Religious War

In the Middle East, it is Shiite Muslims versus Sunnite Muslims versus Zionist Jews versus antiZionist Jews versus Maronite Christians versus Greek Orthodox Christians versus Druze versus ... (Vatikiotis, 1971). The Persian Gulf War began with a conflict between two Muslim nations over the solidly material questions of territory and oil, but it at once acquired religious overtones, with Saddam Hussein attempting to proclaim a Muslim jihad, or holy war, against infidel American Christians and Israeli Jews.

The bitter irony of religious war is that all the religions named teach peace and love among human beings, yet religious conflicts tend to be among the most ruthless. The annals of religious conflict are stained with massacres of men, women, children, even household pets and farm animals, all committed in the name of God. Holy warriors have shown themselv

. . .
anka, and of course Jews against Arabs in Israel. Even when no ethnic distinctions are obvious, they may be present to the experienced observer  and glaring to the people involved. The IndianEnglish term "communalism" is indicative of what is often found. In Northern Ireland, Protestants and Catholics look the same and speak the same language. An American cannot readily tell them apart. But the two groups live in separate communities. They not only go to different churches, they also go to different schools, taverns, and shops. A whole folklore exists in Northern Ireland as to how to tell Catholics from Protestants (Theroux, 1983: 263; 267). Their very names set them apart; names like Patrick carry a builtin communal tag  Catholic, in this case. Likewise, most of the warring parties in Lebanon are Arabs, sharing a language and much of their culture, yet the walls between communities are high, and these walls are erected primarily along religious lines. At the same time, in other parts of the world, people of differing religious communities live at peace alongside one another. People of many faiths mingle with little religionbased conflict in American society, though America is enough of a "melting
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Holy Land, Jews Arabs, Lebanon Arabs, Christianity Islam, Blues Greens, Israeli Jews, Islam Judaism, Satan Iranians, Europe Netherlands, Hebrew Scripture, holy war, middle east, religious conflict, holy land, muslims versus, northern ireland, religious conflicts, northern ireland protestants, christianity islam, sri lanka, judaism christianity, holy war infidel, jihad holy war, judaism christianity islam, irony religious war,
Approximate Word count = 1408
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Religious War