veiled4allah: violence in the name of religion

Tom Regan at the Christian Science Monitor blog wants to provide a little context:

Christians, Jews, and Buddhists don't "lash out in homocidal rage when their religion is insulted"? Would that it were so. Unfortunately, even a cursury scan of the headlines from the past few years, or even this past week, shows how wrong it is.

Shall we talk about the religious leaders in Israel who have threatened violence and riots, and perhaps worse, to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his supporters, if he goes ahead with his disengagement plan?

These religious leaders believe they have a 'God-given right' to the Gaza (and the West Bank), and have inspired their followers with the same belief. By defending the settlements through force and threats, they are carrying out God's will.

Let's not forget that one Israeli leader has already died at the hands of a Jewish religious zealot, who believed in 1995 that there was "a religious commandment" to kill Yitzhak Rabin.

No Christian violence? Ignoring the whole decades-long situation in Northern Ireland, there are many other examples.

It was Christian militias who murdered hundreds of people in the Lebanese refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in 1982, and it was Serbian Christians who murdered 20,000 Muslims in 1995.

The Associated Press reports that "Members of the Pentecostal religious community in the former Soviet republic of Georgia have been harassed and beaten this month" by members of the the country's dominant Orthodox Christian faith. The attacks, the report noted, had been taking place for years.

The recent Terri Schiavo controversy is chock-a-block with incidents where Christian religious leaders encouraged their followers to react in a manner that was often violent. Michael Schiavo and his family, as well as the Republican judge who ruled against Terri's family, have all received numerous death threats from Christians.

Schiavo himself is still in hiding, after being "Salman Rushdie'd" by the religious right in America.


And we all know how Republican House leader Tom DeLay made a not-so-veiled threat that these judges would get what was coming to them. He later said he "regretted the remark but not the sentiment." And there have been similar provocative remarks by other Christian right leaders.

And what about Christian preachers who say, quite publicly, it's OK to kill abortion providers or the people who work for them?

And Buddism? Many in North American see Buddhism personified in the presence of the Dalai Lama. But in Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka, and Thailand, violence against religious minorities is a serious problem.

In Sri Lanka, thousands of people have died in clashed between the Tamil Tigers, who are Hindu, and the Buddhist government. Catholic churches have been attacked as well. And the Thai government has come under heavy criticism for its treatment of its Muslim minority.

And let us not forget Arum Shinrikyo [sic], the Buddhist-inspired Japanese cult that carried out one of the worst acts of pre-9/11 terrorism the world had seen.

As Regan goes on to say the problem is not with a particular religion - it's obvious that extremist violence is a problem in all religions - but with people in any religion who use violence. This is something that we all - Muslims and non-Muslims - need to work together on.