“Religion is the Cause of War“

Maher Khudari

1. What is your topic?
Religion is the cause of war
2. What are the possibly different main claims/positions related to this topic? (There will be at least two (2) possibly different claims/positions, but there could be more; however, one of them will be YOUR claim/position.)
Religion is the key for war, it’s the faith that people have to fight for.

3. What is your position regarding the topic?
I believe that religion is causing war but not at all cases, For example Iraq war wasn’t one of the religion causing war, therefore I would like to replace the word religion to oil is the cause of war.

4. What “evidence” have you offered to support your claim/position? Have you included your survey results?
• The Crusades: A series of campaigns from the 11th to the 13th centuries with the stated goal of reconquering the Holy Land from Muslim invaders and coming to the aid of the Byzantine Empire

• The French Wars of Religion: A succession of wars in France during the 16th century between Catholics and the Protestant Hugenots

• The Thirty Years' War — Another war between Catholics and Protestants during the 17th century in what is now Germany

In addition to this, one could add the Taiping Rebellion and the never ending Catholic/Protestant struggles in Northern Ireland. Christianity has certainly been a factor in many conflicts throughout its 2000 year history.

5. Put your claim/position and “evidence” through the “Scientific Method” and “Proving a theory” steps. Are there any steps on which your claim/position and evidence do not measure up to the examination? If so, what can you do to make them more acceptable?

* Observe some aspect of the universe. * Invent a tentative description, called a hypothesis which is consistent with what you have observed. * Use the hypothesis to make predictions. * Test those predictions by experiments or further observations and modify the hypothesis in the light of your results. * Repeat the last two steps until there are no discrepancies between theory and experiment and/or observation.

6. Who is your intended audience? (This does not have to be specifically your instructor.)
Everyone including my Co-workers and friends, it’s an important subject that everyone should participate and give their opinion about it.

7. What is your purpose? What do you want the audience to do, to feel, or to think?
Remember that a persuasive paper is always asking for some sort of response from the
Audience.
I want my audience to look at the full picture, look at the causes of the war. Realize what the gain of that other than killing each others.

8. What words or phrases have you included to cause your audience to do, feel, or think the way that you want them to do, feel, or think? Include all of your motivational or empathetic “cues” for your audience.
On my paper I mentioned a lot of strong words such as: killing and peace. I mentioned to imagine themselves in the other people shoes (situation), to see what war feel like. How it feels when you lose your house, family and everything surround you.

9. How can your position actually better meet the needs of your audience than other possible positions?
Providing real examples such as the conflict that is happenning between Palestine and Israel fighting for a small land because of their religions. 10. What more might your audience need to know before they believe that they need to do, to feel, or to think that what you are suggesting should in fact cause them to be doing, Feeling, or thinking something?
Define the difference between people who really believe in the religion which they will fight for wherever they are, and the people who are aiming just for money and don’t care about anything else.

11. What position that is different from yours might cause your audience not to accept your position? (Note: There may be more than one.) Now that you have identified it, what do you need to add to your own argument to convince your audience that this alternate position should be rejected in favor of your own position?
I talked to some people who believe that religion is used as the scapegoat to cover the greed and pride of man. You are absolutely right on when you say that religion gives people a justification for their actions. They use religion to justify their "I'm better than you" attitude which translated, is nothing more than a "holier than thou" attitude. Guns don't kill people, therefore people who use guns kill people. Cars don't kill people. People behind the controls of those cars kill people, Religion is not the cause of war. Man, using religion to justify himself, is the cause of war.

12. Can you think of anything else that your audience might need in order to be persuaded by your argument?
Need to understand this concept In Islam, we see the concept of jihad, or “holy war.” The word jihad literally means “struggle,” but the concept has been used to describe warfare in the expansion and defense of Islamic territory. The almost continual warfare in the Middle East over the past half century certainly has contributed to the idea that religion is the cause of many wars. The September 11 attacks on the United States have been seen as a jihad against the “Great Satan” America, which in Muslim eyes is almost synonymous with Christianity. In Judaism, the wars of conquest chronicled in the OT (in particular the book of Joshua) at the command of God, conquered the Promised Land.