Putting religion in the middle of a fight is a shame. Does Christianity cause Christian extremists in the West to bomb abortion clinics? Does Islam tell Palestinian Muslims to carry out suicide attacks against Israelis and themselves? Does Hinduism say to take people hostage and kill them if they don't agree with it? Most Indians, Pakistanis, and probably most people of other religions will agree that these things are wrong and should be stopped. Religions do not have "conflict-genes" that make it impossible for them to live together without fighting. We always have wrong ideas about religion, which leads to disagreements.
Around the middle of the 1990s, Samuel P. Huntington became well-known for his scary prediction of a future clash of civilizations on a global scale. This new problem would change everything about the way the world works. During the Cold War, it made sense for countries to work together with one of two superpowers with opposing ideologies. After the Cold War, countries would work together based on the dominant religions. A world order based on religious differences could be one result of this separation of the world's societies. If you look at how things are going in the world right now, you might be tempted to think that Huntington's scenario is coming true.
Western political elites, in particular, are taking an approach that makes Islam look like it is at the heart of terrorism. This is a bad idea. It threatens to demonise people who follow a certain religion, which could lead to an endless cycle of counter-demonizations. This would create a security problem similar to the Cold War, where every step one side takes is seen as a threat by the other, who then has to fight back. In the end, the approach is also an attack on Islam as a religion. It gives the impression that all Muslims are extremists, which is just as wrong as saying that the moral majority of the ultra-right in the US is a good representation of Christianity. One of the many problems with the world today is that some people judge Islam by how a small number of its people act. If a religion is to be judged on its role in conflict, it should be based on where it came from, not on the extreme actions of a small number of people who say they follow it. In Islam, the sources are the Qur'an and the Sunna, which are the teachings of the prophet Muhammad "Allah tells people to be fair, do good, and help family members. And He forbids being rude, doing wrong, and being cruel. He tells you to be careful, and we hope you will "(Qur'an, 16:90).
Even though religions are mostly about making peace, they are often misunderstood and used in bad ways. When this happens, it's because of how the mind has built up religion and "the other." For example, in the current global conflict between religious fundamentalists and secularists, each side sees the other as a threat to their social order and way of life, and they talk about it. Fundamentalists see it as an attack on Islam when secularists talk about secular states, pluralism, and getting rid of Sharia laws. Secularists, on the other hand, see religious fundamentalism as a threat to their societies and ways of life that threatens their very existence. They almost think that the secular society is holy. What used to be open societies are now hostile to people from other places.
In the fight against terror, many religious leaders have talked about the need for peace and unity. In a strange way, it seems like the biggest problem is that political leaders are too busy demonising "axis's of evil" and "opponents of freedom" to do anything else. Religion and its connection to conflict need to be made clearer. First of all, it's important to realise that conflict in places like India and Pakistan isn't caused by religion itself, but by fundamentalist interpretations of religion. Second, religious fundamentalism tends to turn religion into a political philosophy. This is an attack on religion, and the only way to do it well is to make religion seem more mysterious.
Religious conflicts are caused by the way we think about things. Let's not use them to start another cold war-style war. No religion legitimises conflict! The President of Iran, His Excellency Mohamed Khatami, once complained in a forum for people of different religions: "Dialogue between different civilizations, especially between Islam and Christianity, is important, necessary, and unavoidable. People talk about the "global village" these days. The problem, though, is that the people who live in this global village can't understand each other. Isn't it terrible that the people in this village can't hear or speak, and what's worse, they don't like each other? ".
