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Related: About this forumIs religious faith the cure for terrorism?
The Globe and Mail
Published Saturday, May. 18 2013, 12:00 PM EDT
Last updated Sunday, May. 19 2013, 1:39 AM EDT
An Israeli law student assassinates a prime minister on behalf of other Jews. A twentysomething Christian militant plants pipe bombs at the Atlanta Olympics in opposition to abortion and gay rights. A young Norwegian man embarks on a mass shooting to “save” his country from Muslim immigrants. Former Ontario high-school classmates become radicalized and join a plot to attack an Algerian gas plant. Two Muslim brothers, one just 19, bomb the Boston Marathon in supposed defence of Islam.
Extremism transcends age and faith, but young people – and young men – are particularly susceptible. Many of their outbursts are carried out in religion’s name, although the dynamics are usually more complex than that. The Globe’s Faith Exchange panel has convened to discuss what religious communities can do to engage young people and provide alternatives to extremism.
•Sheema Khan writes a monthly column for The Globe and Mail. She has a master’s degree in physics and a PhD in chemical physics from Harvard. She is the author of Of Hockey and Hijab: Reflections of a Canadian Muslim Woman .
•Matt Wilkinson is director of youth ministries for Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec and author of Youth Ministry: Now and Not Yet .
•Sikander Hashmi is an imam, writer and teacher in Kingston, Ont.
•Lorna Dueck has been reporting on Christian practice in Canadian life for the past 20 years. She is an evangelical Christian and host of Context with Lorna Dueck , seen Sundays on Global and Vision TV.
•Howard Voss-Altman has been serving Temple B’nai Tikvah, Calgary’s reform Jewish congregation, for the past 10 years. He is a community leader in the areas of human rights and civil liberties.
•Moderator Guy Nicholson is an editor in The Globe’s Comment section. He professes no religious beliefs.
Guy Nicholson: Looking at a list of incidents like the one above, some Canadians would conclude that religious teaching is a cause of extremism, rather than a solution. What would you say to that, panelists?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/is-religious-faith-the-cure-for-terrorism/article11999628/
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mzteris
(16,232 posts)or justification or tool used to subvert in most cases.
rug
(82,333 posts)Religions have always been used by ruling powers, as have race, gender and nationalism.
mzteris
(16,232 posts)Religion has caused far more damage and misery, death and destruction, than succor and benefit to the human race.
Okay so we got some pretty great music out of christianity . . .
rug
(82,333 posts)religion is a tool, along with media, education and a slew of other things, used by ruling classes in power to divide and to maintain power.
That is far from your statement that it is a cause.
mzteris
(16,232 posts)That IS my point. Thus, the cause. . .
rug
(82,333 posts)If the government wanted to take your property, your home and your job, and they said it was because you're Jewish, would you say that religion is the cause or the excuse?
mzteris
(16,232 posts)an ethnicity.
Depends on the government, doesn't it?
Though to answer your question, I'd say both. If it's the excuse, then it's the cause, n'est pas?
Though if you're trying to trap me into saying the Jews were responsible for what's happening to them, you're being absolutely ridiculous.
Hitler was a manipulative madman who also persecuted gypsies, gays, and anyone else he didn't like or could use to his advantage.
rug
(82,333 posts)What do you think was the cause of the dissolution of the monasteries in 16th century England, religion or political power?
mzteris
(16,232 posts)power - political and otherwise, lust - coulda been a soap opera!
and well - religion was necessarily involved. A deeply rooted cause and effect.
Who had the money power land, etc. who wanted it. where loyalties lay. where dispute and differing opinion collided.
a horny and son-less king with a shrewd Protestant (soon to be headless) wife.
Religion. Religion. Religion. Catholics. The Church of England. Protestants. . . . Religion. all intertwined.
What are your thoughts on Ireland's history - religious or political? . . . can't separate them, can you?
rug
(82,333 posts)After the occupation, vast tracts of land were given to English and local supporters of the Crown turning Ireland into a nation of tenants. The wealthy incipient capitalists of the industrial north allied very closely, economically, politically and culturally with the English industrialists as the Industrial Revolution developed.
The Anglican Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church became the orange and green colors of the disputants and not much more.
mzteris
(16,232 posts)the war between the Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, have you?
The politics were a side-effect of religious affiliation. It really was all about the religion. Though those with the wealth and power were certainly disposed to use the religious fervor of the poor to do their bidding in their centuries long war.
rug
(82,333 posts)
Jim__
(14,440 posts)Is terrorism just a natural human response to people being in a politically impotent position in which they are dominated - and brutalized - by some other group? Do politically powerful groups engage in terrorism? Are we any more likely to find a cure for terrorism than we are to find a cure for war?
rug
(82,333 posts)Personally, I think the large nations engage in state terrorism, both internal and external, frequently.
This article addresses what is usually desperate acts by small, disenfranchised groups that explicitly organize. After the Boston marathon bombing there was an interesting article describing traits in terrorist groups across all sorts of ideological lines. The two most prominent traits were social isolation and social powerlessness. If I can find it again I'll post it.