Religions and Religious Beliefs: Catalyst to Global Conflicts and Violence

Religious Conflict and Violence
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Introduction: Religion has played a significant role in some of the worst conflicts in world history and constitutes a growing share of violent conflicts experienced today. For combatants, religious beliefs have seemed to provide justifications for carrying out violence. Among state leaders, aspects of religious freedom have made them juggle between the fear of radical groups, instabilities, and public safety concerns and providing for religious freedom as a human right. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Charter of the United Nations, the 1981 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion and Belief, and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights have all recognized freedom of religion as a human right (Gorur & Gregory, 2021). However, this right has been tested by increasing and sustained cases of violence against innocent persons in the name of belief or religion. The religious threat has remained unnoticed by the international community despite increasing evidence linking religion with violence. In some cases, religious repression has been adopted as a measure to fight terror and protect a state from dangerous elements and destabilization.
Thesis Statement: Religion and religious beliefs are a catalyst to global conflicts and violence, and establishing this link is critical to promote peace in the world today.
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Reference: Jakubowska, U., Korzeniowski, K., Radkiewicz, P. (2021). Social worldviews and personal beliefs as risk factors for radicalization: a comparison between Muslims and non-Muslims living in Poland. International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 15, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.11576/ijcv-4717
Annotation: This article aims to contribute to the current understanding of pro-terrorist attitudes towards the two forms of terrorism: sacrifice and non-sacrifice, in a bid to appreciate the process of radicalization and the psychological predisposition. The authors describe psychological predisposition to terrorism from the perspective of cognitive psychology and explain that individuals tend to respond to the world based on their interpretation and perception. Throughout the article, the authors have supported their claims using work published by other scholars in the fields of psychology, history, and religion. In the study, Jakubowska et al. (2021) use statistical analysis of data obtained from 536 respondents. Findings in this study show that radicalized Muslims are culturally isolated, which predisposes them towards belief systems that favor sacrifice terrorism. This conclusion is in line with other sources that support the argument that religious beliefs may support forms of violence such as terrorism. This paper will be invaluable to the research question on the aspect of Islam as one of the religions in the world whose members have frequently been involved in conflict and violence.
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Reference: Lindgren, T., & Sonnenschein, H. (2021). Bloody, intense, and durable: The politics of ‘religious conflict’. TEMENOS: Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion, 57(1), 5...