Religious war

From Free net encyclopedia

For other uses see Holy War

Please expand this article.
This template may be found on the article's talk page, where there may be further information. Alternatively, more information might be found at Requests for expansion.
Please remove this message once the article has been expanded.

Template:References

A religious war is a war justified by religious differences. The European Wars of Religion, the Crusades, and the Reconquista are frequently cited historical examples.

While there are undoubtedly wars fought primarily on religious grounds, wars frequently have multiple and complex causes. Saint Augustine is credited as being the first to detail a "Just War" Theory within Christianity, whereby war is justifiable on religious grounds. Saint Thomas Aquinas elaborated on these criteria and his writings were used by the Roman Catholic Church to regulate the actions of European countries. In modern times religious designations are frequently used as shorthand for cultural and historical differences between combatants, giving the impression that the conflict is primarily about religious differences. For example, The Troubles in Northern Ireland are frequently seen as a conflict between Catholic and Protestant. However, the more fundamental cause is the attachment of Northern Ireland to either the Republic of Ireland or the United Kingdom. As the native Irish were mostly Catholic, and the later English-sponsored immigrants mainly Protestant, the terms become shorthand for the two cultures. It cannot be denied, however, that religion does play a part in the conflict, as churches are used as organizing points for demonstrations, and as Protestants are far more likely to oppose union with the Catholic-dominated Republic.

1 Jihad
2 Conflicts
3 References
4 External links

[edit]

Jihad

Template:Main The Islamic term "jihad" (literally "struggle") can refer to religious war ("lesser jihad"), though historically, the concept refers to an inward striving for perfect faith ("greater jihad"). However, over time the term "jihad" has come to refer more to a physical war.

There has come some dispute to the previous comment, whether the "greater" or "lesser" form of jihad refers to physical combat or an inner struggle. The debate comes from a hadith, or narration from the Prophet Muhammad, where he was quoted as saying, after returning from combat, "We have returned from the lesser jihad (jihad al-asghar) to the greater jihad (jihad al-akbar)".

Some view the greater jihad to be that of "the sword," or physical combat, using multiple references to the importance of fighting (al-qital) in the Qur'an and narrations from the hadith as evidence. Beside all of this, both sides of the debate agree that the physical fight requires an initial overcoming of spiritual dismay, which is itself an inner struggle; thus, intellectually, one could derive that both struggles, the physical and the spiritual, are encompassing one of the other. Likewise, the spiritual success supposedly leads one to yearn to fight for the sake of God, whether in pure defense or preemptive strikes, so the actual fulfilment of such inner struggle is requisite to the purity of the outward struggle.

[edit]

Conflicts

The view upon religions versus another is very debatable. For example, in the USA, and in other places around Europe, many people would agree that terrorism is part of an ongoing war of religion. However, who is fighting who is the main topic that is so hard to define. Is it Muslims vs. Christianity? Or is it Middle East vs. The West? Many people have different views, definitions and opinions upon this subject.

[edit]