7/29/2019 religious tensions as shaping the politics of contemporary life

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Amelia Tan, Marcelo Mendes, Friday 11-12, 26/03/2011

Today, we witness religious tensions as shaping the politics of contemporary life and resulting in

events which influence society at all levels.

With regards to this sentence, and perhaps because of the media coverage, we do see more of the

religious tensions in the media, be it the newspaper, the TV or the internet. The religious tensions

might be between two separate religions or between different groups in a religion. Back in the

Victorian times, it was the feud between the Protestants and the Catholics that fuelled the war.

Then, during World War 2, it could be said that Hitlers desire to eradicate the Jews, (as stated in The

Final Solution) who were very prosperous and prominent in society formed part of the reason for

creating the second World War.

In the world that we live in, it is, at least in Osama Bin Ladens view, that the war on terror is being

fought between the Zionists and Jews versus the Muslims. He wishes that the world of tomorrow

would be one of purely Islamic teaching without the influence of America, Christianity and Jews.

However, this being said, not all Muslims believe in Bin Ladens view. This is because his version of

Islam can be termed as the Qutbist (from Sunni Islam) form, which is more extreme and radical in

the way the followers of this branch follow the teachings of the Koran. What he doesnt realize or

that he doesnt care is that by doing this, he alienates the Muslims from the rest of the world

because of his beliefs.

There are many examples of religious tensions in the world that are probably not as prominent as

the examples listed in the above paragraphs. For example, there are the religious tensions between

the Christians and the Muslims in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Egypt. After googling

religious tensions it would appear that most of the religious tensions in the world are indeed caused

by the Christians and the Muslims, as shown by the number of results bearing the words Christian,

Muslim and tensions.

Although many religious conflicts in todays society appear to be caused by Christian-Muslim

tensions, there are some that arent. Religious tensions in Sri Lanka between the Hindus (Tamil

Tigers) and the Buddhists (rest of Sri Lanka) resulted in a war that lasted nearly three decades long

and left hundreds of thousands of people dead. The Sri Lankan civil war has also caused Lakshman

Kadirgamar, a prominent and much respected foreign minister to be assassinated. This assassination

prompted the international community to turn a blind eye when the Sri Lankans took military action

against the Tamil Tigers (Hindus) for closing up the gates to the reservoir.

Even though the religious tensions may be between different religions, or between different sects of

the same religion, the final results are the same. They cause the locals to flee the country or the

region where the conflict where they are living in. In addition, religious tensions also cause high

civilian casualty which causes families to be torn apart. They also cause rules such as USAs Patriot

Act (a very controversial rule that, essentially, gives governmental agencies such as the FBI,

Homeland Security free reign to obtain information on anyone in the USA) to be written.