Religion and war

Argument 1: Wars always have one or more pretexts to justify them before the population. In the 20th century, wars like the two World Wars and the Cold War were fought principally under the pretext of difference in ideology between the belligerents. However, nowadays in the 21st century, a growing number of people are saying the principal façade of this century’s wars is religion. We find that it’s hasty to say such a statement because religion is not the pretext of these wars. As proof, academic studies consistently challenge the link between religion and war. Research published from the New York and Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace looked at all of the wars that took place in 2013. It found no ‘general causal relationship’ between religion and conflict. Surveying the state of 35 armed conflicts from 2013, religious elements did not play a role in 14, or 40 per cent. Nearly two thirds of conflicts in 2013 had among their main cause opposition to a particular government, or opposition to the economic, political or social system of a state. Furthermore, religion did not stand as a single cause in any conflict. Therefore, as religion doesn’t act as a principal cause in this century’s wars, it cannot be used as a façade for these wars.

Argument 2: On the other hand, according to Tony Blair, former British prime minister and one of the leading world leaders of this century, wars of the 21st century can easily be fought around the questions of religious differences. He says that the acts of war are perpetrated by people motivated by an abuse of religion. And he is right: governments often wage wars under the pretext of fighting for their religious freedom or under the pretext of combatting religious extremism. Such is the case in Iraq and other Middle East conflicts, in Afghanistan, Chechenia, the Philippines, Nigeria and many other countries where religious extremism and religious differences are present and can act as pretext for the ongoing conflicts in the countries. And not only belligerents to internal conflicts use religion as a façade for their wars, but powers too. As an example, international the U.S. and other international powers intervened in Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting religious extremism. That could very well be a cause for going to war, but it is more of a façade as there is usually other reasons, economic, political and geopolitical, to go to war. We can therefore make the conclusion that this abuse of religion is what makes the latter the façade of this century’s wars and conflicts.

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