View source for Religious violence

{{Short description|Violence practiced in the name of religion}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Discrimination sidebar|state=collapsed}}
{{Distinguish|Religious persecution}}
'''Religious violence''' covers phenomena in which [[religion]] is either the target or perpetrator of [[Violence|violent behavior]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last= Wellman|first= James|author2=Tokuno, Kyoko |year= 2004|title= Is Religious Violence Inevitable?|doi=10.1111/j.1468-5906.2004.00234.x|journal= Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion|volume= 43|issue= 3|pages= 291}}</ref> All the religions of the world contain narratives, symbols, and metaphors of violence and [[war]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Jones |first=James W. |year=2014 |title=Violence and Religion |editor-last=Leeming |editor-first=David A. |editor-link=David Adams Leeming |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion |pages=1850–1853 |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] |location=[[Boston]] |doi=10.1007/978-1-4614-6086-2_849 |isbn=978-1-4614-6087-9}}</ref> and also nonviolence and peacemaking.<ref>{{cite book |title=Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions |date=22 June 2015 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=9781118953426 |editor1-last=Omar |editor1-first=Irfan |chapter=Introduction |ref=Omar Peacemaking |editor2-last=Duffey |editor2-first=Michael}}</ref> Religious violence is violence that is motivated by, or in reaction to, religious precepts, texts, or the doctrines of a target or an attacker. It includes violence against [[religious institutions]], people, objects, or events. Religious violence includes both acts which are committed by religious groups and acts which are committed against religious groups.

The term “religious violence” has proven difficult to define, however. Violence is a very broad concept, because it is used against both human and non-human entities.<ref name="Houben Kooji" /> Furthermore, violence can have a wide variety of expressions, from blood shedding and physical harm to violation of [[Personal freedom|personal freedoms]], passionate conduct or language, or emotional outbursts like fury or passion.<ref name="Ralph Tanner">{{cite book |author=Ralph E.S. Tanner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xQXYpfe0cYC&pg=PA5 |title=Violence and Religion: Cross-cultural Opinions and Consequences |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |year=2007 |isbn=9788180693762 |pages=5–6}}</ref><ref name="Clarke Companion">{{cite book |last1=Clarke |first1=Steve |editor1-last=Oppy |editor1-first=Graham |title=A Companion to Atheism and Philosophy |date=2019 |publisher=Wiley Blackwell |location=Hoboken, NJ |isbn=9781119119111 |pages=421–424 |edition=First |chapter=28. Violence}}</ref> Adding to the difficulty, [[religion]] is a complex and modern Western concept,<ref name="50 great1" /><ref name="Nongbri">{{cite book |last1=Nongbri |first1=Brent |title=Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept |date=2013 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0300154160}}</ref> one whose definition still has no scholarly consensus.<ref name="Clarke Companion" /><ref name="50 great1" /><ref name="Nongbri" /><ref name="Fitzgerald">{{Cite book |last=Fitzgerald |first=Timothy |url=https://archive.org/details/discourseoncivil00fitz |title=Discourse on Civility and Barbarity |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-19-530009-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/discourseoncivil00fitz/page/n57 45]–46 |url-access=limited}}</ref> 

Religious violence, like all forms of violence, is a cultural process which is context-dependent and highly complex.<ref name="Rowley2" /> Thus, oversimplifications of religion and violence often lead to misguided understandings of the causes for acts of violence, as well as oversight of their rarity.<ref name="Rowley2" /> Violence is perpetrated for a wide variety of [[ideology|ideological]] reasons, and religion is generally only one of many contributing social and political factors that may foment it. For example, studies of supposed cases of religious violence often conclude that the violence was driven more by [[Ethnic violence|ethnic animosities]] than by religious worldviews.<ref name="Omar">{{cite book |title=Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions |date=22 June 2015 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=9781118953426 |editor1-last=Omar |editor1-first=Irfan |page=1 |chapter=Introduction |ref=Omar Peacemaking |editor2-last=Duffey |editor2-first=Michael}}</ref> Historical circumstances in conflicts often are not linear, but socially and politically complex.<ref name="Holt2022" /><ref name="50 great1" /><ref name="Jeffrey Russell" /> Due to the complex nature of religion, violence, and the relationship between them, it is often difficult to discern whether religion is a significant cause of violence from all other factors.<ref name="Clarke Companion" /><ref name="Holt2022" /> 

Indeed, the link between religious belief and behavior is not linear. Decades of [[Anthropology of religion|anthropological]], [[Sociology of religion|sociological]], and [[Psychology of religion|psychological research]] have all concluded that behaviors do not directly follow from religious beliefs and values because people's religious ideas tend to be fragmented, loosely connected, and context-dependent, just like other domains of culture and life.<ref name="chaves">{{cite journal|last1=Chaves|first1=Mark|title=SSSR Presidential Address Rain Dances in the Dry Season: Overcoming the Religious Congruence Fallacy|journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion|date=March 2010|volume=49|issue=1|pages=1–14|doi=10.1111/j.1468-5906.2009.01489.x}}</ref> 

Religions, [[Ethical system|ethical systems]], and societies rarely promote violence as an end in of itself.<ref name="Houben Kooji">{{cite book|editor1-last=Houben|editor1-first=Jan|editor2-last=van Kooji|editor2-first=Karel|title=Violence Denied: Violence, Non-violence and the Rationalization of Violence in South Asian Cultural History|url=https://archive.org/details/violencedeniedvi00houb|url-access=limited|date=1999|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden; Boston; Köln|isbn=978-9004113442|pages=[https://archive.org/details/violencedeniedvi00houb/page/n8 1]–3}}</ref> At the same time, there is often tension between a desire to [[Pacifism|avoid violence]] and the acceptance of justifiable uses of violence to prevent a perceived greater evil that permeates a culture.<ref name="Houben Kooji" />

==History of the concept of religion==
{{main|Definition of religion}}

Religion is a [[modern era|modern]] [[Western culture|Western]] concept<ref name="Fitzgerald" /> not used before the 1500s when the compartmentalized concept of religion arose, where religious entities are considered separate from worldly ones.<ref name="50 great1" /> Furthermore, parallel concepts are not found in many cultures, and there is no equivalent term for "religion" in many languages.<ref name="50 great1">{{cite book|last1=Morreall|first1=John|last2=Sonn|first2=Tamara|title=50 Great Myths of Religion|date=2013|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=9780470673508|pages=12–17}}</ref><ref name="Fitzgerald"/>

Ancient [[sacred texts]] like the [[Bible]] and the [[Quran]] did not have a concept of religion in their original languages, nor did their authors or the cultures to which they belonged.<ref name="50 great1" /><ref name="Nongbri" /> Likewise, there is no precise equivalent of "religion" in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], and [[Judaism]] does not draw clear distinctions between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Edelheit |first=Hershel |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1289841198 |title=History of Zionism a handbook and dictionary |date=19 September 2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-72104-5 |page=3 |oclc=1289841198}}</ref>

The modern concept of religion as an abstraction which entails distinct sets of beliefs or doctrines is a recent invention in the English language. Such usage began with texts from the 17th century due to the splitting of [[Christendom]] during the Protestant [[Reformation]], as well as more prevalent [[colonization]] and [[globalization]] in the [[Age of Discovery|age of exploration]] which involved contact with numerous foreign and indigenous cultures and non-European languages.<ref name="Harrison Territories">{{cite book |last1=Harrison |first1=Peter |title=The Territories of Science and Religion |date=2015 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226184487}}</ref><ref name="Religion enlightenment">{{cite book|last1=Harrison|first1=Peter|title='Religion' and the Religions in the English Enlightenment|date=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0521892933}}</ref> For example, in Asia, it was Europeans who first applied the terms "[[Buddhism]]", "[[Hinduism]]", "[[Taoism]]", and "[[Confucianism]]" in the 19th century.<ref name="Harrison Territories" /><ref name="Invention Japan">{{cite book |last1=Josephson |first1=Jason Ananda |title=The Invention of Religion in Japan |date=2012 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226412344}}</ref>

Thus, scholars have found it difficult to develop a consistent definition of religion, with some giving up on the possibility of a definition<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McKinnon |first=Andrew |date=2002 |title=Sociological definitions, language games, and the "essence" of religion |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006802760198776 |journal=Method & Theory in the Study of Religion |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=61–83 |doi=10.1163/157006802760198776 |issn=0943-3058 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2164/3073}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Josephson |first=Jason Ananda |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226412351.001.0001 |title=The Invention of Religion in Japan |date=2012 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-41234-4 |page=257 |doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226412351.001.0001}}</ref> and others rejecting the term entirely.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}} Still others argue that regardless of its definition, it is not appropriate to apply it to non-Western cultures.<ref name="dubuisson">{{Cite journal |last1=Engler |first1=Steven |last2=Miller |first2=Dean |date=September 2006 |title=Daniel Dubuisson: The Western Construction of Religion |journal=Religion |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=119–178 |doi=10.1016/j.religion.2006.08.001 |issn=0048-721X |s2cid=145296143 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Definition of violence==

[[Violence]] is a complicated concept which broadly carries descriptive and evaluative components that range from harming non-human entities to human [[self-harm]].<ref name="Houben Kooji" /> Religious scholar Ralph Tanner cites the definition of violence in the [[Oxford English Dictionary]] as "far beyond [the infliction of] pain and the shedding of blood".<ref name="Ralph Tanner" /> He argues that, although violence clearly encompasses injury to persons or property, it also includes, "the forcible interference in [[personal freedom]], violent or passionate conduct or language [and] finally passion or fury".<ref name="Ralph Tanner" />

Similarly, a study of the [[Crusades]]' impacts on the [[Muslim world]] concludes:
<blockquote>
The word "violence" can be defined to extend far beyond pain and shedding blood. It carries the meaning of physical force, violent language, fury, and, more importantly, forcible interference.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=International Review of Mission |first=Abhijit |last=Nayak |title=Crusade Violence: Understanding and Overcoming the Impact of Mission Among Muslims |volume=97|issue=386–387|pages=273–291 |date=July–October 2008|doi=10.1111/j.1758-6631.2008.tb00645.x |access-date=2010-11-23 |url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-10493656/Crusade-violence-understanding-and-overcoming.html|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
</blockquote>

[[Old Testament]] scholar [[Terence Fretheim]] expands on this, writing:
<blockquote>

For many people, ... only physical violence truly qualifies as violence. But, certainly, violence is more than killing people, unless one includes all those words and actions that kill people slowly. The effect of limitation to a "killing fields" perspective is the widespread neglect of many other forms of violence. We must insist that violence also refers to that which is psychologically destructive, that which demeans, damages, or depersonalizes others. In view of these considerations, violence may be defined as follows: any action, verbal or nonverbal, oral or written, physical or psychical, active or passive, public or private, individual or institutional/societal, human or divine, in whatever degree of intensity, that abuses, violates, injures, or kills. Some of the most pervasive and most dangerous forms of violence are those that are often hidden from view (against women and children, especially); just beneath the surface in many of our homes, churches, and communities is abuse enough to freeze the blood. Moreover, many forms of [[systemic violence]] often slip past our attention because they are so much a part of the infrastructure of life (e.g., [[racism]], [[sexism]], [[ageism]]).<ref name="Fretheim">{{cite journal |last=Fretheim |first=Terence |date=Winter 2004 |title=God and Violence in the Old Testament |url=http://www2.luthersem.edu/word%26world/Archives/24-1_Violence/24-1_Fretheim.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Word & World |volume=24 |issue=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150111131944/http://www.luthersem.edu/word |archive-date=11 January 2015 |access-date=2010-11-21}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Non-physical [[abuse]] in religious settings is described as [[religious abuse]].<ref name="p915">{{cite journal | last=Novšak | first=Rachel | last2=Mandelj | first2=Tina Rahne | last3=Simonič | first3=Barbara | title=Therapeutic Implications of Religious-Related Emotional Abuse | journal=Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma | volume=21 | issue=1 | date=2012 | issn=1092-6771 | doi=10.1080/10926771.2011.627914 | pages=31–44}}</ref> Religious abuse may also include the misuse of religion for [[Selfishness|selfish]], [[Secularism|secular]], or [[Ideology|ideological]] ends, such as the abuse of a clerical position.<ref>{{cite book |author=Wright |first=Keith T. |title=Religious Abuse: A Pastor Explores the Many Ways Religion Can Hurt As Well As Heal |publisher=Northstone Publishing |year=2001 |isbn=9781896836478 |location=Kelowna, B.C.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Abuse in Religious Contexts |url=https://research.kent.ac.uk/airs/ |access-date=2023-03-09 |website=[[University of Kent]]}}</ref> 

==Relationship between religion and violence==
According to [[Philosophy of religion|philosopher of religion]] Steve Clarke, "currently available evidence does not allow us to determine whether religion is, or is not, a significant cause of violence". He lists multiple problems that make it impossible to establish a causal relationship, such as difficulties in distinguishing [[Motive (law)|motive]]/[[pretext]] and inability to verify if they would necessarily lead to any violent action, the lack of consensus on definitions of both violence and religion among scholars, and the inability to see if the presence of religion actually adds or subtracts from general levels of violence, since no society without religion has ever existed to compare with.<ref name="Clarke Companion" />

In his book ''Sacred Fury: Understanding Religious Violence'', [[Sociology of religion|religious sociologist]] Charles Selengut characterizes the phrase "religion and violence" as "jarring", asserting that "religion is thought to be opposed to violence and a force for peace and reconciliation". He acknowledges, however, that "the history and scriptures of the world's religions tell stories of violence and war even as they speak of peace and love".<ref name=Selengut>{{cite book |title=Sacred Fury: Understanding Religious Violence |first=Charles |last=Selengut|page=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOqtEkGlq0cC&q=%22sectarian+violence%22+%22religious+violence%22&pg=PR7 |isbn=978-0-7425-6084-0 |date=28 April 2008|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref> Similarly, religious scholar Ralph Tanner describes the combination of religion and violence as "uncomfortable", asserting that religious thinkers generally avoid the conjunction of the two and argue that religious violence is "only valid in certain circumstances which are invariably one-sided".<ref name="Tanner2007">{{cite book |last=Tanner |first=Ralph E. S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3xQXYpfe0cYC&q=Christianity+%22violent+religion%22&pg=PA1 |title=Violence and Religion: Cross-Cultural Opinions and Consequences |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |year=2007 |isbn=9788180693762 |page=1}}</ref>

According to historian Matthew Rowley, three hundred contributing causes of religious violence have been discussed by scholars. In his study of causes of religious violence, though, he cautions that "violence in the name of God is a complex phenomenon and oversimplification further jeopardizes peace because it obscures many of the causal factors".<ref name=Rowley1>{{cite journal|last1=Rowley|first1=Matthew|title=What Causes Religious Violence?|journal=Journal of Religion and Violence|date=2014|volume=2|issue=3|pages=361–402|doi=10.5840/jrv20153234}}</ref> In another article, Rowley lists 15 ways to address the complexity of violence, both secular and religious, and he also claims that secular narratives of religious violence tend to be erroneous or exaggerated due to their oversimplification of religious people and religious people's beliefs, their rationale based on false dichotomies, and their ignorance of complex secular causes of supposed "religious violence". He writes that when one is discussing religious violence, they should also note that the overwhelming majority of religious people do not get inspired to engage in violence.<ref name=Rowley2>{{cite journal|last1=Rowley|first1=Matthew|title=How Should We Respond to Religious Violence? Fifteen Ways To Critique Our Own Thoughts|journal=Ethics in Brief|date=2015|volume=21|issue=2|url=http://www.klice.co.uk/uploads/Ethics%20in%20Brief/EiB_Rowley_21_2_WEB.pdf|access-date=2 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160220155225/http://www.klice.co.uk/uploads/Ethics%20in%20Brief/EiB_Rowley_21_2_WEB.pdf|archive-date=20 February 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In contrast, religious scholar [[Hector Avalos]] simplifies religious causes of violence to access over four scarce resources: [[divine will]] and knowledge, primarily through [[scripture]]; [[sacred space]]; group privileging; and [[salvation]]. Not all religions have or use these four resources. He believes that religious violence is particularly untenable because these resources are never verifiable, and, unlike claims to scarce physical resources like water or land, it cannot be adjudicated objectively.<ref>{{cite book |last=Avalos |first=Hector |title=Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence |publisher=Prometheus Books |year=2005 |location=Amherst, New York}}</ref>

[[Regina Schwartz]], scholar of [[English literature]], [[Judaism]], and [[Christianity]], argues that all monotheistic religions are inherently violent because of an exclusivism that inevitably fosters violence against those that are considered outsiders.<ref name="ReginaSchwartz">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/curseofcainviole00schw |title=The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism By Regina M. Schwartz |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1998 |url-access=registration}}</ref> In a review of her book ''Curse of Cain'' for ''[[The New Yorker]]'', [[Lawrence Weschler]] asserts that Schwartz is concerned not just with the violent legacy of Abrahamic religions, but with their genocidal legacy as well.<ref>{{cite web |last=Weschler |first=Lawrence |title=Mayhem and Monotheism |url=http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/2490/PDF/mayhem.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720030355/http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/2490/PDF/mayhem.pdf |archive-date=20 July 2011}}</ref>

Michael Jerryson, scholar of [[comparative religion]] and religious violence, argues that scholarship on religion and violence sometimes overlooks non-[[Abrahamic religions]]. This tendency leads to considerable problems, one of which is the support of faulty associations. For example, he finds a persistent global pattern of alignment in which religions such as [[Islam]] are viewed as causes of violence and religions such as [[Buddhism]] are viewed as causes of peace.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jerryson|first=Michael|date=6 May 2015|title=Buddhists and Violence: Historical Continuity/Academic Incongruity|journal=Religion Compass|volume=9|issue=5|pages=141–150, 141|doi=10.1111/rec3.12152}}</ref>

Another lens with which to view religious violence is through [[political violence]], which religion can often play a central role in. This is especially true of [[terrorism]], in which acts of violence are committed against unarmed [[Non-combatant|non-combatants]] in order to inspire fear and achieve political goals. Terrorism expert [[Martha Crenshaw]] suggests that religion is a mask used by political movements which seek to draw attention to their causes and gain support. Crenshaw outlines two approaches when observing religious violence in order to grasp its underlying mechanisms.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Crenshaw|first=Martha|date=1 December 1987|title=Theories of terrorism: Instrumental and organizational approaches|journal=Journal of Strategic Studies|volume=10|issue=4|pages=13–31|doi=10.1080/01402398708437313|issn=0140-2390}}</ref> One approach, called the instrumental approach, sees religious violence as acting as a rational calculation to achieve some political end. Thus, she claims that increasing the costs of performing such violence will help curb it. Crenshaw's other approach sees religious violence as stemming from the organizational structure of religious communities, with the heads of these communities acting as political figureheads. Crenshaw suggests that threatening the internal stability of these organizations (perhaps by offering them a nonviolent alternative) will dissuade religious organizations from performing political violence. A third approach sees religious violence as the result of community dynamics rather than a religious duty.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mv-jBRlsSlcC&q=Terrorism+a+Communitarian+Approach&pg=PA118|title=Building Terrorism Resistant Communities: Together Against Terrorism|last1=Ekici|first1=S.|last2=Ekici|first2=A.|date=2009|publisher=IOS Press|isbn=9781607500063|language=en}}</ref> [[Symbolic interactionism|Systems of meanings]] which are developed within these communities allow religious interpretations to justify violence, so acts like terrorism occur because people are part of communities of violence.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lpb1mbaHjGQC|title=Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence|last=Juergensmeyer|first=Mark|date=2003|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520240117|language=en}}</ref> In this way, religious violence and terrorism are performances which are designed to inspire an emotional reaction from both those in the community and those outside of it.

===Sectarian violence===
{{Excerpt|Sectarian violence|paragraphs=1|only=paragraphs}}

==Challenges to the view that religions are violent ==
{{See also|Pacifism and religion|Religion and peacebuilding|Religions for Peace|Christian pacifism|Peace in Islamic philosophy|Pacifism in Islam}}
===Behavioral studies===

Decades of research conducted by [[Anthropology|anthropologists]], [[Sociology|sociologists]], and [[Psychology|psychologists]] have established that "religious congruence", the assumption that religious beliefs and values are tightly integrated in an individual's mind or that religious practices and behaviors follow directly from religious beliefs or that religious beliefs are chronologically linear and stable across different contexts, is actually rare, despite being commonly assumed. People's religious ideas are fragmented, loosely connected, and context-dependent, as in all other domains of culture and in life. The beliefs, affiliations, and behaviors of an individual are complex activities that have many sources, including culture.<ref name="chaves" />

===Myth of religious violence===

According to historian Andrew Holt's review of estimates of causes of wars, historians have not embraced narratives that religion has caused frequent conflict or war since historically, religion was not a common source for war or conflict.<ref name="Holt2022">{{cite book |last1=Holt |first1=Andrew |editor1-last=Hosler |editor1-first=John |title=Seven Myths of Military History |date=2022 |publisher=Hackett Publishing Company, Inc |isbn=1647920434 |chapter=War and the Divine: Is Religion the Cause of Most Wars?}}</ref>

[[American Catholic]] [[theologian]] [[William T. Cavanaugh]] has argued in his book ''The Myth of Religious Violence'' that "attempts to separate religious and secular violence are incoherent". He asserts that "the idea that religion has a tendency to promote violence is part of the conventional wisdom of Western societies and it underlies many of our institutions and policies, from limits on the public role of churches to efforts to promote [[liberal democracy]] in the [[Middle East]]". Cavanaugh challenges this conventional wisdom, arguing that there is a "myth of religious violence", by asserting that:<ref name="Cavanaugh myth2">{{cite book |last=Cavanaugh |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NBXnj1W2ShwC |title=The Myth of Religious Violence |publisher=Oxford University Press US |year=2009 |isbn=9780199736645 |page=4}}</ref>

* Religion is not a universal and [[transhistorical]] phenomenon. What counts as "religious" or "secular" in some context is a function of configurations of power both in the West and in lands colonized by the West. The distinctions of "Religious/Secular" and "Religious/Political" are modern Western inventions.
* The invention of the concept of "religious violence" helps the West reinforce superiority of Western social orders to "nonsecular" social orders, namely Muslims at the time of publication.
* The concept of "religious violence" can be and is used to legitimate violence against non-Western "Others".
* Peace depends on a balanced view of violence and recognition that so-called secular ideologies and institutions can be just as prone to absolutism, divisiveness, and irrationality.

Historian and [[religious studies]] scholar [[Jeffrey Burton Russell]] generally concurs with Cavanaugh in his book ''Exposing Myths about Christianity'', arguing that numerous cases of supposed religious violence, such as the [[Thirty Years War]], the [[French Wars of Religion]], the [[The Troubles|Protestant-Catholic conflict in Ireland]], the [[Sri Lankan civil war|Sri Lankan Civil War]], and the [[Rwandan Civil War]], were all primarily motivated by social, political, and economic issues rather than religion.<ref name="Jeffrey Russell">{{cite book|last1=Russell|first1=Jeffrey Burton|title=Exposing Myths about Christianity|url=https://archive.org/details/exposingmythsabo0000russ|url-access=registration|date=2012|publisher=IVP Books|location=Downers Grove, Ill.|isbn=9780830834662|pages=[https://archive.org/details/exposingmythsabo0000russ/page/56 56]}}</ref>

Religious studies scholars [[John Morreall]] and [[Tamara Sonn]] have extended Russell's claims by arguing that all cases of violence and war include social, political, and economic dimensions. They posit that since there is no consensus on definitions of "religion" among scholars and since there is no way to isolate "religion" from the rest of the more likely motivational dimensions, it is incorrect to label any violent event as "religious". Since dozens of examples exist from the [[European wars of religion]] that show that people from the same religions fought each other and that people from different religions became allies during these conflicts, the motivations for these conflicts were not about religion, they claim.<ref name="50 great">{{cite book |last1=Morreall |first1=John |title=50 Great Myths of Religion |last2=Sonn |first2=Tamara |date=2013 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=9780470673508 |pages=39–44 |chapter=Myth 8. Religion Causes Violence}}</ref> Russell adds that the fact that these wars of religion ended after rulers agreed to practice their religions in their own territories means that the conflicts were more related to political control than people's religious views.<ref name="Jeffrey Russell" />

[[Robert Pape]], a [[Political science|political scientist]] who specializes in [[suicide terrorism]], has made this case for modern suicide attacks, which are often labeled as "religious" by media outlets.<ref name="Dying to Win">{{cite book |last=Pape |first=Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/dyingtowinstrate00pape |title=Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism |publisher=Random House |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8129-7338-9 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Pape compiled the first complete database of every documented suicide bombing from 1980–2003. He argues that news reports about suicide attacks are profoundly misleading, arguing, "There is little connection between suicide terrorism and [[Islamic fundamentalism]], or any one of the world's religions". After studying 315 suicide attacks carried out over the last two decades, he concludes that suicide bombers' actions stem fundamentally from political conflict, not religious beliefs.<ref name="Dying to Win" />

Anthropologist Scott Atran conducted extensive interviews on suicide terrorism with terrorists from Al Qaeda, Hamas, Taliban, and others to see why some are willing to die and kill for and he noted that they do not die for a cause, they die for their communities, family, friends; all for the hope of a better future for their communities.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Atran |first1=Scott |title=Talking to the Enemy: Faith, Brotherhood, and the (Un)Making of Terrorists |date=2011 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=London |isbn=9780241951767 |pages=xi-xiii}}</ref> 

Author [[Karen Armstrong]], of [[Irish Catholics|Irish Catholic]] descent, echoes these sentiments by arguing that so-called religious conflicts such as [[the Crusades]], the [[Spanish Inquisition]], and the European wars of religion were all deeply political conflicts at their cores rather than religious ones, especially since people from different faiths became allies and fought against each other in no consistent fashion. She claims that the Western concept of the [[separation of church and state]], first advocated by [[Reformation|Reformer]] [[Martin Luther]], laid a foundation for viewing religion and society as divided, when in reality, religion and society were intermixed to the point that no one made such a distinction, nor was there a defining cut between such experiences in the past. She argues the during the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], religion began to be seen as individualistic and private, despite the fact that modern secular ideals like the [[Social equality|equality of all human beings]] and [[Freedom of thought|intellectual]] and [[political liberty]] were historically promoted in religious idioms of the past.<ref name="Armstrong Myth">{{cite web|last1=Armstrong|first1=Karen|title=The Myth of Religious Violence|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/25/-sp-karen-armstrong-religious-violence-myth-secular|work=The Guardian|date=24 September 2014}}</ref>

Anthropologist Jack David Eller has also asserted that religion is not inherently violent, arguing that "religion and violence are clearly compatible, but they are not identical"; that "violence is neither essential to nor exclusive to religion"; and that "virtually every form of religious violence has its nonreligious corollary".<ref name="CruelCreeds1">{{cite book|last=Eller|first=Jack David|title=Cruel Creeds, Virtuous Violence: Religious Violence Across Culture and History|year=2010|publisher=Prometheus Books|isbn=978-1-61614-218-6 |quote=As we have insisted previously, religion is not inherently and irredeemably violent; it certainly is not the essence and source of all violence.}}</ref><ref name="CruelCreeds2">{{cite book|last=Eller|first=Jack David|title=Cruel Creeds, Virtuous Violence: Religious Violence Across Culture and History|year=2010|publisher=Prometheus Books|isbn=978-1-61614-218-6 |quote=Religion and violence are clearly compatible, but they are not identical. Violence is one phenomenon in human (and natural existence), religion is another, and it is inevitable that the two would become intertwined. Religion is complex and modular, and violence is one of the modules—not universal, but recurring. As a conceptual and behavioral module, violence is by no means exclusive to religion. There are plenty of other groups, institutions, interests, and ideologies to promote violence. Violence is, therefore, neither essential to nor exclusive to religion. Nor is religious violence all alike... And virtually every form of religious violence has its nonreligious corollary.}}</ref> Moreover, he argues that religion "may be more a marker of the [conflicting] groups than an actual point of contention between them".<ref name="Anthropology of Religion">{{cite book|last=Eller|first=Jack David|title=Introducing Anthropology of Religion|year=2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-40896-7|quote=When a pure or hybrid religious group and/or its interests are threatened, or merely blocked from achieving its interests by another group, conflict and violence may ensue. In such cases, although religion is part of the issue and religious groups form the competitors, or combatants, it would be simplistic or wrong to assume the religion is the "cause" of the trouble or that the parties are "fighting about religion". Religion in the circumstances may be more a marker of the groups than an actual point of contention between them.}}</ref>

On the other hand, historians such as [[Jonathan Kirsch]] have likened religious persecutions like the [[Inquisition|European inquisitions]] to persecutions in [[Stalin's Soviet Union]] and [[Nazi Germany]], [[McCarthy Blacklist|McCarthy blacklists]], and other secular events.<ref name="Grand Inquisitor's Manual">{{cite book |last=Kirsch |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780061732768 |title=The Grand Inquisitor's Manual: A History of Terror in the Name of God |publisher=HarperOne |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-06-173276-8}}</ref>

John Teehan, scholar of the [[Philosophy of religion|philosophy]] and [[cognitive science of religion]], takes a position that integrates the two sides of this debate. He describes the traditional response in defense of religion as "draw[ing] a distinction between the religion and what is done in the name of that religion or its faithful". Teehan argues, "this approach to religious violence may be understandable but it is ultimately untenable and prevents us from gaining any useful insight into either religion or religious violence". He takes the position that "violence done in the name of religion is not a perversion of religious belief ... but flows naturally from the moral logic inherent in many religious systems, particularly monotheistic religions ...". However, Teehan acknowledges that "religions are also powerful sources of morality". He asserts, "religious morality and religious violence both spring from the same source, and this is the [[evolutionary psychology]] underlying [[religious ethics]]".<ref name="Teehan">{{cite book |last=Teehan |first=John |title=In the Name of God: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Ethics and Violence |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |year=2010 |isbn=9781444320701 |pages=145–147}}</ref>

===Secularism as a response to religious violence===

Byron Bland, scholar of conflict and peacemaking, asserts that one of the most prominent reasons for the "rise of the secular in Western thought" was the reaction against the religious violence of the 16th and 17th centuries. He asserts, "The secular was a way of living with the religious differences that had produced so much horror. Under [[secularity]], political entities have a warrant to make decisions independent from the need to enforce particular versions of religious orthodoxy. Indeed, they may run counter to certain strongly held beliefs if made in the interest of common welfare. Thus, one of the important goals of the secular is to limit violence".<ref>{{cite web|first=Byron |last=Bland |title=Evil Enemies: The Convergence of Religion and Politics |url=http://www.law.stanford.edu/program/centers/scicn/papers/religion_and_political_violence.pdf |date=May 2003 |page=4 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101202011617/http://www.law.stanford.edu/program/centers/scicn/papers/religion_and_political_violence.pdf |archive-date=2 December 2010 }}</ref> Theologian [[William T. Cavanaugh]] writes that what he calls, "the myth of religious violence", as a reason for the rise of secular states may be traced to earlier philosophers, such as [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]], [[Thomas Hobbes|Hobbes]], [[John Locke|Locke]], [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]], and [[Voltaire]].<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/426150|title=The Myth of Religious Violence: An Interview with William Cavanaugh|first=Donald A.|last=Yerxa|date=9 April 2011|journal=Historically Speaking|volume=12|issue=2|pages=10–11|via=Project MUSE|doi=10.1353/hsp.2011.0015|s2cid=162329393|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Cavanaugh delivers a detailed critique of this idea in his 2009 book ''The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict''.

===Secular violence===
{{See also|Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution|Anti-clericalism in Mexico|State atheism|Soviet anti-religious legislation|Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union|Persecution of Christians in the Eastern Bloc|Antireligious campaigns in China|Persecution of Christians in North Korea}}

[[Gender studies|Gender and sexuality scholar]] [[Janet Jakobsen]] writes, "just as religion and secularism are relationally defined terms{{Em dash}}terms that depend on each other{{Em dash}}so also the legitimization of violence through either religious or secular discourse is also relational".<ref name="Janet">{{cite book |last1=Jakobsen |first1=Janet |editor1-last=Murphy |editor1-first=Andrew |title=The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=9781405191319 |page=125 |chapter=Gender in the Production of Religious and Secular Violence|date=16 May 2011 }}</ref> She argues that the idea that "religion kills" is used to legitimate secular violence, and that, similarly, the idea that "secularism kills" is used to legitimate religious violence.<ref name="Janet" /> According to John Carlson, critics who are skeptical of "religious violence" contend that excessive attention is often paid to acts of religious violence compared to acts of secular violence, and that this leads to a false essentializing of both religion as being prone to violence and the secular as being prone to peace.<ref name= "Carlson">{{cite book |last1=Carlson |first1=John |editor1-last=Murphy |editor1-first=Andrew |title=The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence |date=2011 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-1405191319 |page=12 |chapter=1. Religion and Violence: Coming to Terms with Terms}}</ref> According to Janet Jakobsen, secularism and modern secular states are much more violent than religion, and modern secular states in particular are usually the source of most of the world's violence.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jakobsen |first1=Janet |editor1-last=Jakobsen |editor1-first=Janet |editor2-last=Castelli |editor2-first=Elizabeth |title=Interventions: Activists and Academics Respond to Violence |url=https://archive.org/details/interventionsact00eliz |url-access=limited |date=2004 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1403965820 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/interventionsact00eliz/page/53 53], 63 |chapter=7. Is Secularism Less Violent Than Religion?}}</ref> Carlson states that by focusing on the destructive capacity of government, Jakobsen "essentializes another category — the secular state — even as she criticizes secular governments that essentialize religion's violent propensities".<ref name= "Carlson"/> Tanner states that secular regimes and leaders have used violence to promote their own agendas.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Harmful Secular Ideologies |author=Ralph E.S. Tanner |publisher=Ames Tribune |year=2011 |url=http://www.amestrib.com/articles/2011/10/22/ames_tribune/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/doc4ea360b6b6d0d644335789.txt |access-date=18 November 2011 |archive-date=6 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171206173623/http://www.amestrib.com/articles/2011/10/22/ames_tribune/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/doc4ea360b6b6d0d644335789.txt |url-status=dead }}</ref> Violence committed by secular governments and people, including the anti-religious, have been documented including violence or persecutions focused on religious believers and those who believe in the supernatural in multiple regions<ref name="Death By Government">{{cite book|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph J.|title=Death By Government|year=1994|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-1-56000-927-6}}</ref><ref name="Statistics of Democide">{{cite book|last=Rummel|first=Rudolph J.|title=Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder since 1900|year=1997|publisher=Lit Verlag|isbn=978-3-8258-4010-5}}</ref> notably such as in the Soviet Union,<ref name="Plot to Kill God">{{cite book|last=Froese|first=Paul|title=The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experiment in Secularization|year=2008|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25529-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Gabel|first=Paul|title=And God Created Lenin: Marxism Vs. Religion in Russia, 1917–1929|year=2005|publisher=Prometheus Books|isbn=978-1-59102-306-7}}</ref><ref name="Storming the Heavens">{{cite book|last=Peris|first=Daniel|title=Storming the Heavens: The Soviet League of the Militant Godless|year=1998|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-3485-3|url=https://archive.org/details/stormingheavenss00peri_0}}</ref> Cambodia,<ref name="The Pol Pot Regime">{{cite book|last=Kiernan|first=Ben|title=The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79|year=2008|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-14434-5}}</ref> China,<ref name="Mao's China and After">{{cite book|author-link=Maurice Meisner|last=Meisner|first=Maurice|title=Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic|year=1999|publisher=Free Press|isbn=978-0-684-85635-3}}</ref>and Mexico.<ref name="Idolatry and Iconoclasm">{{cite journal|last=Bantjes|first=Adrian|title=Idolatry and Iconoclasm in Revolutionary Mexico: The De-Christianization. Campaigns, 1929–1940|journal=Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos|year=1997|volume=13|issue=1|pages=87–121|doi=10.2307/1051867|jstor=1051867}}</ref> In the 20th century, estimates state that over 25 million Christians died from secular antireligious violence worldwide.<ref name="Nelson2009">{{cite book|last=Nelson|first=James M.|title=Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LBv_K9Q0Z6gC&pg=PA427|access-date=19 December 2012|date=27 February 2009|publisher=Springer|isbn=9780387875729|page=427}}</ref> Historian Andrew Holt estimates that 67 million to 100 million deaths from secular ideologies occurred in the 20th century alone and that such ideologies did not result in a decrease in violence.<ref name="Holt2022" />

Religions have been persecuted more in the past 100 years than at any other time in history.<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Brien |first1=Joanne |last2=Palmer |first2=Martin |title=The Atlas of Religion |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520249172 |page=[https://archive.org/details/atlasofreligion00joan/page/63 63] |quote=However, the violence has not only been from the religious side. In the last 100 years, the major religions have been more heavily persecuted than at any other time in history. And most of this has not been religion persecuting religion. It has been ideologies persecuting religion. This ranges from the Mexican socialist revolution in 1924 attacking the power, land holdings and ultimately the clergy and buildings of the Catholic Church, through the attacks on all faiths in the Soviet Union, the Holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis, the massive onslaught of the Chinese Cultural Revolution against all faiths in the 1960s and the assaults on the Baha'is in Iran from the 1970s onwards. |url=https://archive.org/details/atlasofreligion00joan/page/63 |year=2007 }}</ref> According to Geoffrey Blainey, atrocities have occurred under all ideologies, including in nations which were strongly secular such as the Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Geoffrey |first=Blainey |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1125110569 |title=A Short History of Christianity : Essentials of the Christian life |year=2016 |publisher=SPCK |isbn=978-0-281-07620-8 |oclc=1125110569 |page=543}}</ref> Talal Asad, an anthropologist, states that equating [[organized religion|institutional religion]] with violence and fanaticism is incorrect and that devastating cruelties and atrocities done by non-religious institutions in the 20th century should not be overlooked. He also states that nationalism has been argued as being a secularized religion.<ref>{{cite book|last=Asad|first=Talal|title=Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity|url=https://archive.org/details/formationssecula00asad|url-access=limited|year=2003|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0804747684|pages=[https://archive.org/details/formationssecula00asad/page/n106 100], 187–190|edition=10. printing.}}</ref>

==By religion==
===Abrahamic religions===
[[Hector Avalos]] argues that, because religions claim to have divine favor for themselves, both over and against other groups, this sense of self-righteousness leads to violence because conflicting claims of superiority, based on unverifiable appeals to God, cannot be objectively adjudicated.<ref name=FightingWords />

Similarly, Eric Hickey writes, "the history of religious violence in the West is as long as the historical record of its three major religions, [[Judaism]], [[Christianity]], and [[Islam]], with their mutual antagonisms and their struggles to adapt and survive despite the secular forces that threaten their continued existence."<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime |first=Eric W. |last=Hickey |publisher=SAGE |year=2003 |page=217 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dDOW75aJMR8C&q=Judaism+Christianity+Islam+%22religious+violence%22&pg=PA217 |isbn=978-0-7619-2437-1}}</ref>

[[Regina Schwartz]] argues that all [[Monotheism|monotheistic religions]], including [[Christianity]], are inherently violent because of their exclusivism which inevitably fosters violence against those who are considered outsiders.<ref name=ReginaSchwartz /> Lawrence Wechsler asserts that Schwartz is not just arguing that [[Abrahamic religions]] have a violent legacy, instead, she is arguing that their legacy is actually [[Genocide|genocidal]] in nature.<ref>{{cite web|last=Wechsler|first=Lawrence|title=Mayhem and Monotheism|url=http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/2490/PDF/mayhem.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720030355/http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/2490/PDF/mayhem.pdf|archive-date=20 July 2011}}</ref>

===Christianity===
{{main|Christianity and violence}}
{{See also|History of Christian thought on persecution and tolerance|Sectarian violence among Christians|Crusades|Inquisition|Christian terrorism}}
[[File:La masacre de San Bartolomé, por François Dubois.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|The [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre]] of French Protestants in 1572]]
[[File:IBelieveintheSwordandAlmightyGod.jpg|thumb|''I Believe in the Sword and Almighty God'' (1914) by [[Boardman Robinson]]]]

Before the 11th century, Christians had not developed the doctrine of "[[Just war theory|Holy war]]", the belief that fighting itself might be considered a penitential and spiritually meritorious act.<ref name="Peters First">{{cite book|last1=Peters|first1=Edward|title=The First Crusade: The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Materials|date=1998|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia, PA|isbn=978-0812216561|edition=2|chapter=Introduction}}</ref><ref name="Duffey Christianity" /> Throughout the [[Middle Ages]], force could not be used to propagate religion.<ref name="James Just War">{{cite book|last1=Johnson|first1=James|editor1-last=Murphy|editor1-first=Andrew R.|title=The Blackwell Companion to Religion and Violence|date=2011|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=978-1405191319|chapter=21. Just War and Jihad of the Sword}}</ref> For the first three centuries of Christianity, the Church taught the pacifism of Jesus and notable church fathers such as [[Justin Martyr]], [[Tertullian]], [[Origen]], and [[Cyprian|Cyprian of Carthage]] even went as far as arguing against joining the military or using any form of violence against aggressors.<ref name="Duffey Christianity">{{cite book|last1=Duffey|first1=Michael|editor1-last=Omar|editor1-first=Irfan|editor2-last=Duffey|editor2-first=Michael|title=Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=9781118953426|chapter=2. Christianity: From Peacemaking to Violence to Home Again|date=22 June 2015}}</ref> In the 4th century, [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]] developed a "Just War" concept, whereby limited uses of war would be considered acceptable in order to preserve the peace and retain orthodoxy if it was waged: for defensive purposes, ordered by an authority, had honorable intentions, and produced minimal harm. However, the criteria he used was already developed by Roman thinkers in the past and "Augustine's perspective was not based on the [[New Testament]]."<ref name="Duffey Christianity" /> St. Augustine's "Just War" concept was widely accepted, however, warfare was not regarded as virtuous in any way.<ref name="Peters First" /> Expression of concern for the salvation of those who killed enemies in battle, regardless of the cause for which they fought, was common.<ref name="Peters First" /> In the [[Middle Ages|medieval period]] which began after the [[Fall of the Western Roman Empire|fall of Rome]], there were increases in the level of violence due to political instability. By the 11th century, the Church condemned this violence and warring by introducing: the "Peace of God" which prohibited attacks on clergy, pilgrims, townspeople, peasants and property; the "Truce of God" which banned warfare on [[Sunday]]s, [[Friday]]s, [[Lent]], and [[Easter]]; and it imposed heavy penances on soldiers for killing and injuring others because it believed that the shedding of other people's blood was the same as shedding the blood of Christ.<ref name="Duffey Christianity" />
         
During the 9th and 10th centuries, multiple invasions occurred in some regions in Europe and these invasions lead them to form their own armies in order to defend themselves and by the 11th century, this slowly lead to the emergence of the Crusades, the concept of "holy war", and terminology such as "enemies of God".<ref name="Peters First" /> By the time of the Crusades, "Despite all the violence during this period, the majority of Christians were not active participants but were more often its victims" and groups which used nonviolent means to peacefully dialogue with Muslims were established, like the [[Franciscans]].<ref name="Duffey Christianity" />

Today, the relationship between [[Christianity and violence]] is the subject of controversy because one view advocates the belief that Christianity advocates peace, love and compassion despite the fact that in certain instances, its adherents have also resorted to violence.<ref name=ReginaSchwartz/><ref name=FightingWords>{{cite book |title=Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence |first=Hector |last=Avalos |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Amherst, New York |year=2005}}</ref><ref name=VolfChristianityAndViolence>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CKaCWCDIKWsC&q=%22Christianity+and+violence%22+-inpublisher%3Aicon&pg=PA1|chapter=Christianity and Violence|first=Miroslav|last=Volf|author-link=Miroslav Volf|title=War in the Bible and terrorism in the twenty-first century |editor1-first=Richard S.|editor1-last=Hess|editor2-first=E.A.|editor2-last=Martens|publisher=Eisenbrauns|year=2008|isbn=978-1-57506-803-9|pages=1&ndash;17|access-date=1 June 2010}}</ref> Peace, compassion and forgiveness of wrongs done by others are key elements of Christian teaching. However, Christians have struggled since the days of the [[Church Fathers]] with the question of when the use of force is justified (e.g. the [[Just war theory]] of Saint Augustine). Such debates have led to concepts such as just war theory. Throughout history, certain teachings from the [[Old Testament]], the [[New Testament]] and [[Christian theology]] have been used to justify the use of force against [[heretics]], [[sinners]] and external enemies. Heitman and Hagan identify the [[Inquisitions]], [[Crusades]], wars of religion, and [[antisemitism]] as being "among the most notorious examples of Christian violence".<ref>{{cite book |title=International Encyclopedia of Violence Research, Volume 2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sMNbcU7UnywC&q=Christianity+antisemitism+%22violent+religion%22&pg=PA323|publisher=Springer|year=2003|isbn=9781402014666}}</ref> To this list, [[Mennonite]] theologian J. Denny Weaver adds "warrior popes, support of [[capital punishment]], [[corporal punishment]] under the guise of 'spare the rod spoil the child,' [[Christianity and slavery|justifications of slavery]], world-wide [[colonialism]] under the guise of converting people to Christianity, the [[Christianity and domestic violence|systemic violence against women]] who are [[Biblical patriarchy|subjected to the rule of men]]."{{Synthesis inline|date=May 2011}} Weaver employs a broader definition of violence that extends the meaning of the word to cover "harm or damage", not just physical violence per se. Thus, under his definition, Christian violence includes "forms of systemic violence such as [[poverty]], [[racism]], and [[sexism]]".<ref name=Weaver>{{Cite web|url=http://www.crosscurrents.org/weaver0701.htm#TEXT1|title=Violence in Christian Theology|access-date=27 October 2010|publisher=Cross Currents|year=2001|author=J. Denny Weaver|quote=I am using broad definitions of the terms "violence" and "nonviolence". "Violence" means harm or damage, which obviously includes the direct violence of killing -- in [[war]], [[capital punishment]], [[murder]] --but it also covers the range of forms of systemic violence such as [[poverty]], [[racism]], and [[sexism]]. "Nonviolence" also covers a spectrum of attitudes and actions, from the classic [[Mennonites|Mennonite]] idea of passive nonresistance through active nonviolence and nonviolent resistance that would include various kinds of social action, confrontations and the posing of alternatives that do not cause bodily harm or injury.|archive-date=25 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525160546/http://www.crosscurrents.org/weaver0701.htm#TEXT1|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Christian theologians point to a strong [[doctrinal]] and historical imperative against violence that exists within Christianity, particularly [[Jesus]]' [[Sermon on the Mount]], which taught nonviolence and "love of enemies". For example, Weaver asserts that Jesus' pacifism was "preserved in the justifiable war doctrine which declares that all war is sin even when it is occasionally declared to be a necessary evil, and in the prohibition of fighting by monastics and clergy as well as in a persistent tradition of [[Christian pacifism]]".<ref name=Weaver2>{{Cite web|url=http://www.crosscurrents.org/weaver0701.htm#TEXT1|title=Violence in Christian Theology|access-date=27 October 2010|publisher=Cross Currents|year=2001|author=J. Denny Weaver|archive-date=25 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525160546/http://www.crosscurrents.org/weaver0701.htm#TEXT1|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Josef Mathauser - Bitva u Domažlic.jpg|thumb|left|230px|Between 1420 and 1431 the [[Hussites|Hussite]] heretics fended off 5 anti-Hussite [[Hussite Wars|Crusades]] ordered by the Pope.]]
Many authors highlight the ironical contradiction between Christianity's claims to be centered on "love and peace" while, at the same time, harboring a "violent side". For example, [[Mark Juergensmeyer]] argues: "that despite its central tenets of love and peace, Christianity&mdash;like most traditions&mdash;has always had a violent side. The bloody history of the tradition has provided images as disturbing as those provided by [[Islam]], and violent conflict is vividly portrayed in the Bible. This history and these biblical images have provided the raw material for theologically justifying the violence of contemporary Christian groups. For example, [[Anti-abortion violence|attacks on abortion clinics]] have been viewed not only as assaults on a practice that Christians regard as immoral, but also as skirmishes in a grand confrontation between forces of evil and good that has social and political implications.",<ref name="mind">{{Cite book|title=Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence|author=Mark Juergensmeyer|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24011-7|year=2004}}</ref>{{Rp|19–20}} sometimes referred to as [[spiritual warfare]]. The statement attributed to Jesus "I come not to bring peace, [[but to bring a sword]]" has been interpreted by some as a call to arms to Christians.<ref name="mind"/>

[[Maurice Bloch]] also argues that the Christian faith fosters violence because the Christian faith is a religion, and religions are violent by their very nature; moreover, he argues that religion and politics are two sides of the same coin&mdash;power.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bloch |first=Maurice|year=1992 |title=Prey into Hunter: The Politics of Religious Experience. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge}}</ref> Others have argued that religion and the exercise of force are deeply intertwined, but they have also stated that religion may pacify, as well as channel and heighten violent impulses.<ref>{{Cite book
| isbn = 978-1-4094-6553-9
|last=McKinnon|first=Andrew|chapter=Religion and the Civilizing Process: The Pax Dei Movement and the Christianization of Violence in the Process of Feudalization
| title=Sociological Theory and the Question of Religion | editor1=Andrew McKinnon
| editor2= Marta Trzebiatowska
|publisher=Ashgate 
|year=2014
| series= Theology and Religion in Interdisciplinary Perspective Series in Association with the BSA Sociology of Religion Study Group
}}</ref>

[[File:ForwardwithGod.jpg|thumb|right|''Forward with God!'' (1915) by [[Boardman Robinson]]]]
In response to the view that Christianity and violence are intertwined, Miroslav Volf and J. Denny Weaver reject charges that Christianity is a violent religion, arguing that certain aspects of Christianity might be misused to support violence but that a genuine interpretation of its core elements would not sanction human violence but would instead resist it. Among the examples that are commonly used to argue that Christianity is a violent religion, J. Denny Weaver lists "(the) [[Crusades]], the multiple blessings of wars, warrior popes, support of capital punishment, corporal punishment under the guise of 'spare the rod and spoil the child,' justifications of slavery, world-wide colonialism in the name of converting people to Christianity, the systemic violence against women who are subjected to the rule of men." Weaver characterizes the counter-argument as focusing on "Jesus, the beginning point of Christian faith,... whose Sermon on the Mount taught nonviolence and love of enemies; who nonviolently faced his death at the hands of his accusers; whose nonviolent teaching inspired the first centuries of pacifist Christian history and was subsequently preserved in the [[Just war theory|justifiable war doctrine]] that declares that all war is sin even when it is occasionally declared to be a necessary evil, and in the prohibition of fighting by monastics and clergy as well as in a persistent tradition of [[Christian pacifism]]."<ref name=Weaver />

[[Miroslav Volf]] acknowledges the fact that "many contemporaries see religion as a pernicious social ill that needs aggressive treatment rather than medicine from which a cure is expected." However, Volf contests the claim that "(the) Christian faith, as one of the major world religions, predominantly fosters violence." Instead of this negative assessment, Volf argues that Christianity "should be seen as a contributor to more peaceful social environments."<ref name=BoardmanLecture>{{cite web |url=http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=boardman|title=Christianity and Violence |first=Miroslav |last=Volf |year=2002 |access-date=27 October 2010}}</ref> Volf examines the question of whether or not Christianity fosters violence, and he has identified four main arguments which claim that it does: that religion by its nature is violent, which occurs when people try to act as "soldiers of God"; that monotheism entails violence, because a claim of universal truth divides people into "us versus them"; that creation, as in the [[Book of Genesis]], is an act of violence; and the argument that the intervention of a "new creation", as in the [[Second Coming of Christ|Second Coming]], generates violence.<ref name=VolfChristianityAndViolence /> Writing about the latter, Volf says: "Beginning at least with Constantine's conversion, the followers of the Crucified have perpetrated gruesome acts of violence under the sign of the cross. Over the centuries, the seasons of [[Lent]] and [[Holy Week]] were, for the [[Jews]], times of fear and trepidation; Christians have perpetrated some of the worst [[pogrom]]s as they remembered the [[Crucifixion of Jesus|crucifixion of Christ]], for which they [[Jewish deicide|blamed the Jews]]. [[Muslim]]s also associate the cross with violence; crusaders' rampages were undertaken under the sign of the cross."<ref name="Volf 2008 13">{{Harvnb|Volf|2008|p=13}}</ref> In each case, Volf concluded that the Christian faith was misused in order to justify violence. Volf argues that "thin" readings of Christianity might be used mischievously to support the use of violence. He counters, however, by asserting that "thick" readings of Christianity's core elements will not sanction human violence, instead, they will resist it.<ref name=VolfChristianityAndViolence2>{{cite web|first=Miroslav |last=Volf |url=http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=boardman |title=Christianity and violence|date=12 March 2002|access-date=13 November 2010}}</ref>

Volf asserts that Christian churches suffer from a "confusion of loyalties". He asserts that "rather than the character of the Christian faith itself, a better explanation as to why Christian churches are either impotent in the face of violent conflicts or are active participants in them is derived from the proclivities of its adherents which are at odds with the character of the Christian faith." Volf observes that "(although) they are explicitly giving ultimate allegiance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, many Christians in fact seem to have an overriding commitment to their respective cultures and ethnic groups."<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Social Meaning of Reconciliation |journal=Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe |volume=18 |issue=3 |first=Miroslav |last=Volf|url=http://www.georgefox.edu/academics/undergrad/departments/soc-swk/ree/Volf_The%20Social_June%201998.pdf |access-date=17 November 2010|date=June 1998 }}</ref>

====The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints====
{{Main|Mormonism and violence}}
{{Further|Blood atonement}}

[[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] has an early history of violence. It was motivated by [[Anti-Mormonism]] and began with the religious persecution of the [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|Church]] by well respected citizens, law enforcement, and government officials. Ultimately, this persecution lead to several historically well-known acts of violence. These ranged from attacks on early members, such as the [[Haun's Mill massacre]] following the [[Missouri Executive Order 44|Mormon Extermination Order]] to one of the most controversial and well-known cases of retaliation violence, the [[Mountain Meadows massacre]]. This was the result of an unprovoked response to religious persecution whereby an innocent party which was traveling through Church occupied territory was attacked on 11 September 1857.

===Islam===
{{Main|Islam and violence}}
[[File:HamidianSassounmassacres.jpg|thumb|Sketch by an eye-witness of the [[Hamidian massacres|massacre of Armenians]] in Sasun in 1894]]

[[Islam]] has been associated with violence in a variety of contexts, including in the context of [[Apostasy in Islam#Punishment|punishment of apostasy in Islam]], [[sectarian violence among Muslims]], [[Jihadism]] and [[Islamic terrorism]]. In [[Arabic language|Arabic]], the word ''jihād'' translates into English as "struggle". [[Jihad]] appears in the Qur'an and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of [[Allah]] ''(al-jihad fi sabil Allah)''".<ref name="Merriam">{{cite encyclopedia | editor=[[Wendy Doniger]] | encyclopedia=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions | publisher=[[Merriam-Webster]] | year=1999 | isbn=978-0-87779-044-0 | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780877790440 | title=Merriam-Webster's encyclopedia of world religions; Wendy Doniger, consulting editor }},''Jihad'', p. 571</ref><ref name="MIC">{{cite encyclopedia | editor=[[Josef W. Meri]] | encyclopedia=Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Routledge]] | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-415-96690-0}}, ''Jihad'', p. 419</ref> The context of the word can be seen in its usage in Arabic translations of the New Testament such as in 2 Timothy 4:7 where St. Paul expresses keeping the faith after many struggles.<ref name="Omar Islam" /> A person engaged in jihad is called a ''[[mujahid]]''; the plural is [[mujahideen]]. Jihad is an important religious duty for Muslims. A minority among the [[Sunni Islam|Sunni scholars]] sometimes refer to this duty as the sixth [[Five Pillars of Islam|pillar of Islam]], though it occupies no such official status.<ref name="jih">{{Cite book |last=Esposito |first=John L. |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/935514239 |title=Islam : the straight path |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-19-063215-1 |oclc=935514239 |page=93|publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> In [[Twelver]] [[Shi'a Islam]], however, Jihad is one of the ten [[Practices of the Religion]].
For some the Quran seem to endorse unequivocally to violence.<ref name="Who Are the Moderate Muslims">{{Cite web|date=2006-02-17
| first= Sam | last= Harris
|title=Who Are the Moderate Muslims?|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/who-are-the-moderate-musl_b_15841|access-date=2023-01-02|website=HuffPost|language=en}}</ref> On the other hand, some scholars argue that such verses of the Quran are interpreted out of context.<ref>Sohail H. Hashmi, David Miller, ''Boundaries and Justice: Diverse Ethical Perspectives'', Princeton University Press, p.197</ref><ref>Khaleel Muhammad, professor of religious studies at San Diego State University, states, regarding his discussion with the critic Robert Spencer, that "when I am told ... that Jihad only means war, or that I have to accept interpretations of the Quran that non-Muslims (with no good intentions or knowledge of Islam) seek to force upon me, I see a certain agendum developing: one that is based on hate, and I refuse to be part of such an intellectual crime."{{cite web |url=http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~khaleel/ |title=Khaleel Mohammed- San Diego State University - Religious Studies Department |access-date=13 October 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080708102707/http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~khaleel/ |archive-date=8 July 2008 }}</ref>

According to a study from Gallup, most Muslims understand the word "Jihad" to mean individual struggle, not something violent or militaristic.<ref name="Omar Islam">{{cite book|last1=Omar|first1=Irfan|editor1-last=Omar|editor1-first=Irfan|editor2-last=Duffey|editor2-first=Michael|title=Peacemaking and the Challenge of Violence in World Religions|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=9781118953426|chapter=1. Jihad and Nonviolence in the Islamic Tradition|date=22 June 2015}} {{page needed|date=May 2019}}</ref> Muslims use the word in a religious context to refer to three types of struggles: an internal struggle to maintain faith, the struggle to improve the Muslim society, or the struggle in a holy war.<ref name="bbcislam">{{cite web|title=Jihad|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/beliefs/jihad_1.shtml|publisher=BBC|date=3 August 2009}}</ref> The prominent [[United Kingdom|British]] [[oriental studies|orientalist]] [[Bernard Lewis]] argues that in the Qur'an and the hadith ''jihad'' implies warfare in the large majority of cases.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Political Language of Islam |url=https://archive.org/details/politicallanguag00lewi_680 |url-access=limited |last=Lewis |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Lewis |year=1988 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226476926 |page=[https://archive.org/details/politicallanguag00lewi_680/page/n80 72]}} Cf. {{cite book |last1=Watt |first1=William M. |editor1-first=Thomas P. |editor1-last=Murphy |title=The Holy War |year=1976 |publisher=Ohio State University Press |isbn=978-0814202456 |page=143 |chapter=Islamic Conceptions of the Holy War}}</ref> In a commentary of the hadith [[Sahih Muslim]], entitled al-Minhaj, the [[Islamic Golden Age|medieval Islamic]] scholar [[Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi]] stated that "one of the collective duties of the community as a whole ({{Lang|ar|fard kifaya}}) is to lodge a valid protest, to solve problems of religion, to have knowledge of Divine Law, to command what is right and forbid wrong conduct".<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.sunnah.org/fiqh/jihad_judicial_ruling.htm|title= Jihad—A Misunderstood Concept from Islam|access-date= 16 August 2006|author= Shaykh Hisham Kabbani|author2= Shaykh Seraj Hendricks|author3= Shaykh Ahmad Hendricks|publisher= The Muslim Magazine|archive-date= 17 July 2006|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060717071555/http://www.sunnah.org/fiqh/jihad_judicial_ruling.htm|url-status= dead}}</ref>
[[File:Ambon refugees, 1999.jpg|thumb|230px|Indonesian military forces evacuate refugees from [[Ambon Island|Ambon]] during the [[Maluku sectarian conflict]] in 1999.]]

According to [[Irfan Omar]], Islam has a history of nonviolence and negotiation when dealing with conflicts: for instance, early Muslims experienced 83 conflicts with non-Muslims and only 4 of these ended up in armed conflict.<ref name="Omar Islam" />

==== Terrorism in Islam ====
{{Main|Islamic terrorism}}
In [[western world|western societies]] the term ''[[jihad]]'' is often translated as "holy war".<ref>{{Cite news|date=2010-02-26|title=Libya's Gaddafi urges 'holy war' against Switzerland
| work= BBC|language=en-GB|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8537925.stm|access-date=2023-01-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Jihad in Medieval and Modern Islam |last=Peters |first=Rudolph |year=1977 |publisher=Brill Academic Pub |isbn=978-9004048546 |page=3}}</ref> Scholars of [[Islamic studies]] often stress the fact that these two terms are not synonymous.<ref>{{cite book |title=Medieval Islamic Political Thought |last=Crone |first=Patricia |author-link=Patricia Crone |year=2005 |publisher=Edinburgh University |isbn=978-0748621941 |page=363}}</ref> Muslim authors, in particular, tend to reject such an approach, stressing the non-militant connotations of the word.<ref>{{cite book |title=Jihad and the Islamic Law of War |year=2009 |publisher=The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought |location=Jordan |url=http://rissc.jo/index.php/english-publications.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130818180319/http://rissc.jo/index.php/english-publications.html |archive-date=18 August 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Islam and Colonialism: The Doctrine of Jihad in Modern History |last=Peters |first=Rudolph |author-link=Rudolph Peters |year=1979 |publisher=Mouton Publishers |isbn=978-9027933478 |page=118}}</ref>

Islamic terrorism refers to [[terrorism]] that is engaged in by Muslim groups {{Citation needed|date=May 2015}} or individuals who are motivated by either politics, religion or both. Terrorist acts have included [[airline hijacking]], [[kidnapping]], [[assassination]], [[suicide bombing]], and [[mass murder]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/813.htm |title=Captured Iraqi Terrorist Ramzi Hashem Abed: Zarqawi Participated in the Plot to Assassinate Baqer Al-Hakim. We Bombed Jalal Talabani's Headquarters, the Turkish Embassy, and the Red Cross, Took Drugs, Raped University Students Who "Collaborated with the Americans" |publisher=The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/reports98/afghan/Afrepor0-04.htm#P195_40896 |title=Abductions of and Assaults on Women |work=The Massacre in Mazar-I Sharif |publisher=Human Rights Watch |access-date=30 September 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Algeria to Permit Abortions for Rape Victims |author=Youssef M. Ibrahim |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/14/world/algeria-to-permit-abortions-for-rape-victims.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=14 April 1988 |access-date=30 September 2012}}</ref>

The tension reached a climax on [[11 September 2001]] when Islamic terrorists flew hijacked commercial airplanes into the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] in New York City and [[the Pentagon]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] The "[[War on Terror]]" has triggered [[Islamophobia|anti-Muslim sentiments]] within most [[western world|western]] countries and throughout the rest of the world. [[Al-Qaeda]] is one of the most well-known Islamic extremist groups, created by [[Osama bin Laden|Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden]]. Al-Qaeda's goal is to spread the "purest" form of Islam and [[Sharia|Islamic law]]. Based on his interpretation of the Quran, bin Laden needed to do "good" by inflicting terror upon millions of people. Following the terrorist attacks on 11 September, bin Laden praised the suicide bombers in his [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/binladentext_121301.html statement]: "the great action you did which was first and foremost by the grace of [[Allah]]. This is the guidance of Allah and the blessed fruit of jihad." In contrast, echoing the overwhelming majority of people who interpreted these events, [[George W. Bush|President Bush]] said on 11 September, "Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward. ... And freedom will be defended. Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts."<ref>{{cite web |title=George W. Bush - 9/11 Remarks at Barksdale Air Force Base delivered 11 September, 2001, Barksdale, Louisiana |author=Michael E. Eidenmuller |url=https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gwbush911barksdale.htm |publisher=American Rhetoric |date=14 January 2015 |access-date=19 November 2015}}</ref> 
[[File:Attentat Nyanya VOA2.jpg|thumb|Wounded people following a [[April 2014 Abuja bombing|bomb attack]] by [[Boko Haram]] in Nigeria, in April 2014]]

Controversies surrounding the subject include disagreements over whether terrorist acts are self-defense or aggression, national self-determination or Islamic supremacy; whether Islam can ever condone the targeting of non-combatants; whether some attacks described as Islamic terrorism are merely terrorist acts committed by Muslims or terrorist acts motivated by nationalism; whether [[Wahhabism]] are at the root of Islamic terrorism, or simply one cause of it; how much support for Islamic terrorism exists in the Muslim world<ref>Tony Blair, "Speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council", {{cite web |url=http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page9948.asp |title=Speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council |access-date=12 November 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060815061152/http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page9948.asp |archive-date=15 August 2006 }}</ref> and whether support of terrorism is only a temporary phenomenon, a "bubble", now fading away.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Third Bubble |author=Thomas L. Friedman |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/opinion/the-third-bubble.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=20 April 2003 |access-date=30 September 2012}}</ref>

===Judaism===
{{Main|Judaism and violence|Jewish extremist terrorism|Milkhemet Mitzvah}}

As the religion of the [[Jews]], who are also known as [[Israelites]], [[Judaism]] is based on the [[Torah]] and the [[Tanakh]], which is also referred to as the [[Hebrew Bible]], and it guides its adherents on how to live, die, '''and''' fight via the [[613 commandments]] which are referred to as the 613 [[Mitzvah]]s, the most famous of which are the [[Ten Commandments]], one of which is the commandment [[Thou shalt not kill|You shall not murder]].

The Torah also lists instances and circumstances which require its adherents to go to war and kill their enemies. Such a war is usually referred to as a ''[[Milkhemet Mitzvah]]'', a "compulsory war" which is obligated by the Torah or [[Names of God in Judaism|God]], or a Milkhemet Reshut a "voluntary war".

====Criticism====

Burggraeve and Vervenne describe the [[Old Testament]] as being full of violence and they also cite it as evidence for the existence of both a violent society and a violent god. They write that, "(i)n numerous Old Testament texts the power and glory of Israel's God is described in the language of violence." They assert that more than one thousand passages refer to [[Yahweh]] as acting violently or supporting the violence of humans and they also assert that more than one hundred passages involve divine commands to kill humans.<ref>{{cite book |title=Swords into Plowshares: Theological Reflections on Peace |first1=Roger |last1=Burggraeve|first2=Marc |last2=Vervenne |publisher=Peeters Publishers |year=1991 |pages=82,109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8KvY0W58eYC&q=%22violent+God%22&pg=PA109|isbn=9789068313727}}</ref>

On the basis of these passages in the Old Testament, some Christian churches and theologians argue that [[Judaism]] is a violent religion and the god of Israel is a violent god. Reuven Firestone asserts that these assertions are usually made in the context of claims that Christianity is a religion of peace and the god of Christianity is one who only expresses love.<ref>{{cite book |title=Beyond Violence: Religious Sources of Social Transformation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam |editor=Heft, James |publisher=Fordham University Press|year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rxiINuHNAIUC&q=Judaism+%22violent+religion%22&pg=PT96|isbn=9780823223350 }}</ref>

====Other views====

Some scholars such as Deborah Weissman readily acknowledge the fact that "normative Judaism is not pacifist" and "violence is condoned in the service of self-defense."However, the [[Talmud]] prohibits violence of any kind towards one's neighbour.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Co-existence of Violence and Non-Violence in Judaism|url=http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/interreligious/cd39-07.html |access-date=9 December 2010}}</ref> J. Patout Burns asserts that, although Judaism condones the use of violence in certain cases, Jewish tradition clearly posits the principle of minimization of violence. This principle can be stated as "(wherever) Jewish law allows violence to keep an evil from occurring, it mandates that the minimal amount of violence must be used in order to accomplish one's goal."<ref>{{cite book |title=War and Its Discontents: Pacifism and Quietism in the Abrahamic Traditions |first=J. Patout |last=Burns|publisher=Georgetown University Press |year=1996 |page=18}}</ref>

The love and pursuit of peace, as well as laws which require the eradication of [[evil]], sometimes by the use of violent means, co-exist in the Jewish tradition.<ref name="Broyde">Fighting the War and the Peace: Battlefield Ethics, Peace Talks, Treaties, and Pacifism in the Jewish Tradition. Michael J. Broyde, 1998, p. 1</ref><ref name="Goldsmith Ed. 1991 181">Reuven Firestone (2004), "Judaism on Violence and Reconciliation: An examination of key sources" in ''Beyond Violence: Religious Sources of Social Transformation in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam'', Fordham University Press, 2004, pp. 77, 81.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Dynamic Judaism: The Essential Writings of Mordecai M. Kaplan|first=Emanuel S.|last=Goldsmith (Ed.)
|publisher=Fordham University Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-8232-1310-8|page=181}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Morality, Halakha, and the Jewish Tradition|first=Shubert|last=Spero |publisher=Ktav Publishing House, Inc.|year=1983|isbn=978-0-87068-727-3|pages=137–318}}</ref>

The [[Hebrew Bible]] contains instances of religiously mandated wars<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Holy Land in Transit: Colonialism and the Quest for Canaan|first=Steven George|last=Salaita
|publisher=Syracuse University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-8156-3109-5|page=54}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel|first=Ian|last=Lustick|publisher=Council on Foreign Relations|year=1988|isbn=978-0-87609-036-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/forlandlordjewis0000lust/page/131 131–132]|url=https://archive.org/details/forlandlordjewis0000lust/page/131}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Bible: A Biography|first=Karen
|last=Armstrong|publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-87113-969-6|pages=211–216}}</ref> which often contain explicit instructions from God to the Israelites to exterminate other tribes, as in {{bibleverse|Deuteronomy|7:1–2|}} or {{bibleverse|Deuteronomy|20:16–18|}}. Examples include the story
of the [[Amalekites]] ({{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|25:17–19|HE}}, {{bibleverse|1|Samuel|15:1–6|HE}}),<ref>A. G. Hunter "Denominating Amalek: Racist stereotyping in the Bible and the Justification of Discrimination", in ''Sanctified Aggression: Legacies of Biblical and Post-Biblical Vocabularies of Violence'', Jonneke Bekkenkamp, Yvonne Sherwood (Eds.). 2003, Continuum Internatio Publishing Group, pp. 92–108</ref> the story of the [[Midianites]] ({{bibleverse||Numbers|31:1–18|HE}}),<ref>{{Cite book|title=The God Delusion|url=https://archive.org/details/goddelusion00dawk_897|url-access=limited|first=Richard |last=Dawkins|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|year=2006|isbn=978-0-618-68000-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/goddelusion00dawk_897/page/n255 245]}}</ref> and the [[battle of Jericho]] ({{bibleverse||Joshua|6:1–27|HE}}).<ref>{{Cite book |first=Carl. S. |last=Ehrlich  |editor-last=Targarona |editor-first=Judit |editor2-last=Sáenz-Badillos |editor2-first=Angel |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/772544616 |title=Jewish studies at the turn of the twentieth century : proceedings of the 6th EAJS congress, Toledo, July 1998 |date=1999 |publisher=Brill |isbn=90-04-11558-7 |oclc=772544616 |pages=117–124 |chapter=Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/956764823 |title=The God delusion |date=19 May 2016 |isbn=978-1-78416-192-7 |oclc=956764823 |pages=289–296|publisher=Black Swan }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hitchens |first=Christopher |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70630426 |title=God is not great : how religion poisons everything |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-446-57980-3 |page=117 |location=New York |oclc=70630426}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Selengut |first=Charles |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/960642045 |title=Sacred fury : understanding religious violence |date=12 January 2017 |isbn=978-1-4422-7685-7 |oclc=960642045 |page=20|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Cowles |first1=C. S |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/698775072 |title=Show them no mercy : 4 views on God and Canaanite genocide |last2=Gard |first2=Daniel |last3=Longman |first3=Tremper |last4=Merrill |first4=Eugene |date=June 2010 |isbn=978-0-310-87376-1 |page=79 |publisher=Zondervan Academic |oclc=698775072}}</ref>

====Judging biblical wars====
{{main|The Bible and violence|War in the Hebrew Bible}}

The biblical wars of extermination have been characterized as campaigns of "[[genocide]]" by several authorities,<ref>Kravitz, Leonard, "What is Crime?", in ''Crime and Punishment in Jewish Law: Essays and Responsa'', Editors [[Walter Jacob]], [[Moshe Zemer]] Berghahn Books, 1999, p. 31</ref><ref>Cohn, Robert L, "Before Israel: The Canaanites as Other in Biblical Tradition", in ''The Other in Jewish Thought and History: Constructions of Jewish Culture and Identity'', Laurence Jay Silberstein, (Ed.), NYU Press, 1994, pp. 76–77</ref><ref>Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practice in Early Judaism and Christianity By Ra'anan S. Boustan, pp. 3–5</ref> because the [[Torah]] states that the Israelites annihilated entire ethnic groups or tribes: the Israelites killed all Amalekites, including men, women, and children ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+15%3A1-20&version=NIV 1 Samuel 15:1–20]); the Israelites killed all men, women, and children in [[The Battle of Jericho|the battle of Jericho]]([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=joshua+6%3A15-21&version=NIV Joshua 6:15–21]), and the Israelites killed all men, women and children of several Canaanite tribes ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=joshua+10%3A28-42&version=NIV Joshua 10:28–42]).<ref>''The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies'',  Donald Bloxham, A. Dirk Moses, p. 242</ref> However, some scholars{{Who|date=May 2015}} believe that these accounts in the Torah are exaggerated or metaphorical.{{Citation needed|date=May 2015}}

====Arab-Israeli conflict====

During the [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict|Palestine-Israeli conflict]] as well as during the broader [[Arab–Israeli conflict]], a small number of people have used the [[Torah]] ([[Hebrew Bible|TaNaKh|Tanakh]]) to justify [[anti-Palestinianism]] and the killing of [[Palestinians]], but the [[Israel Defense Forces|IDF]] has stated "That we don't condone the killing of innocent Palestinians".<ref>
Saleh Abdel Jawad (2007) "Zionist Massacres: the Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem in the 1948 War" in ''Israel and the Palestinian Refugees'', Eyal Benvenistî, Chaim Gans, Sari Hanafi (Eds.), Springer, p. 78: "... the Zionist movement, which claims to be secular, found it necessary to embrace the idea of 'the promised land' of Old Testament prophecy, to justify the confiscation of land and the expulsion of the [[Palestinians]]. For example, the speeches and letters of [[Chaim Weizman]], the secular Zionist leader, are filled with references to the biblical origins of the Jewish claim to Palestine, which he often mixes liberally with more pragmatic and nationalistic claims. By the use of this premise, embraced in 1937, Zionists alleged that the Palestinians were usurpers in the Promised Land, and therefore their expulsion and death was justified. The Jewish-American writer Dan Kurzman, in his book ''Genesis 1948'' ... describes the view of one of the Deir Yassin's killers: 'The Sternists followed the instructions of the Bible more rigidly than others. They honored the passage (Exodus 22:2): 'If a thief be found ...' This meant, of course, that killing a thief was not really murder. And were not the enemies of Zionism thieves, who wanted to steal from the Jews what God had granted them?'</ref><ref>Carl. S. Ehrlich (1999) "Joshua, Judaism, and Genocide", in ''Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century'', Judit Targarona Borrás, Ángel Sáenz-Badillos (Eds). 1999, Brill. pp. 117–124.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rights Council |first=Human |date=2019 |title=Report of the detailed findings of the independent international Commission of inquiry on the protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory |url=https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session40/Documents/A_HRC_40_74_CRP2.pdf |journal=[[Human Rights Council]] |volume=1 |issue=7 |pages=251 |via=Fortieth session}}</ref>

====Portraying Palestinians as "Amalekites"====

On several occasions, [[Jewish fundamentalism|Jewish fundamentalists]] have associated [[Palestinians]] with biblical antagonists, particularly with the [[Amalek]]ites. For example, [[Rabbi]] [[Israel Hess]] has recommended that Palestinians be killed, based on biblical verses such as 1 Samuel 15.<ref>{{cite book |last=Masalha |first=Nur |title=Imperial Israel and the Palestinians: The Politics of Expansion |publisher=Pluto Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7453-1615-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vgGJo3wR6sQC&pg=PA129 |access-date=25 July 2017 |pages=129–131 |quote="Frequently Jewish fundamentalists refer to the Palestinians as the 'Amalekites' ... of today.... According to the Old Testament, the Amalek ... were regarded as the Israelites' inveterate foe, whose 'annihilation' became a sacred duty and against whom war should be waged until their 'memory be blotted out' forever (Ex 17:16; Deut 25:17–19).... Some of the [modern] political messianics insist on giving the biblical commandment to 'blot out the memory of the Amalek' an actual contemporary relevance in the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians. In February 1980, Rabbi [[Israel Hess]] ... published an article [titled] 'The Genocide Commandment in the Torah' ... which ends with the following: 'The day is not far when we shall all be called to this holy war, this commandment of the annihilation of the Amalek'. Hess quotes the biblical commandment ... 'Do not spare him, but kill man and woman, baby and suckling, ox and sheep, camel, and donkey'.... In his book ''On the Lord's Side'' Danny Rubinstein has shown that this notion permeates the [[Gush Emunim]] movement's bulletins [one of which] carried an article ... which reads 'In every generation there is an Amalek.... The Amalekism of our generation finds expression in the deep Arab hatred towards our national revival ...'... Professor Uriel Tal ... conducted his study in the early 1980s ... and pointed out that the totalitarian political messianic stream refers to the Palestinian Arabs in three stages or degrees: ... [stage] (3) the implementation of the commandment of Amalek, as expressed in Rabbi Hess's article 'The Commandment of Genocide in the Torah', in other words 'annihilating' the Palestinian Arabs'"}}</ref><ref>See also Hunter, p. 103</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ron |first=Geaves |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1012136127 |title=Islam and the West post 9/11 |date=19 October 2017 |isbn=978-1-351-92608-9 |oclc=1012136127 |page=30|publisher=Routledge }}</ref>

===Buddhism===
{{Main|Buddhism and violence|Sōhei|969 Movement|Bodu Bala Sena}}

===Hinduism===
{{Main|Hindu terrorism|Violence against Muslims in independent India|Violence against Christians in India|Religious violence in India}}

=== Neo-paganism ===
In the [[United States]] and [[Europe]], [[Modern Paganism|neo-pagan beliefs]] have been associated with many terrorist incidents. Although the majority of neo-pagans oppose violence and [[racism]], [[Heathenry (new religious movement)#Racial issues|folkish factions of Odinism, Wotanism, and Ásatrú]] emphasize their Nordic cultural heritage and idolize warriors.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://odin.org/faq.html|title=odin.org (Wodanesdag Press)|website=odin.org|access-date=28 May 2017|archive-date=26 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170526195104/http://odin.org/faq.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> For these reasons, a 1999 [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] report on [[Domestic terrorism in the United States|domestic terrorism]] which was titled [[Project Megiddo]] described Odinism as "[lending] itself to violence and [having] the potential to inspire its followers to violence."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps3578/www.fbi.gov/library/megiddo/megiddo.pdf|title=Megiddo Report|publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation|date=1999|website=United States Government Publishing Office|access-date=1 June 2017}}</ref> As of 2017, the [[Southern Poverty Law Center]] has recognized at least two active neo-pagan [[List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups|hate groups]] in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2017/active-hate-groups-2016|title=Active Hate Groups 2016|publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center|date=2017}}</ref> Many [[White supremacy|white supremacists]] (especially those white supremacists who are in prison) are converting to Odinism at increasing rates, citing the impurity of Christianity and the failure of previous groups to accomplish goals as the primary reasons for their conversion.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/viking-mythology-grows-as-religion-for-inmates|title=Viking Mythology Grows As Religion for Inmates|date=24 July 2006|work=Fox News|access-date=28 May 2017|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://thinkprogress.org/the-new-religion-of-choice-for-white-supremacists-8af2a69a3440|title=The New Religion Of Choice For White Supremacists – ThinkProgress|date=13 November 2015|work=ThinkProgress|access-date=28 May 2017}}</ref> Similarities between Odinism and other extremist groups such as [[Christian Identity]] facilitate conversions.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jfBwCQAAQBAJ&q=1999+fbi+domestic+terrorism+odin&pg=PA124|title=Domestic Terrorism and Incident Management: Issues and Tactics|last1=Vohryzek|first1=Miki|last2=Olson-Raymer|first2=Gayle|last3=Whamond|first3=Jeffery O.|date=1 January 2001|publisher=Charles C Thomas Publisher|isbn=9780398083083|language=en}}</ref> The targets of neo-pagan violence are similar to those of [[White supremacist terrorism in the United States|white supremacist terrorists]] and [[Nationalist terrorism|nationalist terrorists]], but an added target includes Christians and churches.

===Sikhism===
{{Main|Sikh extremism}}

===Indigenous religions===
Within [[Prehistory|Prehistoric]] societies, war ceremonies were one of the main parts of [[indigenous religion]]s such as some [[Native American religions]].<ref name="Underhill">{{cite book |surname=Underhill |given=Ruth M. |authorlink=Ruth Underhill |chapter=Chapter 13. War Ceremonies |title=Red Manʼs Religion: Beliefs and Practices of the Indians North of Mexico |place=Chicago, Il; London |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1965 |pages=127–141 |url={{Google books|id=I20d62JZxT8C|plainurl=y|page=}} |isbn=0-226-84167-7}}</ref>

==Notable incidents==
* [[Murder of Alan Berg]] — Defunct American white supremacist group [[The Order (white supremacist group)|the Order]] was founded by avid practitioners of Wotanism such as [[David Lane (white supremacist)|David Lane]] and [[Robert Jay Mathews]].<ref name=":0" /> Lane was convicted of the 1984 murder of Jewish radio host Alan Berg.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/david-lane|title=David Lane|work=Southern Poverty Law Center|access-date=29 May 2017|language=en}}</ref> 
* [[Church burnings]] — A wave of church burnings, such as during the [[early Norwegian black metal scene]] in the 1990s, has been cited as an act of neo-pagan terrorism.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Miroslav|first=Vrzal|date=2016|title=Pagan terrorism? Pagan motives for church burnings in the early 90s Norwegian black metal subculture|url=https://www.muni.cz/en/research/publications/1351916|journal=Masaryk University|language=en}}</ref> The arsons coincided with a resurgence in the popularity of European [[black metal]]. This genre of music featured the imagery and ideas of [[neo-paganism]], [[Satanism]], and [[nationalism]]. The targets were Christian churches, and up to 28 churches were targeted during this period.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5J1fCHvHfosC&q=lords+of+chaos|title=Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground|last1=Moynihan|first1=Michael|last2=Søderlind|first2=Didrik|date=2003|publisher=Feral House|isbn=9780922915941|language=en}}</ref> Popular black metal musician [[Varg Vikernes]], a noted neo-pagan and nationalist, was convicted of three of these arsons and charged with a fourth attempt.
* [[Overland Park Jewish Community Center shooting]] — [[Frazier Glenn Miller Jr.]] shot and killed three people at a Kansas Jewish community center in 2014. Prior to becoming an Odinist, Miller Jr. was a member of the [[Ku Klux Klan]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/kansas-killer-worshipper-neo-pagan-odinism-article-1.1757496|title=Kan. killer follows neopagan Odinism|work=NY Daily News|access-date=29 May 2017|language=en}}</ref>
* [[2012 Ramu violence]]

==Conflicts and wars==
[[Image:SiegeofAntioch.jpeg|thumb|The [[Crusades]] were a series of military campaigns fought mainly between [[Roman Catholic]] Europe and [[Muslims]]. Depicted here is the [[Siege of Antioch]] from the [[First Crusade]].]]
[[Image:Gustave dore crusades entry of the crusaders into constantinople.jpg|thumb|upright|Entry of the [[Crusaders]] into [[Constantinople]] by [[Gustave Doré]] (1832–1883)]]
{{Main|Religious war}}

Some authors have stated that "religious" conflicts are not exclusively based on religious beliefs but should instead be seen as clashes of communities, identities, and interests that are secular-religious or at least very secular.<ref name="Anthropology of Religion" /><ref name="Dying to Win" />

Some have asserted that attacks are carried out by those with very strong religious convictions such as terrorists in the context of a global religious war.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/11-24-2002-30919.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030223123316/http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/11-24-2002-30919.asp |url-status=usurped |archive-date=23 February 2003 |title=bin Laden's 'letter to America' |access-date=24 May 2007}}</ref> Robert Pape, a political scientist who specializes in [[suicide terrorism]] argues that much of the modern Muslim suicide terrorism is secularly based.<ref name="Dying to Win" /> Although the causes of terrorism are complex, it may be safe to assume that terrorists are partially reassured by their religious views that their god is on their side and that it will reward them in [[Heaven]] for punishing unbelievers.<ref name=juerg /><ref name=chrjhd>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/ChurchAndMinistry/ChurchHistory/Crusades_CanerChristianJihad0505.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080709000007/http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/ChurchAndMinistry/ChurchHistory/Crusades_CanerChristianJihad0505.asp|url-status=dead|title=Christian Jihad: The Crusades and Killing in the Name of Christ by Craig von Buseck: Spiritual Life on CBN.com|archive-date=9 July 2008|website=www.cbn.com}}</ref>

These conflicts are among the most difficult to resolve, particularly when both sides believe that God is on their side and that He has endorsed the moral righteousness of their claims.<ref name=juerg>{{Cite book| last =Juergensmeyer  | first =Mark | title = Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. Updated edition | publisher =University of California Press | date =21 September 2001 }}</ref> One of the most infamous quotes which is associated with [[religious fanaticism]] was uttered in 1209 during the siege of [[Béziers]], a Crusader asked the Papal Legate [[Arnaud Amalric]] how to tell Catholics from [[Catharism|Cathar]]s when the city was taken, to which Amalric replied:
"''[[Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius]]''", or "Kill them all; God will recognize his."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.positiveatheism.org/mail/eml9442.htm |title=Kill Them All; For The Lord Knoweth Them That Are His Steve Locks (Reply) (9-00) |access-date=18 August 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930015305/http://www.positiveatheism.org/mail/eml9442.htm |archive-date=30 September 2007 }}</ref>

==Ritual violence==
{{Further|ritual slaughter|human sacrifice|animal sacrifice}}
Ritual violence may be directed against victims (e.g., [[human]] and nonhuman [[animal sacrifice]] and [[ritual slaughter]]) or self-inflicted ([[Self-flagellation#Association with religion|religious self-flagellation]]).

According to the [[hunting hypothesis]], created by [[Walter Burkert]] in ''[[Homo Necans]]'', [[carnivorous]] behavior is considered a form of violence. Burkett suggests that the anthropological phenomenon of [[religion]] grew out of rituals that were connected with [[hunting]] and the associated feelings of guilt over the violence that hunting required.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Burkert |first=Walter |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/83239158 |title=Homo necans : the anthropology of ancient Greek sacrificial ritual and myth |date=1987 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-05875-5 |oclc=83239158}}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
*[[Antireligion]]
*[[Army of God (terrorist organization)]]
*[[Blood atonement]]
*[[Blood libel]]
*[[Boko Haram]]
*[[Conflict resolution]]
*[[Criticism of religion]]
*[[Hundred Years' War]]
*[[International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief]]
*[[Islamic State]]
*[[Religious discrimination]]
*[[Religious fanaticism]]
*[[Religious intolerance]]
*[[Religious segregation]]
*[[Supremacism#Religious|Religious supremacism]]
*[[Religious terrorism]]
*[[Taiping Rebellion]]
*[[Taliban]]
*[[Warriors of Christ the King]]
*[[Witch-hunt]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
;Academic
*Appleby, R. Scott (2000) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=8RqbMGvsz5MC The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation]''. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
*Avalos, Hector (2005) ''[https://archive.org/details/fightingwordsori0000aval Fighting Words: the Origins of Religious Violence]''. New York: Prometheus.
* Buc, Philippe (2015) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LnyZBgAAQBAJ Holy War, Martyrdom and Terror: Christianity, Violence and the West]''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
*[[Walter Burkert|Burkert, Walter]]. (1983). ''[[Homo Necans]]: The Anthropology of Ancient Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth''. Berkeley: University of California Press
*Crocket, Clayton (ed.) (2006) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=9TgAxmycJBIC Religion and Violence in a Secular World: Toward a New Political Theology]''. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
*Flood, Derek (2012) "The way of peace and grace". ''[[Sojourners]]''. January 2012. 
*[[René Girard|Girard, René]]. (1977) ''Violence et le Sacré'' (English ''[[Violence and the Sacred]])''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
*Hamerton-Kelly, Robert G. (ed.) (1987) ''Violent Origins: Walter Burkert, René Girard and Jonathan Z. Smith on Ritual Killing and Cultural Formation''. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
*Jerryson, Michael. (2010) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=cXORqV4AZjcC Buddhist Warfare]''. New York: Oxford University Press.
*Juergensmeyer, Mark, Kitts, Margo and Jerryson, Michael (ed.) (2013) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=5UsYuiIkZXoC The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence]''. New York: Oxford University Press.
*Juergensmeyer, Mark; Kitts, Margo; Jerryson, Michael (ed.) (2016) ''Violence and the World's Religious Traditions: An Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press.
*Juergensmeyer, Mark. (2000) ''Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence''. Berkeley: University of California Press.
*Kitts, Margo (2018) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=NnNqDwAAQBAJ Elements of Ritual and Violence]''. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
*Kitts, Margo (ed.) (2013–present) ''[[Journal of Religion and Violence]]'', Charlottesville: Philosophy Documentation Center. 
*Kitts, Margo (ed.) (2018) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=XHhUDwAAQBAJ Martyrdom, Self-Sacrifice, and Self-Immolation: Religious Perspectives on Suicide]''. New York: Oxford University Press. 
* {{cite book |last=Pape |first=Robert |date=2005 |title=Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism |publisher=Random House |url=https://archive.org/details/dyingtowinstrate00pape|url-access=registration |isbn=9781588364609 }}
*Pedahzur, Ami and Weinberg, Leonard (eds.) (2004) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=E79GlfEArHcC Religious Fundamentalism and Political Extremism]''. New York: Routledge.
*{{cite book |title=The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism | author = Regina M. Schwartz |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1998 | url = https://archive.org/details/curseofcainviole00schw|url-access=registration | isbn = 9780226742007 }}
*Selengut, C. (2003) ''Sacred Fury: Understanding Religious Violence''. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira
* {{cite journal |last=Stausberg |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Stausberg |date=March 2021 |title=The Demise, Dissolution, and Elimination of Religions |journal=[[Numen (journal)|Numen]] |editor1-last=Feldt |editor1-first=Laura |editor2-last=Valk |editor2-first=Ülo |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |volume=68 |issue=2–3 - ''Special Issue: The Dissolution of Religions'' |pages=103–131 |doi=10.1163/15685276-12341617 |doi-access=free |issn=1568-5276 |lccn=58046229|hdl=11250/2977936 |hdl-access=free }}
*Steffen, Lloyd. (2007) ''Holy War, Just War: Exploring the Moral Meaning of Religious Violence''. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
;Other
*Nelson-Pallmeyer, Jack (2003) ''Is Religion Killing Us?'' Harrisburg: Trinity Press International {{ISBN|1-56338-408-6}}
*{{cite book|last=Perry|first=Simon|title=All Who Came Before|year=2011|publisher=Wipf and Stock|location=Eugene, Oregon|isbn=978-1-60899-659-9|url=http://wipfandstock.com/store/All_Who_Came_Before|access-date=12 March 2011|archive-date=21 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521063219/http://wipfandstock.com/store/All_Who_Came_Before|url-status=dead}}
*Stern, Jessica. (2004) ''Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill''. New York: Harper Perennial.

==External links==
* [http://www.africanholocaust.net/news_ah/war_myth_religion.html Myth of Religious conflict in Africa] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513002904/https://www.africanholocaust.net/news_ah/war_myth_religion.html |date=13 May 2021 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140228091001/http://www.jesusradicals.com/theology/william-cavanaugh/ William T. Cavanaugh Resources from Jesus Radicals]
{{Criticism of religion}}{{Religion topics}}
{{Religious persecution}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Religious Violence}}
[[Category:Religion and violence| ]]
[[Category:Dispute resolution]]
[[Category:Religious riots|*]]
[[Category:Violence]]