Why does religious extremism produce terror - Essay Example

?Why does religious extremism produce terror? Discuss with comparative reference to terrorist groups across the three monotheistic faiths and how they may be similar or different in terms of justification and legitimization of violence they commit. Terrorism has no definition around the world yet it is somehow understood in the same fashion globally. This is the reason why terrorism is abhorred across the board and the reasons seem to be aplenty. When terrorism is fueled by religious extremism, there is evidence available to justify why this form of fundamentalism should be kept at a distance, otherwise terrorism can be ignited with absolute wrath and destruction towards the sanity of this earth. The thing that essentially comes out too religious about religious extremism is the fanaticism which is found in almost all major religions and monotheistic faiths. If this element is removed from these religions and beliefs, there is a definite sign of optimism which can be obtained undoubtedly. Terror has no place within any religion of the world and this has been proven through evidence of study, research and practice. This paper discusses how terrorism is producing some of the biggest horrors in the world of today and how religious extremism is playing its negative role all along. An effort has been made to understand the issues plaguing the various religions and how the monotheistic faiths are combating this menace within their boundaries. Even though this seems like a difficult process, this paper has incorporated the ideologies in a manner which is in line with the discussion at hand. Moving on with what has been presented earlier, it would be fair to state that religious extremism is a dangerous precedent for the coming generations, more so because all of these have started in the present times and not more than 20 years ago. It seems to be in an upward trend – a fact which is all the more distressing to note. Terrorism has come about because people have stopped believing in a global good, yet not all people are responsible for the same undertaking. There are individuals who are still doing efforts to make sure this world remains a better place than it is at the present. Then again, there are some people who would like to think the very opposite of what has been documented. These individuals believe in fighting for the sake of religion, no matter who gets killed or what form of destruction happens. This is ironic of any society in the world and for this reason, it is rightly adjudged as the worst form of religious extremism. Just because some segment of the society does not quite believe in a philosophy which is making the rounds, stands no chance to bring about the act of religious intolerance which essentially leads to killings, mass slaughtering of human beings and destruction for public property. There needs to be a reason behind this madness and the same should be understood by one and all because it is the need of the time. Perhaps this is the discussion which is cropping up amongst youngsters, adults and elders whenever they meet at a place and talk about the growing insurgency that the common man has in this day and age. There must be an end to religious extremism and one should believe attaching the ‘religion’ premise is more than half of the problem itself. Even when religion is not the buzzword here, the element of spirituality is spoken about which is somewhat convincing enough for extremists to get up and take the arms in their own hands. This is unfortunate yet quite true because it brings with it a sense of fear for the people, who are busy within their own lives and who have got nothing to do with a subject or matter they know little about. With the advent of time, the terror groups have been formed which is a stark revelation for present times. This is because these terror bodies have largely addressed the need for getting their point across to the people in a forceful way and they believe that this is the only rightful stance which they can take at a particular time. Unfortunate to state the least, this terror element has strung the world in a very wrong way. People have started to fear such bodies and outfits because they know that these terror groups can ransack the basis of this world and bring death and destruction along with it. What is even more ironic is the fact that these terror groups are more or less based on the premise of religious extremism which raises quite a few eyebrows. Indeed this seems like a Herculean issue if all considerations are made. However, there needs to be an understanding with regards to religious beliefs and monotheistic faiths so that an equality basis could be summarized. Also this will do away with the reign of terror within the most literal sense (Hoffman, 2006:81-130). Yet this seems like something which is at a distance because things are not all that rosy to begin with. The religious fanaticism makes things go absolutely wrong and then only one can speak of the mannerisms through which these problems could be done away with, the sooner the better for just about everyone on the face of this planet earth. Reason is important and not mere gut feeling as has been understood within this discussion. Logic must be supreme under all circumstances in order to tell these terror groups where they have gone wrong and what they must do in order to make amends. The technology aid has been distressful when the discussion centers on the role of the terror groups and the like. This is because technology has largely benefited the terror outfits in launching their global movements. With the propagation of hate content on the Internet, it has become even more difficult to curtail such nuances. The religious extremism is gaining momentum with the rise of the social marketing tools and websites, which if seen on the flip side are not a problematic area as much optimism can be derived from their rightful use (Keene, 2011: 82-109). However, the technological use cannot be negatively drawn yet it can be checked upon by the authorities to make sure that the hate literature is not spread across the board. If this keeps on happening, terror would start to move out from the circles of religious extremists and they would use this valuable tool for their ulterior motives, which is a shame if seen within the correct settings. There has to be a proper check and balance mechanism which makes sure that the wrong use of technology is curtailed and only the people who believe in a world free of terror are given the chance to be a part of the technological folds. The global rise of religious violence is also because the people who are involved within such nuances know little about their respective religions. It is a fact that no religion or spiritual belief in this world asks of its followers to go out there and kill people on their own free will. There is peace and harmony within the religious beliefs and settings, as has been understood through evidence of study. If a religion preaches discord and conflict amongst its followers, there remains little point in asking them to respect one such religion. The need is to understand where right and wrong collide, and no religion would ever allow its followers to fall for something which is shameful and abhorrent to begin with. Some of the most insightful details regarding hate content and similar literature dispel the impression that any religion would ever go to such limits of asking their followers to get involved within in-fighting and terrorism. If this happens, there must be something wrong somewhere down the line or perhaps the message has not reached the people as it should have from the starting. Religious extremism can only be a manifestation of a dirty mind and nothing else. It has to be dealt with in a manner that is morally and ethically right more than anything else (Scanlan, 2004:26-41). There is a dire need to understand how these extremists must be tackled and all-out efforts within such measures are seriously necessary. The rise of religious extremism has brought many terror groups to the fore yet these are not because of their own making. Somewhere along the line, there was an attempt to structure a terror group which would hurt the basis of this world or a region through its ulterior ways and hence the formation was brought forward. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban seem to be the perfect blend of religious extremists who would go to any limit to make their voice get heard. Rightly so, this is the reason why they are hated all over the world except for the few who choose to follow their terror outfits. The Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are the Islamist extremist units which have brought worse name to the religion of Islam than anyone can ever think of doing. They are the units which speak high of Islam in terms of jihad (battling in the name of God) yet somehow they seem to kill their own people when they go haywire from their chosen line of Islam. They believe that the religion of Islam should be taught and preached through the use of a gun, which is fundamentally different from what was taught to the Muslims some 1400 years back by the last Prophet Muhammad. These Islamist fundamentalists have for long opined that they are the lone saviors of Islam and they would do anything to make sure that the name of Islam remains the only name on the face of this planet. They do not believe in giving other religions a chance and do their best to make sure that there are maximum explosions, killings, loss of property and the like all over the world. Indeed through their ignorance, they are presenting the wrong face of Islam and giving undue attention to the ranks of terrorism – an act which is deplorable in more ways than one. Al-Qaeda and Taliban assert that their acts are in accordance of Islam and that they are not the extremists as the world believes of them to be. Yet somehow they commit themselves to acts which are unbecoming of human beings – killing them as and when they like and creating anarchy of magnanimous proportions (Hannabuss, 2005:14-28). This is not love for the sake of Islam. In fact this asks for bringing more disrepute to the religion which has the literal meaning of ‘peace’. Sadly, this is not being exercised by its own followers, yet these terrorists are only a handful of the entire Muslim population (Hellmich, 2011:61-113). The Islamist extremists have paid little heed to what the rest of the world has said about them – concentrating more on creating more anarchy and destruction within the world through their coward acts. It is a shame that the Muslim countries have never come out strongly in opposition of such practices and acts, which would have solved nearly half the problem. Essentially speaking, the largest peace body for the Muslims – the OIC has the figurative narration of “oh I see!” and thus turning a blind eye towards what is happening under the aegis of Islamist extremism around the globe. Legalizing and justifying such acts by religious extremists in the name of something that they are doing worthwhile for the entire society is not only wrong but also sinful to state the least. This is because they cannot go about proclaiming the wrong thing again and again; and in the process kill so many innocent individuals globally. There must be an end to all this madness which has erupted for no logical reason. When the religious extremists come up with illogical threats, certain sections of the society do not take it seriously. But when they blow up in the form of suicide bombing, killings and so on, the attention goes all-out towards these individuals who are bringing a great deal of disrepute and shame to their respective religions. There is no point in legalizing terrorism or these religious extremists because of the reasons and factors mentioned above. It is always a good omen to comprehend where the negativities lie and how these can be removed so as to bring sanity within the basis of this world (Juergensmeyer, 2000:119-160). Sadly, this does not seem happening anytime soon due to the reasons which have been listed above. The people who should be playing their dire roles within such equations are doing little to thwart such actions on the part of the religious extremists who are nothing more than terrorists in essence. Legalizing the existence of extremists and listening to what they have to suggest is not the solution to this anomaly which has crept up within the modern world. These individuals who believe in death and destruction are worse off than animals and should be treated as such. Hence there seems to be no justification present for being a fundamentalist for anyone and people would generally agree with the statement that extremists do bring about terror for the sake of this world. This is unconvincing towards building a world where optimism flows and where there are much better and more insightful views of life than killing individuals on one’s own free will. The sad state of affairs should be understood by one and all, and proper measures need to be enacted to bring seriously comprehensive results. Understanding the same ideology from a revolt and revolution perspective, one must analyze how Islamist extremists have sprung up. Perhaps this was because they were made to suffer more than other religious followers and hence their suffering had the last laugh. However, one cannot find such examples starting from the Soviet Invasion of the South Asian region, and especially Afghanistan during the later part of 1980s. With the movements continuing in the early parts of 1990s when America invaded Iraq, the Islamist extremists felt that they were being pushed to the wall, and hence something needed to be done on their part to make sure that their conditions would become better (Awan, 2012:112-116). A number of theories were penned down by theorists, researchers and scholars yet some of them remain truly etched within the minds of the people today. This is because the Islamist ideology is based on the Muslim principles more which are completely against what these religious fundamentalists are preaching in this day and age. The Islamist extremists therefore have become synonymous with the terrorists which is something that does not go too well with the rest of the Muslims all around the globe (Milton-Edwards, 2012:219-236). These Muslims opine that since only a handful of these extremists are ransacking the name of this religion, it would not be fair to call them radical Muslims. In fact what they would ideally like to state them would be the term ‘extremists without any religion, caste or creed’. The opinion holds ground but sadly the Muslims have been involved in nearly all violent acts that have taken place in the last 2 decades or so, which has prompted people all over the world to believe that the Islamist extremists is indeed the rightly coined term. Terrorism has no roots within any sane society of the world. Only those individuals who have sinister perspectives fall flat in the face of extremism and commit their own selves whole-heartedly towards creating havoc and destruction which does not bring any optimism across the globe. Religious extremism has come up on the same level as that of terrorism and there is no doubt why the two cannot be used interchangeably with one another. Terrorism crops up whenever there is oppression meted out on to a meticulous segment of the society or a distinctive population. Religious extremism is a bane which needs to be corrected in order to bring harmony within this world. The United Nations charter also signifies one such understanding though the steps taken by it are seemingly slow and give little attention to what the world thinks about this global body (Danziger, 2012:27-44). Similarly the other institutions of note have also not been able to keep pace with how this religious fundamentalism is manifested by a handful of people, and how the much needed steps should be in place by now to thwart any destructive plans which have been drafted and prepared. Interestingly enough, a lot needs to be understood by these global bodies before they can reach a conclusion which is good enough, comprehensive and elaborate from all required angles. There is no place for propagating religious fanaticism which essentially leads up to terrorism if seen within the corrective settings. The bottom line remains etched in the fact that the globally acclaimed institutions should realize their respective roles and do what is asked of them to bring a sense of sanity within this world for the people who are alive today and the coming generations. To sum up the discussion, it would be fairly rational to state that religious extremism does lead towards terrorism and the terrorist groups are based on the ideology of bringing about damage and disharmony amongst the different populations present on the face of the earth. All said and done, terrorism can only take place if it is given the room to grow and expand beyond imaginable proportions. Not everyone would like to see terrorism grow and even the terrorists are never happy dying themselves or killing others. It is the combination of the conditions and situations that they are under that they have to resort to such behaviors, unless someone is brainwashed into doing something horrible to begin with (Gunning & Jackson, 2011:369-388). Such undertakings are regularly encountered by law enforcing organizations and related institutions as they find out the negativities which are present within the societies that form the combined effect of this world where all kinds of people live. Religious extremism is the sole basis of this discord and friction which has shaken the world like no other force. It would be of paramount significance to know who supports such acts and prioritizes these terror related actions over peace and serenity within this world. 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