Violence

Introduction

In the long era of human history, religion has been a key contributor to bloodshed, war, intolerance, and hatred. However, religion also has laws and ideas that provide a cultural commitment to peace-related values. Christians usually present their religion as a religion of peace and love and Islam presented as a religion of sword and war. With the increase in violence nowadays, it is necessary to investigate the problem and know why it has been accelerating in its growth instead of getting less in the society.

Christianity and Islam on violence

In discussing violence in the two religions, the Bible tends to stress more on love and mercy. Thus, Christians have the command to love their enemies and turn the other cheek when stricken on one. The Bible tends to reduce the whole law to loving God and loving one’s neighbor. In considering violence in both religions, terrorism tends to have nothing to do with Muhammad the same as crusades had nothing to do with Jesus (Nozell, 2014). Christianity does not condone violence as one theme of the Sermon on the Mount is the Christ’s expectation that his followers be characterized by peace and not violence or war. The Christ followers, Christians, should live a way that leads to peace, which is totally the opposite of life characterized by violence. In the Bible, there are many scriptures that support the truth that Christians are to pursue peace with all people, Galatians, 5:22, James 3:17 and Hebrews 12:14 (Sizgorich, 2012).

Similar to Christians, Islam does not condone violence. The Quran usually talk about peace; however, in some sense, it talks about violence. The Quran tend to affirm the universal right of self-defense. There is the teaching that to those against whom war is made, there is permission given to fight because they are wronged (Stackhouse et al. 2000). In Islam, violence is a sense of protecting oneself from the ones attacking you. The Quran teach that when someone attacks you, you should fight back. Islam forbids any aggression or committing excesses as not all wars and fighting are for just reasons or for seeking or maintaining peace. In Islam, there is the term Jihad, which means the religious duty of Muslims to maintaining the religion. The start of Jihad traces back to the words and the actions of Muhammad and Quran. It tends to motivate the use of Jihad against non-Muslims (Sizgorich, 2012).

Treating violent people

In Christianity, the Bible teaches that those who do wrong should face the law. Christians usually expect the law to deal with the violent people in the society. In Christianity, there are times when ignoring the wrong done to people or the injuries inflicted upon people can be the failure of performing our duty. Christians believe that they should never permit the guilty to escape from justice. When following the teachings of Jesus, permitting evil to go unpunished or to profit from its evil, is evil itself (Gish, 2012). Christians believe that they should never turn the evil doers loose on the society to inflict more evil on others. When dealing with the violent people in the society, Christians normally expect the justice system to take the cause and solve the problem.

Islam is a religion that does not support those people who are violent. For instance with the attack that happened in the offices of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, it left many people shocked, saddened, and infuriated. The incident led to the death of 12 people who died just because they used their free speech to publish provocative content. The message published in the magazine offended Muslims; however, the way they reacted in the situation was wrong on very many levels. People lost their lives due to the unconscionable and unjustifiable terrorist attack. The act of the Muslims, in this case, was not right as the Quran tend to discourage indecent behavior or to hurt other’s sensitivities regardless of whether there is a valid reason (Nozell, 2014). Prophet Muhammad did call his followers to human decency, integrity, sensitivity through restraint which is a virtue encompassing patience, forgiveness, truth, benevolence, and abstention from injury (Stackhouse et al. 2000). 

Islam is a religion that does not usually support people that violently censor free speech. The Quran guarantees the freedom of speech through direct instruction and also recalling how Muhammad was insulted to his face, and he never retaliated (Gish, 2012). Despite being insulted, Muhammad did not retaliate or called for the attack on these people. The Quran tell believers not to get provoked by those people who seem to attack Islam. It states that let not people’s enmity incite you to act otherwise than with justice. When dealing with violent people in the society, some Islam just like Christians responds by allowing justice to take its cause through leaving the issue to the authorities (Stackhouse et al. 2000). However, some tend to ignore the words of the Quran and respond to violence with violence. Similar to some Christians, some of the Muslims tend to follow the eye for an eye rule and when they are dealing with violent people. However, most Muslims and Christians usually consider reporting the violent people to the authorities so as to ensure that there is justice for people.

Islam and Christianity stop violence

Islam and Christianity try stopping violence through speaking against it. The Muslim leaders together with the Christian leaders normally consider speaking against the violent acts conducted by people. For instance, after the bombing in London July 7, 2005, more than 500 leaders of Islam in the Great Britain issued a religious declaration that the random violence against anyone is not an Islamic act (Stackhouse et al. 2000). The leaders indicated that most Muslims are peaceful and demanded that the violent group to stop defending their actions by claiming that they killed infidels in the name of Allah. The Muslim leaders tend not to support the acts of the violent people and only approve the majority voice of peaceful Islam as it tries to control the violent groups (Gish, 2012). Such is an effort that the religious leaders take that is sometimes successful in dealing with violence than any of the police and military effort in preventing violence.

Both Muslims and Christianity help in stopping the problem of violence through providing the teachings in the holy book, the Quran, and Bible. The reason most Christians and Muslims engage in violent acts is because they do not have a clear understanding of what the Quran and the Bible teach (Nozell, 2014). The misunderstanding of the holy books tends to lead to the violence. However, as the religious leaders provide the teaching and explain what the verses mean, they help in providing an explanation of the books. In this way, they help in avoiding misunderstanding and spreading the word of peace to those who may be feels like they should act violently.

Solving violence in a moderate way

Religion has a legacy in the human history regarding violence and peace. There are an inordinate number of values among the global religions that can provide useful tools for engaging in negotiation, conflict management, and violence prevention (Nozell, 2014). Religious jurisprudence in most cultures can provide ways of interpreting and reinterpret traditions in a manner that move religious institutions towards the civil virtues such as human rights and conflict resolution.

Religion can play a significant role in solving this problem in the society. The peaceful religious leaders can consider creating problems that will help change the minds of the young Christian and Muslim men trained to kill themselves and others in the name of God. When the country uses religious leaders to convert violent people, the militants can no longer claim that they were oppressed by infidels (Sacks, 2015). Killing, torturing, imprisoning and humiliating the violent people tend to create more violent people who are willing to sacrifice themselves in the struggle against the evil deeds committed by the oppressors. Rather that torturing and humiliating them, it is important that we should focus on converting them to peaceful people. With this solution, it will require taking the violent people into custody where they are not able to make more bombs, and they cannot commit more acts of violence against their perceived enemies. When in custody, the government can consider establishing peaceful, non-violent means of deprogramming them (Sacks, 2015). When these people are in custody, they should be under the care of not the military authorities but by religious leaders who make up the majority of the faith.

When the violent people are in custody, they should not have any contact with other violent people, which is possible through controlling all means of communication. Peaceful religious leaders should run the holding places where they have a setting of helping the former violent people so as to change their thinking and embrace peaceful Christianity and Islam than the violent form that they learned earlier.

Conclusion

Religion tends to have a dual legacy in the human history regarding violence and peach. The religious actors play an essential role in resolving violence in the society. In solving violence, it is possible to use religion and teach people how not to hate and fight and teach about love and forgiveness. Most people consider religion as being the source of bloodshed and violence in the society. Although it is a claim true at some point, we can also use religion in solving the problem. Religious leaders can play a role in explaining the teachings of the Bible and the Quran so as to ensure that followers of the different religious groups do not participate in violent acts, but retain peace by all means. Peaceful religious people can be of great help in diminishing violence between humans.

Reference

Gish, A (2012). Muslim, Christian, Jew Wipf and Stock Publishers

Nozell, M (2014). Religious Leaders Countering Extremist Violence. 

Paeth, S Dearborn, T & Stackhouse, M (2000). The local church in a global era. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Sacks, J (2015). How to defeat religious violence. The Wall Street Journal. 

Sizgorich, T (2012). Violence and belief in late antiquity. University of Pennsylvania Press

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in non plagiarized research papers if you need a similar paper you can place your order for best custom essay site.