groups hold extreme messianic, apocalyptic, and utopian beliefs. Violence is an important ritual for some extreme religious groups. Currently ISIS is a prime example of political violence linked to religion. ISIS wants to enforce their views of conservative Islamic traditions. The leaders of ISIS are referred to as caliphs, which are seen as political successors to Muhammad (“Islamic State.” 2014). Some individuals that carry out terrorist attacks in the name of certain religious terrorist groups like ISIS, see violence as a way to add meaning to their live and achieve religious goals. This type of violence would be individually explained, because it is personal factors that lead them to carry out the
The first factor is that of victimization. Victimization is when an individual feels as though he or she has fallen victim to something, such as a physical, psychological, or financial harm. Individuals who are victimized feel as though they are missing something and are eager to be a part of something bigger than themselves, and terrorist organizations can fill those needs. An example of how victimization can attribute to the radicalization of an individual is if an individual lost family or friends in a drone strike conducted by the United States of America. The family and friends killed in the drone strike leaves the individual feeling scared, angry, and sad with a hunger for revenge. A terrorist organization such as Al Qaeda could be very intriguing to that individual because of their mission to wage war against and destroy the United States of America. Victimization is a dangerous factor because it can easily feed into other factors and victims can easily be manipulated into believing certain things, one of those things being religion.
These constitute a “Cosmic War”, which humanizes—including all human flaws—the everlasting larger-than-life conflict between bad and evil. The cosmic war can evidently find roots in the narratives of all religions, as this paper shows how analogous the idea behind Christian Crusades to Islamic Jihads.
We can't say that 'X' terrorists are not a part of 'Y' religion, especially if those individuals identify as a part of 'Y' religion. Furthermore, it's counterproductive to isolate 'X' terrorists and their motives from 'Y' religion. If we ignore the religious roots of 'X' terrorists then we're not going
Mr. Rushdie claims that, “In the opinion of religious people, the private comfort that religion brings more than compensates for the evil done in its name.” First he fails to clarify the evil that is being done in the name of religion. However it needs to be understood that when people use religion as an excuse to justify evil than it’s not the fault of religion. Christian, Muslim, Jewish Buddhist, and Hindu teachings all emphasize peace and goodwill toward others. When people commit horrible crimes and then try to hide behind religion than this just means that they haven’t understood and are not practicing the true religion. It in no way implies that religion preaches and is responsible for evil. Consider the case of suicide bombings that are being primarily blamed on Islam. Rushdie share this view and says, “For years now, the air has been full of the battle-cries of the faithful as they turn their bodies into God’s bombs, and the screams of their victims too.” The global Muslim population is
To understand the connection between Islam and violence, one must understand certain facets of the Muslim worldview. One of the most important is the fact that, according to the historic Muslim understanding, there is no separation between religion and government—what in Christianity would be called the separation of church and state.
Terrorism is used around the world to create fear and influence the public on political views (Siegel, 489). There are four views of terrorism including the psychological view, socialization view, ideological view, and the alienation view. A religious terrorist would most likely fit under the ideological view. In this view the terrorist feels the need to change a wrong opinion and believes that, because they are sacrificing themselves for something they believe so strongly in, it justifies the damage and harm done to innocent people (Siegel, 490). They use terror to create fear in anyone who opposes them and attract followers to their religion. In short, terrorism is widely used for political
Millions of Americans and people around the globe consider the terrorist bombings all over the Earth to be the work of cowards who can only execute such murderous acts because of the knowledge that they won't live to face the repercussions. However, while the actions of these people can never truly be justified, they are within the general spectrum of Islamic teachings. If these men believed that their faith was under attack by America, they raised the "sword" to defend it. As the Quran once again states, "Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it. But you may hate a thing although it is good for you and love a thing although it is bad for you. God knows, but you do not" (Van Voorst 312). Muslims are taught that any martyr who dies in defense of Islam has the rewards of life multiplied many times over waiting for him in Heaven. "Allah has given those who fight with their goods and their persons a higher rank than those who stay at home" (Sherif 166-168). However, the idea of martyrdom and a beautiful afterlife for martyrs is not exclusive to Islam, but present in many other religions, including Christianity. The teachings of Islam are not to blame for
It is conceivable that nuclear weapons in the hands of such groups would be used in a manner both to wreak incredible destruction, and in a sort of religious homage to the relevant deity, particularly because “worldly consequences are not a central concern for religious terrorists, since they believe their actions are dictated by a divine authority,” (Stern, p.80).
War on terror refers to the ongoing military campaign led by U.S and U.K against organizations identified as terrorists. Terrorism can be defined as an unlawful violence or war deliberately targeted to civilians. It can also be defined as a systematic use of terror to coerce or violent acts intended to create fear. This threat is normally perpetrated for religious, political or ideological goals. The conflict as also called by other names. They include World War III, The Long War, War on Terrorism, Bush’s War on Terror, The Global War of Terror and War on Al-Qaeda, (Coaty, 2010).