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3.RELIGION!- 4.
Introduction too long 5.
To what degree can religion be held accountable for warfare?
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War in the popular sense is a conflict between two or more groups involving hostilities of
considerable duration and magnitude (Frankel, 2017). There are various causes for war that
contribute heavily to the course of the war such as political misalliances, difference in religious
beliefs and mainly for economic and territorial gain (Goodman, 2014). "more examples.
Many notorious wars in the early 15th century to the 19th century were largely based on religion,
which tore nations apart, for example by 1560 Europe was divided; they were either protestant or
catholic and were in war over the roman church (Brooks, 2020). Given the nature of wars it is no
surprise that the general public of that specific locality tend to move out to restart their
livelihoods in other nations as refugees and build back the life they once had but in many cases
the ramifications if the wars are so severe that many are not able to rejuvenate their lives and end
up living on the streets or taking their own lives.
The firsts ever recorded ‘Holy war’ was the Crusades which lasted from 1095 to 1291 CE. The
aim was to regain holy land from the Muslims who had settled there and hence it was regarded as
a war to right the wrongs of the Muslim community. The first crusade was started by Pope Urban
II and he ordered the war to restore Christianity and supported his belief by stating that God
would support it www.bbc.co.uk (2014). Most notably in 1509 Henry VIII split from the Roman
Catholic church when he wanted a divorce from his first wife. Splitting from the Roman Catholic
church to the Protestant church of England where he was supreme governor caused years of war
between the two faiths long after Henry VIII was gone (www.britannica.com, 2023). After 30
years of long war dubbed the ‘The Thirty years war’ the conflict came to an end with the 1701
Act of settlement ordered by parliament (Editors, 2018).
Global perspective - THE HOLOCAUST
During World War II, Nazis led by Adolf Hiltler targeted Jews and tortured and murdered them
between the years of 1933 - 1945, what was done to the Jews at this time was called the
Holocaust. The Nazis singled out the Jews and tortured them as they were utterly anti semitic.
This meant that they were prejudiced against the Jews. Antisemitisim was the basic principle to
how the Nazis viewed the whole world. The Nazis believed that they were the superior race
called the ‘Aryan’ race and asserted their higher stance compared to the ‘Jewish’ race as they
believed that the ‘Aryans’ were locked in a struggle against the inferior races. The Nazis falsely
accused the Jews of being responsible for Germany’s social, economic, political and cultural
problems but mainly they blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat in World War I. (United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2021)
‘Ghetto’ was first used in Venice (during the 15th century) to refer to the Jews who were forced
by the law to live in a few small blocks. By the 19th century the word ‘ghetto’ was infamously
known as the places the Jewish population lived all over Europe. Shortly after the German
invasion of Poland the Nazi generals issued an order to the civil administration stating that the
Jews were to live in separate neighbourhoods and cities for reasons associated with general
police security. Over the years at least 1,143 ghettos were formed and the largest ghetto called
Warsaw ghetto held over 400,000 Jews. At first the Nazis marked the Jews by restricting their
movement and appointing a group of Jews to monitor the daily movements of the remaining
Jews as well as carry out orders from the Germans. The German authorities also killed members
of the Nazi appointed Jews if they felt their orders were not being carried out.
Renowned Holocaust historian Christoper Browning stated that these ghettos were temporary
arrangements for the Jews till the German authorities decided what to do with them. In other
words, find the solution for ‘The Jewish question’. (Popowycz, 2023)
Extermination camps on the other hand were camps designed to murder Jews. They were killed
through means of carbon monoxide poisoning and once dead, the bodies were piled up into a van
and buried in mass graves. As more Jews were evicted from their houses and brought to the
camps the Nazis built more camps closer to railway lines for easier transportation. By the end of
the war approximately 2.7 million Jews died at the extermination camps. However Jews were not
only the ones to die at the hands of the Nazis in the different camps. At concentration camps
were created to detain so-called ‘enemies of the state’. At first these camps only held Politicians
and alike but it expanded to hold Jehovah's witnesses, Roma and a-socials. At first people were
let off in days but soon as more people piled in, the stay was indefinite. Concentration camps
were subject to forced labour which killed over a million people. (The Wiener Holocaust Library,
2018)
Shadowing WWII on October 7th 2023 the political group Hamas attacked Israel nationals near
the Gaza border. Hamas justifies its attack as a response to Israeli crimes against the Palestine
people. As a retaliation Israel launched a genocide on the people of Gaza. (Human Rights Watch,
2024)
National perspective - The Indo- Pakistan relations
The Indo Pakistan relation ship has a long history of genocide and hatered. In 1947 the colonial
British rule came to an end splitting British India into Pakistan and India, known as the
‘particion’. The division was based on religion with the formation of east and west Pakistan with
a Muslim majority and India with a Hindu majority. 12 million refugees travelled across the wide
border drawn up by the British. The main reason British India was separated is due to the request
from Muhammad Ali Jinnah seeking a new home for all of the muslim population. 500,000 to
2,000,000 people died in the conflict that broke out between the Hindus and the Muslims during
their migration process to India and Pakistan respectively. Over 80,000 women were kidnapped
and brutally. The majority of the violence erupted during the first weeks following the partition
but the aftermath was echoed in the nation's respective history. Pakistan and India have since
fought 3 wars on the nationality of Jammu and Kashmir. (Phillips, 2017)
Over the next few decades India and Pakistan engaged in genocide in the matters of Kashmir.
Soon after the separation India and Pakistan when Pakistan infiltrated the disputed place. The
Maharaja (king) fled to India and requested help from the Indian government hence involving
India and Pakistan in a long battle. The first war ended when the United Nations issued a
ceasefire and forced a referendum on the acquisition of Kashmir to India as all parties agreed.
The referendum has never been held till date. Over the next few decades Pakistan and India
fought over Kashmir as recently as 2019 when India conducted airstrikes on what they call a
Pakistani terrorist group killing a large number of so-called terrorists. (Hashim, 2019)
