It is a dismal truth that many of the world's most intractable conflicts are fought not over power or land or wealth, but over religion. Mentally spin a globe and consider the present day world's major "trouble spots." Strife in Latin America is based on economic class, and in South Africa on color. But in Northern Ireland it is Protestants versus Catholics. In the Sudan it is Muslims versus Christians and animists (that is, believers in traditional natural powers). In Sri Lanka it is Buddhists versus Hindus. In India, a scene of increasing "communal" violence, it is Hindus versus Muslims.
In the Middle East, it is Shiite Muslims versus Sunnite Muslims versus Zionist Jews versus anti Zionist 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 themselves to be merciless and implacable, unable to let go of the past or to compromise in the present.
The irony of religious war is particularly bitter in the Middle East, since all three of the religions engaged there Judaism, Christianity, and Islam derive from the same tradition and worship the same God. (Allah is simply the Arabic language word for God, related to the Hebrew El; Arab Christians address their prayers to "Allah.") Christians revere t...