BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

RELIGION AND VIOLENCE: APPRECIATING TRADITIONAL ETHICAL REASONING IN THE GLOBAL CONTEXT

Author: Richard C. Martin

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/BIISSj2002v23n3A2

ABSTRACT

The paper deals with four issues in the context of September 11 and its aftermath. Firstly. it addresses the issue of religion and violence. In this regard, the central question under consideration was whether religion in the form of religious convictions or religious practices causes social violence or cure it -or both? Secondly, it argues that the world civilizations with their own ethical and cultural systems have a history of two and a half millennia of interaction, though with increasing tension in the past century. Thirdly, it analyzes the works by a growing number of Western intellectuals who lay blame for the "clash" of these "world civilizations," especially between Islam and the West, on the doorsteps of the Muslim world. In an attempt to deconstruct such theories, the paper argues that such views are dangerously wrong, yet discouragingly widespread. Fourthly, the paper argues that it would be wrong to essentialize Islam or Christianity, or any religious tradition as holding any set of beliefs that can be characterized as good or bad from an ethical point of view. It further asserts that religious traditions are social and doctrinal constructs that dispute issues on the basis of cherished texts and traditions. Such issues as just wars, abortion, marriage and family life generate contested positions within religious traditions. To fail to see that is to fail to understand the nature of religion in human societies.