Russell Jacoby, a history professor at UCLA, writes in “Bloodlust – Why we should fear our neighbours more than strangers” regarding the actual threat from those we know being greater than the perceived threat of unknown and dangerous strangers.
In the article he mentions 18 conflicts. Analysing and simplifying the cause, we find that of these, the predominant cause of 11 relates unambiguously to religious differences (the Lebanese civil war, the World Trade Centre bombing, Southern Sudan, Israel/Lebanon 2006, Somalia, Iraq Sunni v Shi’ite, Bernard Lewis’ “Clash of Civilisations”, Huguenots v Catholics, Germans v Jews during WWII, and Cain v Abel), four to extreme political conflict (the Ghandi assassination, the Russian civil war, the Peloponnesian War, Bosnia-Herzegovina) and two to tribal or ethnic conflict (Tutsi vs. Hutu in Rwanda, Hema v Lendu in north-eastern Congo). Nine of the conflicts Dr Jacoby mentions involve Islam.
Looking at what motivates much of this extreme violence, it’s clear that it involves ‘belief’ which, for the purpose of this comment, I define as “an opinion held to be true on the basis of faith, in that it can be neither verified nor falsified.”
Belief as a motivating factor to quash dissenting opinion by means of killing is clear where religion is concerned. I would suggest that belief is also a common factor in political situations, where in extremis, a believer holds that the political view espoused is so true and so right, that any means to institute and maintain it are justified. In this respect it becomes tyrannical, and little different to religious tyranny.
And that covers pretty much everything! So watch out for extreme belief. Indeed, it could be living next door.
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