The Root Causes of Terrorism The Root Causes of Terrorism : A Religious Studies Perspective Edited by Mahmoud Masaeli and Rico Sneller The Root Causes of Terrorism: A Religious Studies Perspective Edited by Mahmoud Masaeli and Rico Sneller This book first published 2017 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2017 by Mahmoud Masaeli, Rico Sneller and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-1680-9 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-1680-9 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .............................................................................................. viii Religion: Between Violence and non-Violence Mahmoud Masaeli and Rico Sneller Chapter One ................................................................................................. 1 Biblical Stories and Religion as the Root Cause of Terrorism Paul Cliteur Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 27 To the Encouragement of the Knight of Faith Timo Slootweg Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 46 Religion in Itself or Exclusivist Interpretation: Is Religion Inherently Violent? Mahdi Fadaei Mehrabani Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 63 Killing the Heirs of the Killers: Collective Memory, Religion and Violent Conflict Lucien van Liere Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 78 Offense and Injury at the Denigration of Religion Christoph Baumgartner Chapter Six ................................................................................................ 94 Dying for God or Justifying a Cause: Religious Legitimation in the Suicide Bombings Halil Aydinalp Chapter Seven .......................................................................................... 114 Political Violence vs. Civilizational Violence: Shall I Call Them Anxious Groups? Mojtaba Fazeli vi Table of Contents Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 129 Staging Terrorism: Camus’ The Just Assassins Ruud Welten Chapter Nine ............................................................................................ 142 The Apocalyptic War against Gog of Magog: Martin Buber versus Meir Kahane Rico Sneller Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 164 Hinduism’s Proactive Prescription against Terrorism: Principle of Tolerance and Dutiful Action Monica Prabhakar Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 198 Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place? Muslims and a Multidimensional Emancipatory Discourse Mojtaba Mahdavi Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 219 Analysing the Ideological Roots of Terrorism: La Civiltà Cattolica and Catholic Responses to Islamic Fundamentalism in the Twenty-first Century Marco Ceccarelli Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 241 Dialogue as a Weapon against Violent Extremism: Jesuit Responses to Persecuted Christian Minorities in the Islamic World Marco Ceccarelli Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 258 The Paradox of Non-Violent Religions and Violent Cultural Practices: Igbo Nigeria Africans Stanley Uche Anozie Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 280 The Culture of Political Corruption and the Emergence of Terrorism in Nigeria Kanu, Ikechukwu Anthony The Root Causes of Terrorism: A Religious Studies Perspective vii Chapter Sixteen ....................................................................................... 292 Violence and Religion in Classical and Medieval Japan Enrico Giulia Chapter Seventeen ................................................................................... 309 South Asia’s Violent Landscape: Counter Terrorism in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan Saroj Kumar Rath Chapter Eighteen ..................................................................................... 346 A Comparative Analysis: Theological and Strategic Foundations of Militant Salafi Jihadism Casey Brunelle Chapter Nineteen ..................................................................................... 374 Religious Terrorism in Turkey Mutay Öztemiz den Butter Chapter Twenty ....................................................................................... 401 Islamic Terrorism and Islamic Radicalization in the Russian Federation Dmitry Foryy INTRODUCTION RELIGION: BETWEEN VIOLENCE AND NON-VIOLENCE MAHMOUD MASAELI AND RICO SNELLER Everybody seems to know today what we mean when we speak about religion and violence. Hearing these words, we can hardly avoid thinking of ISIS, Boko Haram, al-Qaeda, and other religiously acclaimed terrorist actions, and of the cruel performance they give on the world stage. Fifteen years after the tragic event of September 11th, and less than one year from the attacks in Paris, bombs are still blasted, and innocent people are being killed by terrorist groups. A fact that is basically ignored is that many victims of terrorism are themselves believers in God, often Muslims, who step away from the violent reading of their religion. A short look at the terrorist events in the last two decades reveals the fact that more than anyone else, innocent people of the Middle East, who are religiously inspired, are paying for the viciousness of terrorism. Most of these sinisterly threatening events are motivated by religious claims or are taking place in religiously affected places. In this turbulent context of the nastiness of terrorist violence, the first question that preoccupies us is whether religious faith is indeed the main stimulus of terrorist acts. But, do we really know what “religious faith” is? Or violence? Is religion the main cause of terrorism, or does terrorism still arise because of leaders who brainwash and coach future terrorists so that they kill under the banner of religion? Religious imagination seems to hold here an influential power in the creation of “delusion”, orienting the “bigoted” believers toward the fulfillment of their religious duty against those who are religious in a different way or are not religious at all. Religion, in this sense, is tightly allied with political aspirations, as can be seen in most of the current instances. In spite of the religious justification of the act of killing, “enlightened” religious leaders and religious minded people believe and argue that The Root Causes of Terrorism: A Religious Studies Perspective ix religion is a source of love and affection. Therefore, they say, since the ultimate message of religion is about the appreciation of the principle of humanity, the sacred texts of religious traditions must be read from a “humanist” perspective. This is a growing attitude among many religious people today who believe that God is merciful and compassionate, hence never orders resentment, violence, and killing of innocent people. In addition, they hold that no true religious tradition appreciates self-serving interpretations promoting violence against others. If religion disregards love, affection, and compassion as its essence, it drops into the dire vortex of ideological dogma, as it is observed, for example, in the case of ISIS and Boko Haram, the two main currents of today’s terrorism. Therefore, they conclude, any interpretation that admits violence and acts of killing would be a mere provincial reading of the religious texts, agitated by purposeful intentions aiming at political goals. In this light, a conceptual clarification seems indispensable, even if this leads to further obfuscation. For once we try to get a grip on both concepts, we might discover that we all too soon lose track of their alleged susceptibility to reflective manipulation. Religion As this volume is concerned with religion, we will start proposing some thoughts about this difficult notion. Easy as it seems to go from the signifier religion to its signified referent (viz., Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, etc.), things become more complex when we consider the signifier’s origin. Religion comes from the Latin religio, a term primarily portraying a political, rather than an ontological, and let alone a religious, interest. The Roman Empire had to deal with its many cultural practices, the majority of which it allowed for, and some of which it forbade. Judaism counted as religio licita, whereas the up-and-coming Christianity was a religio illicita, its adherents considered atheists. There used to be no ancient Hebrew word for “religion” (contemporary Hebrew, drawing on biblical Hebrew, resorts to the word dat, originally meaning “knowledge”), and it is doubtful if Jesus would have understood what it means to be religious. The first Christians, coming from both Roman occupied Israel and elsewhere, obviously did not have a word for their belief system either, let alone that they considered their beliefs in terms of a system. The contemporary Arabic word used for “religion” is din, an originally Persian word also used in Zoroastrianism and among Christian Arabs, which expresses something like “the right way.” In the Qur’an,