Terrorism and the Pursuit of God
To set out on a suicide mission, to willingly kill thousands of civilians seems unfathomable for many Americans in the wake of the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Why would anyone do something like that? The answer from many sources has been: religion. More specifically, many people are blaming the Islamic religion, the religion that the hijackers are suspected to adhere to, claiming that Islam reveres its martyrs and sanctions war. But the answer is much more complicated than this, and a look at religion and technology can help get a clearer picture of Islam and the events of September 11.
Karen Armstrong, in her book The Battle for God, claims that nearly all religions have a sect of
…show more content…
The Muslims specifically clung to the “constants” of past mythology and mysticism, and a hope for an “ideal” society structured around Muslim law--law that is remarkably similar to that of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Modern American society is anything but the premodern Muslim ideal--and technology is largely to blame. Armstrong says that the rapid technological improvements in Western culture have made ours a society that longs for provable fact and discredits the value of myth on which premodern religion was built. The infiltration of technology has made our culture one that looks to the future for inspiration, and no longer to the past. Premodern religion is not compatible with modern thought, values, and experience.
In many ways, religion has changed with the changing culture as a means of survival. For example, premodern Christians celebrated the Eucharist and believed that the bread and wine became the body and blood of Christ. Modern Christians no longer cling to such a mystical thought, but rather take part in the Eucharist as a memorial act. But the modernization of Christianity happened alongside the modernization of the West; it was a process. The modernization of Islam has been much more difficult.
When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, Western culture was forced onto the “backward, isolated province of the Ottoman empire” (115). To fight the French, Egypt had to modernize its military and its technology. Over the next 40
The reason I picked this book is because I have always been curious about terrorism. Truthfully, I really didn’t expect the book to take the stance it did, which focused mainly on the religious implications of what influences people to commits acts of terror. I liked the fact that the book takes new angles in approaching the search for truth, by focusing on case studies and performing interviews with the people who have committed terrorist acts. This is like getting the insiders view of the inner workings and frame of mind people have before, during, and after they have unswervingly performed the acts of violence.
The prominent effect Islam had on Muslims everyday thoughts and actions, portrays how essential the impact of God was in social and governmental relations. Muslim religion was influenced by both the Christians and Jews. Under the guidance of Muhammad the Prophet, Islam became both a meaningful faith and way of life. Unlike just simply “adding” a church like the Christian religion, Islam society was expected to be governed. Their political and religious views and decisions had to be intertwined as one, proving the effect Islam had on everyday lives. For example, the history book The Making of The West, had written, “Arabs had long been used to
In its Golden Age, Islam’s influence reached all the way to Spain, Anatolia, West Africa, and India, among other regions. While these regions were all, in a way, united under a common religion, each of them both altered and were altered by Islam in their own unique ways. Although there were similarities that existed with the spread of Islam to each of those places, many more differences prevailed. Differences and similarities existed in the forms of the role of migration, role of trade, role of cultural exchange, methods of conversion to Islam, and the unique cultural developments in each region.
When al-Qaeda suicide operatives hijacked and crashed various planes into the Twin towers of the World trade center and the Pentagon, the aftermath of these attacks led to immense losses. In fact, the impact and the resulting fires led to the complete of the twin towers as well as the destruction of the other building with the World Trade Center Complex. While this particular attack seemed like a religious-based attack, there are various arguments that might show that this was not a legitimate reason for carrying out the attacks. There are various arguments that show different perspectives of the events that occurred during the attacks as when compared to what the conventional individual was led to believe.
However, Islamic embraced different cultures and social codes. It introduced its social codes and cultures to the lives of people by first embracing their traditional culture. This means that Christianity called for total
Terror management theory (TMT) asserts that human beings have natural tendency for self-preservation if there is threat to one’s well–being (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997). It notes that we are the cultural animals that pose self-awareness on the concept of past and future, as well as the understanding that one day we will die. We concern about our life and death but aware that it is unexpected by everything. The worse matter is that we become aware of our vulnerability and helplessness when facing death-related thoughts and ultimate demise (Pyszczynski & Greenberg, 1992). The inevitable death awareness or mortality salience provides a ground for experiencing the existential terror, which is the overwhelming concern of people’s
As of today, the world’s two largest religions Christianity and Islam share an estimated 3.6 billion members, more than half of the world’s population. On the surface, they appear to have almost nothing in common, however, as one goes beyond the surface and examines the other factors such as the rituals, beliefs, ethics, founders, and convictions, the two religions share many similarities. However, in order to truly see and understand these similarities and differences, one must date back to the rise and birth of Christianity and Islam.
People say that for a person to know where they are going, they have to know where they came from. To be culturally aware of people outside of your native land, you cannot only study the people’s present state, but you also have to study their past. Learning and understanding the similarities and differences of other cultures, not only makes us stronger as Americans, but it also makes the world stronger. This paper addresses Egypt’s history, present culture and customs, and explains their military capabilities.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks of 2001 and the U.S. military action in Afghanistan, moral questions have arisen. This essay will consider such questions.
Mark Juergensmeyer argues that: religious often provides participates in transnational terrorist movements with the violent certainty necessary to develop extraordinary motivation and to engage in violent actions that appear to violate ethical precepts.
In comparison of Arabic or Muslim organized terrorist groups, the Israeli or Jewish organized terrorist groups are rarely talked about. Certainly I, an ordinary non-Israeli/Arab, have not heard of any terror ‘group’, apart from brutal attacks against the Palestinians perpetuated by Israeli ‘right wings’ (which are framed as violence perpetuated by individuals). Especially in the media of the United States and of its allies, the theme of Jewish religious terrorism is out of the media’s long list of possible headlines; due to the rejection from the media, Muslim- and Arab-led terrorisms in the Middle East region are the only terrorism that the public know of, and the Jewish religious terrorism is out of the sight of many people. But looking at
At the first glance, Islam and Christianity appear to have nothing in common, however; as you go beyond the surface, they appear to have many similarities such as their beliefs of God, their beliefs of life after death, their holy scriptures, and their prayers. These religions, although are two entirely different beliefs, share a similar origin. Like many other religions, they both claim to be the one and only true way to God. In order to truly see and understand their similarities, one must date back to the rise and birth of Christianity and Islam. Throughout the course of this essay, I will compare the many facets that show the alikeness between these two growing religions.
There may be some Muslims who are terrorists, but not all Muslims are terrorist and Islam as a religion does not promote terrorism and defines as a religion of peace.
There are usually a few kids every year who remove fingers trying to build home