Zamira Abduhamidova
4003­FRSM 101­ MTA
12/03/2015
Response paper
The Myth of Religious Violence Religion is just a tool in the big business of war, in other words, a recruitment of cheap mercenary. According to Karen Armstrong article, he is only making the rather innocuous suggestion that religion is not more dangerous than, for example, politics, then the point may be concede with the requirement that she conceded that religion as dangerous as politics. You can look at it simplistically, or from extremely complex perspectives. However, there is no doubting that a worldwide ban on religion would, once implemented, eliminate many of modern ills, including the current wave of religious hatred, religious extremism, and theocratic terrorism.
Human appetite is insatiable and will destroy us all. It is the consequences of consumerism that will bring down our world, not religious fundamentalism. The fundamental factor in all the violence in Armstrong's catalogue is surely that of identity; always a fragile construct, when individuals encounter otherness they feel threatened in their most profound sense of being. Threatened with destruction they seek to destroy that threat, even though it is merely the existence of difference. Moreover, I believe that
, looking again at the origins of the 1914­1918 war, we are reminded that we can start a major conflict between apparently civilised nations, whose ruling families may even

share common ancestors and have intermarried, without the need to invoke religion at all. The reason why Islam is so often invoked in modern conflicts is the widespread prevalence of poverty and ignorance in many parts of the Middle East and Africa, where colonial exploitation has been shown to be just that and nothing more. The fact that all three Mediterranean religions are of a similar relevance to our world as according to
Grimm's Fairy Tales is not the underlying reason for the ease with which people are duped into seeing massacre and terror as a basis for their future. Religion is simply a tool for insidious ends. In addition, as author Karen Armstrong mentioned about
“secularism,” that secularism is not about accommodating everybody’s wishes, which would be an impossible task. It is about ensuring that nobody suffers unfair discrimination or gains an unfair advantage on the basis of their religious beliefs or lack thereof. It is a fairly simple concept.
However, from my perspective, I think power and greed are behind wars, even if conducted in the name of whatever god or prophet. Religion provides a malleable source of propaganda, whether the message is about painting your side of a conflict as martyrs and other side aggressors; calling for fortitude in battle; absolving oneself of wrongdoing in causing terror and bloodshed; or declaring a higher purpose for the cause. Also, as one’s people suffers in war, and their future becomes more unpredictable and fearful, and grief hangs in the air, the more susceptible they become to the superstitions of religion. I strongly believe that, religion is not the root of all wars.
Humans are the root, and human made religion too, and uses religion as a weapon of

war. The one true religion I adhere to every day is to try not to force my opinions down anyone’s throat. Being nice to everyone, and trying not to slaughter or behead anyone.