There Is Plenty of Religious Violence to Go Around, So Don't Demonize Your Muslim Neighbors

"Too many people have lied in the name of Christ
For anyone to heed the call
So many people have died in the name of Christ
That I can't believe it all"

--Cathedral by Graham Nash (1977)

After the attacks in Paris, Beirut and Bamako, there is a lot of attention being paid to Islamist-inspired violence.    Republican candidates and officials want to ban all Syrian refugees from coming to this country because some of them might be terrorists.    Donald Trump has said that he would "strongly consider"shutting down mosques in the United States.    A meme on Facebook falsely claimed that there have been no Jewish or Christian terrorist attacks since 9/11/01 which listing a litany of Islamist attacks.  People still claim that President Obama loves Muslims more than Americans.  Meanwhile, Muslims cry out "not in my name" and condemn the killers as "un-Islamic."

     

I see two things going on here.   One is the very real revulsion and anger brought about by savage attacks on Western civilization.  The other, more sinister thread is the continuing battle in the culture wars to define America as a Judeo-Christian nation where Muslims, atheists, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and others who are not Jews or Christians are simply unwelcome.   

I am writing to argue that violence is a natural tendency of mankind which exists across most religions.    While Daesh has the highest body count in recent years, you can't characterize any religion as all violent or all peaceful.  

Violence in the Religious Texts

Commentators are quick to point out that the Quran is full of verses advocating death, rape, slavery and other nasty stuff.   They are correct.   However, the Quran also says "whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind."   5:32.     However, before we condemn Islam as inherently violent, it is worth looking at our own religions.    

The Jewish and Christian scriptures are full of violence.   One author added up all of the deaths attributed to God in the Bible and came up with a number ranging from between 2.8 million to 25 million.   You can read it here.   I found another article which summarized scriptural justifications for murder in Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.  Because the Christian portion includes the Old Testament, it extends to Jews as well.    You and find it in section 5 of this article.   

Religious Violence in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Much of the history of the past 115 years has been written in blood.    We have seen two World Wars, multiple genocides and too many conflicts, terrorist attacks and lone wolf killings to count.   Many of these killings had religious origins.

Genocides

Genocide is the attempt by a government or other group to exterminate an entire people.   You can read about genocides in history here.    Many of these genocides were religious in nature.    

The Nazis, who I would characterize as a Pagan/Christian cult, killed six million Jews in the largest genocide during the period.

The Muslim Turks committed genocide against the Christian Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks during and after World War I, resulting in two to two and a half million killings over all.   

In 1984, about 2,800 Sikhs were killed by Hindus in India.

In July 1995, Christian Serbs and Croatians killed about 8,000 Muslims in Bosnia.   

You can also add in the genocides by the atheist Soviet Union and China against the Muslim Chechens and Buddhist Tibetans in the 1940s and 1950s respectively.    

Wars

 Many wars have had a religious component.   In Nigeria, about 20,000 people have died in violence between Christians and Muslims.    In Northern Ireland, about 3,500 people were killed in fighting between Catholics and Protestants.

Terrorist Attacks

Terrorist attacks have lower body counts but can have a greater impact on society.   For example, the murder of Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish terrorist derailed the Oslo Peace Accords.    Here are some of the major terrorist attacks since 2000 (although I had to go back to 1994 to find a large attack by a Jewish terrorist):

1994:   Jewish terrorist kills 29 Muslims in Cave of the Patriarchs

 

9/11/01  Al Qaeda Attacks on U.S.    2,977 persons killed by Islamist terrorists.   Victims included Christians, Jews and Muslims.

Sept.-Oct. 2001:   White supremacist kills a Muslim and a Hindu in Texas because he thought they were Muslim

 

10/12/02:   202 killed by Jamaah Islamiyah in Bali, Indonesia

 

10/23/02:   170 killed by Chechens in Russia

 

2/17/04:   116 killed by Abu Sayyaf in Phillipines

3/11/04:    191 killed by Al Qaeda in Madrid, Spain   

 

9/1/04:  385 killed by Chechen terrorists in Beslan, Russia

8/4/05:   Jewish terrorist kills 4 Arab Israeli civilians

 

7/11/06:   209 killed by Pakistani-affiliated Islamists in Mumbai, India

8/14/07:    Sunnis kill 796 Yazidis in Iraq

727//08:    2 killed by Christian terrorists at Unitarian Church in Knoxville, TN

 

11/26/08:    Lashkar-e-Taiba kills 166 in Mumbai, India

6/10/09:   Security guard killed at Holocaust museum by white Supremacist terrorist

 

5/31/09:     George Tiller executed in Lutheran Church by anti-abortion terrorist

 

11/5/09:    Ft. Hood shooting by Maj. Nadal Hasan kills 13 in Texas

1/18-20/11:   Al Qaeda kills 137 in Iraq

7/22/11:   Christian terrorist Anders Breivik kills 77 in Norway

 

9/4/11:   Al Shabaab kills 100 in Somalia

5/21/12:  Al Qaeda affiliate kills 101 in Yemen

7/23/12:  Islamic State of Iraq kills 116 in Iraq

8/7/12:     Neo-Nazi terrorist kills 6 at Sikh Temple in Wisconsin

8/16/12:  Islamic State of Iraq kills 128 in Iraq

9/9/12:  Islamic State of Iraq kills 108 in Iraq

9/11/12:   4 killed in attack on U.S. Consulate in Benghazi

1/10/13:   Taliban affiliated group kills 130 in Pakistan

2/16/13:   Taliban affiliated group kills 110 Shias in Pakistan

8/15/13:   4 killed in Boston Marathon bombings in Boston, MA

Jan.-May 2014:   Christians killed over 1,000 Muslims in Central African Republic

 

2/14/14:   Boko Haram kills 200 in Nigeria

5/20/14:   Boko Haram kills 118 in Nigeria

8/14:  ISIL kills 700 Sunni Muslims in Iraq

11/28/14:    Boko Haram kills 120 Muslims in Nigeria mosque

12/4/14:     Incompetent Christian terrorist shoots up Austin; only succeeds in getting himself killed

12/16/14:    140 persons, most children killed by Taliban group in Peshawar, Pakistan

12/18/14:   230 tribesmen killed by ISIL in Syria

12/14:    ISIL kills 150 Iraqi women for refusing to marry their soldiers

 

1/8/15:    Boko Haram kills at least 200 in Nigeria.

3/20/15:  135 Muslims killed by ISIL in bombing of mosques in Yemen.

4/2/15:   148 people, mostly Christian students, killed by Al-Shabaab in Kenya.

6/17/15:   Neo-Nazi terrorist kills 9 Christians in South Carolina

7/31/15:     Palestinian baby and father killed by Jewish terrorist

 

10/10/15:   102 killed by ISIS in Ankara, Turkey.

10/31/15:  ISIS bombs Russian plane killing 224.

 

11/13/15:   ISIS kills 136 in Paris

What does all this show?   Most religious violence occurs in Africa and Asia.    Islamic terrorists are just as likely to kill their fellow Muslims as Christians or Jews.    With the exception of the Central African Republic, Christian and Jewish terrorists are much less deadly than their Muslim counterparts.  With the exception of Ft. Hood and the Boston Marathon bombing, I only listed terrorist acts by Islamists that killed over 100 people.   If I had used that filter for Christians and Jews, there would not have been anything to report.    Nevertheless, it is worth noting that since 9/11, there have been more people killed  in America by right-wing terrorists (185) than Muslims (37). 

Conclusion

We certainly live in a dangerous world.    Except for 9/11, America has been largely spared from the bloodshed which has gone on elsewhere in the world. Even the terrorist attacks of the past 15 years pale in comparison to the genocides of the 20th Century.    While we should be vigilant, there is simply no cause for demonizing American Muslims or shutting down mosques.    I suspect that if you took an honest survey of American Muslims (as opposed to the piece of crap cited by Glenn Beck in his recent book), you would find that most of them are here because they want to share in our freedom, not burn it down.