Religion
Religion is closely connected with culture and presents one of the most important elements of worldview. Religions often include a system of rules or social norms that the followers must abide by to be blessed or to avoid divine punishment. Furthermore, religion outlines the system of moral values for the population through descriptions of virtues. Thus, religion significantly influences intercultural communication through its impact on the population’s perceptions, the system of values, and behavior. Moreover, religions can perceive intercultural communication differently depending on their views on violence and conflicts.
Religion as Cultural Warrant for Violence
There are multiple ways in which religious teachings can be politicized as weapons. Firstly, religion is based on faith, which means that it does not require evidence. Therefore, it is much easier to come up with a reason for a religious conflict than a conflict based on economic grounds. Next, regardless of the conflict’s motive, religion provides strong motivation for the participants, which may justify the use of violent methods. Lastly, religions can favor forceful conversions and persecution of dissenters, which also leads to conflicts.
Islam occupies a unique position among other religions because it also provides a foundation for political ideology. For example, the mosque in Islamic society fulfills three important roles: it acts as a worship center, community center, and political center, where governmental activities are discussed freely by Muslims (Williamson et al., 2022). Thus, religion has a close connection with politics, and there are many messages in the sacred scripture of Islam, the Quran. The main political message in the scripture explains God’s role as the creator and master of everything in the universe (Quran 2:255).
The excerpt is generally acknowledged as one of the most important verses in the sacred scripture and is commonly referred to as the Throne Verse. Firstly, the excerpt provides a significant context to social life because it outlines the Islamic perspective on wealth. Thus, even though personal wealth is not encouraged by the scripture, proper financial management of resources using lawful methods presents an obligation for all Muslims to protect God’s property. Next, Muslims perceive worshipping other gods or deities than Allah as a sin. Thus, the message allows Muslims to criticize other religions, such as Christianity and Judaism. However, the scripture also encourages peaceful relationships between the followers of different religions.
Religion for Peacemaking
On the contrary, religion can promote tolerance, equality, and peacemaking in the followers. For example, the concept of peace presents a valuable component of Judaism. In fact, the traditional greeting in Hebrew also translates as the word ‘peace’ (shalom). Furthermore, the name of King Solomon, son of David, comes from the same word and can be translated as peaceful. Thus, many parts of the Hebrew Bible emphasize the importance of peace.
Tolerance and understanding are highly valued in Christianity, contributing to defining contemporary equality values. Thus, Christianity promotes compassion, denial of prejudice, self-reflection, and peacemaking. The experts suggest that the influence of Christianity’s values can be traced in a modern democracy, even though Christianity is not the source of the idea of democracy. Thus, the idea about the government’s advocacy of vulnerable populations is sourced in Christianity.
The messages of intolerance and discrimination inciting hatred and violence are not common in the scriptures. However, such persecutions may arise in relation to the violation of the moral norms of religion. Thus, the messages calling for violence can be defined in those parts of the scriptures describing punishments for violating religious standards. Furthermore, as sacred texts can be interpreted or translated in different ways, some explanations of punishment can be misinterpreted as a call to violence.
In my opinion, the messages in religious scriptures were needed to ensure order in society before the creation of laws. Furthermore, as religion does not require evidence, it is easier to use it to manipulate the population in the interests of the people in power. Thus, when wars were fought not for natural resources but for entire territories, religion provided a substantial reason to spread the influence of one nation over smaller nations in the region. Lastly, religion unites the population and motivates it to protect the state’s interests.
Reference
Williamson, S., Yildirim, A., Grewal, S., & Kuenkler, M. (2022). Preaching politics: How politicization undermines religious authority in the Middle East. British Journal of Political Science, 1-20. Web.