Week 10 Lecture: Religion and Violence: Is Religion the Problem?

**stern and gergenmeyer readings are important**

Ambivalence of the Sacred Scott Appleby:

• “At a given moment any two religious actors, each possessed of impeachable devotion and integrity, might reach diametrically opposed conclusions about the will of God and the path to follow: Violent as well as nonviolent acts fall readily within the range.” –violent and non-violent acts are justified through religion. Some will understand god through violence and non-violence. People think religion is only about peace, and loving each other, but Appleby believes that any 2 people of faith can have opposing views on violence. (some think its ok and some don't)

Spectrum of the Ambivalence of the Sacred:

Holy War—---------------------------------Just War—---------------------------------------Pacifism

—-----—---Just Peacemaking—------------

Holy War:warfare for religious purpose

• Any war fought by divine command or for a primarily religious purpose–could deal with scriptural call or obligation to engage in violence (fighting or defending their religion). E.g) crusades.

Motivations for Holy War:

• 1) fight to defend religion against its enemies -external fight (the crusades)
• 2) fight to ensure religious conformity and punish deviance (iranian revolution, internal conflict, fighting with those in your religion to conform everyone to the same beliefs; true religion- heredical statement that goes against the religion (jesus is not the son of god)--fight to project their true religion. e.g) bombings at abortion clinics- done by christian extremists opposed to abortion; justified to them because they wanted to punish those who didn't believe what they believed
• 3) fight under the direction of charismatic religious leaders- e.g) Branch Dividians David koresh(charismatic leader)- christian group, thought the end of the world was coming, thought david was the messiah, lived in a compound, very isolated. BD accumulated massive amounts of food and ammunition- ended up in standoff with ATF and police- a number of people shot and killed
• ****know examples— scenario of branch davidians; a small group that followed tom jones, he commands them to take up arms against the gov. Because they think the gov is corrupt and because of this, tom jones’ followers bomb the gov. Office building, because they believe he ordains this? —is this a holy war?

Jihad:

• From the Arabic root jhd- to exert utmost effort, to strive, struggle
• Literally means struggle
• “Lesser jihad”- refers to political or militant struggle to defend Islam- struggle to defend
• “Greater jihad”- refers to inward striving for perfect peace-struggle for inner peace

Just War:-warfare for the sake of peace

• 312 CE- Constantine’s conversion
• War seen as necessary evil. Violence is permitted with the aim to limit violence, war and human rights abuses.
• The goal is to bring about peace and justice.
• The use of violence to bring peace (genocide)

Principles of Just War: for something to be a just war, it has to meet these 8 principles ******EXAM*****

Jus ad bellum- just cause

• Legitimate authority- only doing (can’t use military yet so they do what they can)
• Just cause- what is the reason for going into warfare in the first place; aggression, self-defense
• Right intention- what is the intention of our cause or what we are doing
• Last resort- have to do everything humanly possible before pressing the button and using armed intervention
• Reasonable chance of success- if you know you wont have success, then it may be noble to go into war, just not a just war
• Proportionality- overall distribution is outweighed by the good you will achieve. Good has to outweigh the destruction. Minimum harm

Once we have a just cause, how are we going to conduct ourselves?

Jus in bello- just conduct

• Non-combatant immunity -governments cannot intentionally target civilians or innocent people (soldiers)
• Proportionate means - equal or matching levels. Only appropriate level and type of force can match up with the other. Not only the war but also the way you fight it. Type of force and level has to be proportionate to what is happening.

All factors need to occur for it to be a just war.

Milhemet Mitzvah:Judaism- example of just war

• Obligatory war in which jews are commanded to fight
• Primarily includes self-defense and defensive wars
• Similar to just wars
• Guidelines about how you fight, guidelines for pursuing peace

Pacifism:

• “Opposition to war and/to participation in war” (James Childress)
• Commitment to peace

Hinduism: Hisma and Ahimsa example of pacifism

• Himsa- Sanskrit for “violence”
• Ahimsa- Sanskrit for “non-violence”
• Refers to the idea of harmlessness, non-injury, and non-killing
• Requires a harmless mind, mouth and hand-development of a mental attitude in which hatred is replaced by compassion and love

Hindu Traditions of Hisma:

1. Vedic Warriors and Their God- principles that speak to violence; there is a god of war

Caste System:

• Brahmins- priests and academics
• Kshatriyas- the warrior of ruling class
• Vaishyas-merchants or artisans
• Shudras- peasants, the unskilled laborers and servants
• Dalit/Harijan- (Untouchables), outside caste system

Hindu Traditions of Himsa:

1. Vedic Warriors and their Gods

• Kshatriyas-exclusive duty to wage war- fight with code of ethics
• War in defense of dharma (order of laws that govern creation)
• Brahmins-forbidden to fight

1. The Mahabharata

• Longest and most epic poems
• Ahimsa is ideal, but Kshatriyas will fight according to code of ethics
• “Ahimsa is the highest dharma. It is the highest purification. It is also the highest truth from which all dharma proceeds.” (18. 1125.25)

1. The Bhagavad Gita

• Most famous Hindu writing-often interpreted to give divine sanction to violence
• For Kshatriya, war is dharma- an expectation; what you’re supposed to do
• Strict rules for war-seems to represent ideas consistent with just war.

Buddhist Tradition of Ahimsa:

Ahimsa-

• Individual ethic and social ethic
• Challenge is to adopt a social ethic-how does a social ethic of ahimsa impact society and the community?
• Conflict within individual Buddhists- examples of non-adherence to ahimsa (non-violence)

Just Peacemaking:

• Glenn Stassen, Just Peacemaking: Transforming Initiatives for Justice and Peace (1992)
• Not just debate on bombing and warfare, but questions about how to avoid war and spread peace
• Add third paradigm to the debate: just peace-making theory
• “What practices of war-prevention and peacemaking should we be supporting?”
• Upstream look at warfare

Just Peacemaking: Practices for Abolishing War

• Support non-violent direct action- a sit in, boycott, strike, marches
• Use cooperative conflict resolution- mediation, diplomacy
• Acknowledge responsibility and seek repentance and forgiveness- something has happened, acknowledging role and asking for forgiveness
• Advance human rights and religious liberties- upstream work
• Foster economic development- when there is a strong middle class and not stratified it is better economically and peace
• Strengthen the United Nations and international efforts for human rights-
• Reduce weapons
• Encourage grassroots and voluntary associations-

Religion and Terrorism: not every act of violence is terrorism, not every act that terrorizes means terrorism. Terrorists look to make political or religious statement!!!!!!! Always look at the motive.

Identifying a Terrorist?

• Motivation- wanting to make religious or political statement.
• Identification- typically identify with a group that supports these acts of violence
• Means- who is the target

Types of Terrorism:

• Nationalist (political): the goal is to form a separate states for their own national group, often drawing attention to a fight for ‘national liberation’- done for political reasons (IRA)
• Religious: the goal is to further what they see as a divinely command purpose, often targeting broad categories of opponents in an attempt to bring about a sweeping change-done for religious purposes

Grievances That Give Rise to Religious Terrorism (Jessica Stern):***

• Alienation-leaders will play on feelings of alienation, they'll isolate people; pulled out of mainstream society
• Humiliation- whichever community you’re fighting against therese a sense of humiliation
• Historical wrongs- humiliation and oppressed by another group
• Claims over territories- resources and land are disputed; sacred value

Other factors to consider:

• History
• Politics
• Economics (imbalances)
• Social and cultural dimensions (religion, cultural identity)

Religious Terrorist:

Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God

• Logic of Religious Violence
• Idealization of pre-existing order “it was so good in the gold old days”
• Rejection of current order
• Implementation of New Order (“Theocratic”)- through the use of violence

Possible Solutions- Juergensmeyer: how do we address these acts of violence

1. Destroying violence
2. Terrifying terrorists
3. Violence wins
4. Separating religion from politics- can we use religion to heal political wounds?
5. Healing politics with religion