Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Piety And Mayhem: How Extremist Groups Misuse Religious Doctrine To Condone Violence And Achieve Political Goals, Noah Garber May 2020

Piety And Mayhem: How Extremist Groups Misuse Religious Doctrine To Condone Violence And Achieve Political Goals, Noah Garber

Religious Studies Honors Papers

This thesis examines the way in which various groups have used religion as a justification for violent action towards political ends. From the Irgun, which carried out terrorist acts in Palestine, to the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas, which has waged war on Israel, to the Buddhist leadership of Myanmar, which has waged a genocidal campaign against Rohingya Muslims living in the country, these groups have employed a narrow interpretation of their religious texts as a means to justify the actions they take. It is explained that it is not the compulsion of religious doctrine itself that is to blame, rather, …


Legitimizing Violence: Functional Similarities Of The Religious And The Secular Violence, Tahir Topal Feb 2020

Legitimizing Violence: Functional Similarities Of The Religious And The Secular Violence, Tahir Topal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As a consequence of the separation between religion and politics, known as secularism, the discussion about violence has also been divided into two main categories –Religious Violence and Non-Religious Violence– in the modern Western academia. The tendency of the leading scholarly work in the discourse of "religious violence" is that "religion" is inclined to be violent more than secular institutions for several reasons. Therefore, the state's violence, as being secular, steps in to bring peace. And the foundational cause of the theories relies heavily on the essential differences of "religion" and the secular. With counter-arguments, William T. Cavanaugh and Talal …