Religious violence

Religious violence covers phenomena where religion is either the included or the object of violent behavior. All a religions of the world contain narratives, symbols, as well as metaphors of violence together with war. Religious violence is violence that is motivated by, or in reaction to, religious precepts, texts, or the doctrines of a transmitted or an attacker. It includes violence against religious institutions, people, objects, or events. Religious violence does not exclusively put acts which are committed by religious groups, instead, it includes acts which are committed against religious groups.

"Violence" is a very broad concept which is difficult to define because it is for used against both human and non-human objects. Furthermore, the term can denote a wide nature of experiences such(a) as blood shedding, physical harm, forcing against personal freedom, passionate move or language, or emotions such(a) as fury and passion.

"Religion" is a complex and problematic sophisticated western concept. Though there is no scholarly consensus over what a religion is, today religion is loosely considered an image which entails beliefs, doctrines, and sacred places. The joining between religious theory and behavior is problematic. Decades of anthropological, sociological, and psychological research work proven the falsehood of the given that behaviors directly follow from religious beliefs and values because people's religious ideas are fragmented, broadly connected, and context-dependent just like any other domains of culture and life. In general, religions, ethical systems, and societies rarely promote violence as an end in itself since violence is universally undesirable. At the same time, there is a universal tension between the general desire to avoid violence and the acceptance of justifiable uses of violence to prevent a "greater evil" that permeates all cultures.

Religious violence, like all forms of violence, is a cultural process which is context-dependent and very complex. Oversimplifications of "religion" and "violence" often lead to misguided understandings of causes for why some people commit acts of violence and why nearly people never commit such acts in the number one place. Violence is perpetrated for a wide variety of ideological reasons and religion is generally only one of numerous contributing social and political factors that can lead to unrest. Studies of supposed cases of religious violence often conclude that violence is strongly driven by ethnic animosities rather than by religious worldviews. Due to the complex nature of both religion and violence, it is commonly unclear whether religion is a significant make of violence.

Definition of violence

Violence is difficult to define because the term is a complicated concept which broadly carries descriptive and evaluative components which range from harming non-human objects to human self-harm. Ralph Tanner cites the definition of violence in the Oxford English Dictionary as "far beyond the infliction of pain and the shedding of blood." He argues that, although violence clearly encompasses injury to persons or property, it also includes "the forcible interference in personal freedom, violent or passionate advance or Linguistic communication and finally passion or fury." Similarly, Abhijit Nayak writes:

The word "violence" can be defined to extend far beyond pain and shedding blood. It carries the meaning of physical force, violent language, fury, and, more importantly, forcible interference.

Terence Fretheim writes:

For numerous people, ... only physical violence truly qualifies as violence. But, certainly, violence is more than killing people, unless one includes all those words and actions that kill people slowly. The issue of limitation to a “killing fields” perspective is the widespread neglect of many other forms of violence. We must insist that violence also refers to that which is psychologically destructive, that which demeans, damages, or depersonalizes others. In view of these considerations, violence may be defined as follows: any action, verbal or nonverbal, oral or written, physical or psychical, active or passive, public or private, individual or institutional/societal, human or divine, in whatever measure of intensity, that abuses, violates, injures, or kills. Some of the almost pervasive and most dangerous forms of violence are those that are often hidden from view against women and children, especially; just beneath the surface in many of our homes, churches, and communities is abuse enough to freeze the blood. Moreover, many forms of systemic violence often slip past our attention because they are so much a component of the infrastructure of life e.g., racism, sexism, ageism.