What is Religious Terrorism?
Elangovan, February 20, 2020
Religious terrorism is terrorism carried out based on motivations and goals that may have a predominantly religious character or influence. Terrorism in the name of religion has become the predominant model for political violence in the modern world. This is not to suggest that it is the only model because nationalism and ideology remain as potent catalysts for extremist behavior. However, religious extremism has become a central issue for the global community. In the modern era, religious terrorism has increased in its frequency, scale of violence, and global reach. At the same time, a relative decline has occurred in secular terrorism. The old ideologies of class conflict, anticolonial liberation, and secular nationalism have been challenged by a new and vigorous infusion of sectarian ideologies. Grassroots extremist support for religious violence has been most widespread among populations living in repressive societies that do not permit demands for reform or other expressions of dissent.
Former United States Secretary of State, Warren Christopher has said that terrorist acts in the name of religion and ethnic identityhave become “one of the most important security challenges we face in the wake of the Cold War” (Mark, 2004). However, the political scientists Robert Pape and Terry Nardin, the social psychologists M. Brooke Rogers and colleagues, and the sociologist and religious studies scholar Mark Juergensmeyer have all argued that religion should only be considered one incidental factor and that such terrorism is primarily geopolitical (Rogers, et al. 2007)
According to Juergensmeyer, religion and violence have had a symbiotic relationship since before the Crusades and even since before the Bible. He defines religious terrorism as consisting of acts that terrify, the definition of which is provided by the witnesses – the ones terrified – and not by the party committing the act; accompanied by either a religious motivation, justification, organization, or world view. Religion is sometimes used in combination with other factors, and sometimes as the primary motivation. Religious terrorism is intimately connected to current forces of geopolitics (Juergensmeyer, 2004).
Religious terrorism can be communal, genocidal, nihilistic, or revolutionary. It can be committed by lone wolves, clandestine cells, large dissident movements, or governments. And, depending on one’s perspective, there is often debate about whether the perpetrators should be classified as terrorists or religious freedom fighters. The following cases are historical examples of religious violence. This is a selective survey (by no means exhaustive) that will demonstrate how some examples of faith-based violence are clearly examples of terrorism, how others are not so clear, and how each example must be considered within its historical and cultural context (Sage Publications, 2018).
Within the Judeo-Christian belief system, references in the Bible are not only to assassinations and conquest but also to the complete annihilation of enemy nations in the name of the faith. One such campaign is described in the Book of Joshua. The story of Joshua’s conquest of Canaan is the story of the culmination of the ancient Hebrews’ return to Canaan. To Joshua and his followers, this was the Promised Land of the covenant between God and the chosen people. According to the Bible, the Canaanite cities were destroyed and the Canaanites attacked until “there was no one left who breathed.” Assuming that Joshua and his army put to the sword all the inhabitants of the 31 cities mentioned in the Bible, and assuming that each city averaged 10,000 people, his conquest cost 310,000 lives. To the ancient Hebrews, the Promised Land had been occupied by enemy trespassers. To fulfill God’s covenant, it was rational and necessary from their perspective to drive them from the land, exterminating them when necessary (Sage Publications, 2018).
Other passages in the Bible are arguably examples of religious communal violence or terrorism, such as the following story from the Book of Numbers:
While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people began to have sexual relations with the women of Moab. … Just then one of the Israelites came and brought a Midianite woman into his family. … When Phineas … saw it, he got up and left the Congregation. Taking a spear in his hand, he went after the Israelite man into the temple, and pierced the two of them, the Israelite and the woman, through the belly.
Another popular example is the historic secret cult of murder. In India during the 13th through the 19th centuries, the Thuggee cult existed among worshippers of the Hindu goddess Kali, the destroyer. Members were called by various names, including Phansigars (noose operators), Dacoits (members of a gang of robbers), and Thuggees (from which the English word thug is derived). They would strangle sacrificial victims—usually travelers—with a noose called a phansi in the name of Kali and then rob and ritually mutilate and bury them. Offerings would then be made to Kali. The British eventually destroyed the movement during the 19th century, but the death toll of Thuggee victims was staggering: “This secretive cult is believed to have murdered 20,000 victims a year … perhaps dispatching as many as several million victims altogether before it was broken up by British officials.” There are few debatable counterpoints about this cult—the Thuggees waged a campaign of religious terror for centuries (Sage Publications, 2018).
Islam also has a long standing history of terrorism. The Arab world passed through several important political phases during the 20th century. Overlordship by the Ottoman Empire ended in 1918 after World War I. It was followed by European domination, which ended in the aftermath of World War II. New Arab and North African states were initially ruled primarily by monarchs or civilians who were always authoritarian and frequently despotic. A series of military coups and other political upheavals led to the modern era of governance. These phases had a significant influence on activism among Arab nationalists and intellectuals, culminating in the late 1940s, when the chief symbol of Western encroachment became the state of Israel. Postwar activism in the Arab Muslim world likewise progressed through several intellectual phases, most of them secular expressions of nationalism and socialism. The secular phases included the following:
- Anticolonial nationalism, during which Arab nationalists resisted the presence of European administrators and armed forces
- Pan-Arab nationalism (Nasserism), led by Egyptian president GamelAbdelNasser, which advocated the creation of a single dynamic United Arab Republic
- Secular leftist radicalism, which activists often adopted to promote Marxist or other socialist principles of governance, sometimes in opposition to their own governments
References
Allen, T (2006). Trial Justice: The International Court and the Lord’s Resistance Army. New York: Zed Books.
Bhutto, B (2008). Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. New York: Harper.
Gerges, F (2006). Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy. Orlando, FL: Harcourt.
Juergensmeyer, M (2004). Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-24011-1
Rogers, M. et al. (Jun 2007). “The Role of Religious Fundamentalism in Terrorist Violence: A Social Psychological Analysis”. Int Rev Psychiatry. 19(3): 253–62. doi:10.1080/09540260701349399. PMID 17566903
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