Terrorism and Religion

[petertdavis]

Do they want to kill us because we're not one them?


I see a lot of journalistic reporting that tends to make us believe that peope resort to terrorism because the rich countries have abused them so much. I don't really buy into that. I can believe that people would become revolutionary because of being taken advantage of by a richer nation, but I don't see people strapping bombs to themselves, or flying airplanes into buildings, because someone with more wealth and power didn't pay a fair price for their products and services. Fanatical religion, OTOH, makes a plausable explanation, or at least more so than the imperialism theory. If fanatical religion is the root cause of terrorism, then is regeme change and rebuilding their nations in our image really going to reduce terrorism?

[pax]

Originally Posted by petertdavis

Do they want to kill us because we're not one them?


I see a lot of journalistic reporting that tends to make us believe that peope resort to terrorism because the rich countries have abused them so much. I don't really buy into that. I can believe that people would become revolutionary because of being taken advantage of by a richer nation, but I don't see people strapping bombs to themselves, or flying airplanes into buildings, because someone with more wealth and power didn't pay a fair price for their products and services. Fanatical religion, OTOH, makes a plausable explanation, or at least more so than the imperialism theory. If fanatical religion is the root cause of terrorism, then is regeme change and rebuilding their nations in our image really going to reduce terrorism?

I think the desperation of the Palestinians existance has something to do with suicide-bombings, having your water supplies controlled, the threat of having your home bull-dozed are the sort of things that could unhinge a person. It would also make some ripe for indoctrination.

I agree that regime change or invasion of a sovereign will add fuel to the fundamentalists fire.

[I, Brian]

Hi pax, and welcome to CR.

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Zdrastvuitsye, hola, shalom, salaam, Dia dhuit, namastar ji, hej, konnichiwa, squeak, meow, :wave:, pax.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

[pax]

To,
I,Brian and Phyllis S_U., thank you both for such a warm welcome.

Esp. to PS_U for a welcome in ALL languages. Are you a descendent of Dr.Dolittle?

pax.

[Susma Rio Sep]

Do we have suicide bombers among Christians? If they are in the same shoes as suicide bombers, meaning in the same circumstances, would they do suicide bombing?

I observe that more probably among non-fundamentalist Christians such a behavior would not be found.

Among fundamentalist Christians, I think they would go for it also if put in the same circumstances.

So it is not the circumstances of the bombers but their internal disposition of taking their religion most seriously. Rather a subtle distinction but I think valid.

That is why we have witnessed time and again fundamentalist Christians or shall I say fanatical Christians also going into suicide in expectation of getting to their heavenly destiny faster and surer.

Lesson to be learned for us all: Religion is like cuisine and hairdo, don't kill for it and don't get killed for it, and don't even kill yourself for it, not even by renouncing the world and your physiological life, like Catholic monks and nuns, even among Buddhists for their practice of celibacy.

Susma Rio Sep

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Originally quoted by Susma Rio Sep
Do we have suicide bombers among Christians? If they are in the same shoes as suicide bombers, meaning in the same circumstances, would they do suicide bombing?

I may be wrong about this, but I think there were some in Northern Ireland (a Christian country whose "civil" war had been going on pretty much since King William's/King James's time [if not before.])

Again, I could be wrong.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

[Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine]

Originally Posted by pax

To,
I,Brian and Phyllis S_U., thank you both for such a warm welcome.

Esp. to PS_U for a welcome in ALL languages. Are you a descendent of Dr.Dolittle?

pax.

Actually, I have absotively posilutely (absolutely positively) no connection with Dr. Dolittle except when reading, then I cannot guarantee.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine

[brucegdc]

Originally Posted by Susma Rio Sep

Do we have suicide bombers among Christians? If they are in the same shoes as suicide bombers, meaning in the same circumstances, would they do suicide bombing?

I observe that more probably among non-fundamentalist Christians such a behavior would not be found.
...snip

So soon we forget - a couple of years of relative quiet, and Northern Ireland falls off the discussion map.

Yes, people have blown each other (and themselves if they have to) up for virtually every religion out there. Or to be more accurate, people professing virtually every religion have built bombs and used them for their purposes - which generally are political rather than religious, with religion being used as an excuse.

My observation is that suicide bombings tend to be used by a group of people fighting a government entity - in the case of Northern Ireland, it was against the British Government (in general), and the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is certainly one-sided on the suicide bombings. But that's only logical - if you're the other side, and can buy tanks/planes/body armor/guns, you'd use them - suicide bombs are relatively ineffective, and expensive in terms of your people.

I think we hashed the "religion as excuse for war" out a while back in another thread, but I don't have the link handy.