Introduction to the Theme, “Religion and Violence”

Following the cataclysm of September 11, 2001, violence became a topic for public discourse in many different settings, and religious communities of all faiths were challenged to address the strange proximity of violence and religion. There were powerful demonstrations of people of all faiths coming together to manifest solidarity between people of different faiths, to do whatever could be done to make sure that the definition of religion is not violence and hatred. Jews, Christians, and Muslims came together, in and outside the United States, showing that they wanted to hold on to each other; they wanted to strengthen each other in mutual support. There were many expressions of interreligious prayer; there were demonstrations to counter the expressions of stereotypes and simplistic generalizations, of which there were quite a few, such as stories of indiscriminate harassment of Arabs and Muslims and people who “looked like” Arabs or Muslims.

In spite of the warnings against collectively blaming a religious or ethnic community or treating such communities as suspects, there were fears in the U.S. Islamic community. The Council of American-Islamic Relations suggested in a press release that “those who wear Islamic attire should consider staying out of public areas for the immediate future.” Some media images seemed to nurture Islamophobia and led to simplistic stereotypes: “All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims.” Manifestations of interfaith solidarity are important, but at the same time we need to probe deeper into the complexities of religious plurality. Many of us have been engaged in interreligious dialogue for a number of years. We have seen that, in spite of all our talk about dialogue in community, religion is not an innocent bystander in conflicts. We know it but we may not have fully internalized it. In dialogue we have been looking more for the ideals of religion and have not really recognized the less peaceful dimension of religion. This may have been necessary in the days when we were about to build the dialogue, focusing on the finest characteristics of our religions to allow our counterparts to discover the depth and richness of our religious tradition.

September 11 put the issue of religion and violence squarely on the table of religion. There are many who now expect an honest and open answer. They are not interested in people of religion now becoming apologetic, seeking to save the skin of religion, but that they help people relate constructively to religion rather than estrange them even more. They say: “Should not religion provide tranquility and peace? And, what do we see, violence and terror?” People ask themselves how they are to understand religion. A number of people express the view that the greatest danger to world peace is, in fact, religion. A friend of mine at an interreligious meeting began his presentation in the following way: “When I told a colleague that I was invited to a conference on World Religions responding to Global Threats, he feigned a hearing disability and said, ‘That’s right; world religions are global threats!’ ”

For many, religion has acquired a frightening dimension. People wonder about the link between religion and violence. The so-called return of religion is not looked upon entirely as a blessing. The title of one of Gilles Kepel’s books, La Revanche de Dieu (the Revenge of God), has acquired a sinister meaning. Some had thought that religion was dead. Now it is back with a vengeance, and for many people it has become synonymous with everything that is negative rather than constructive for our life together.

As Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and Muslims, we are well aware of violent strands in our cultures and histories. Violence lurks as a shadowy presence. There is something dark and mysterious about violence in religion. Images of death are at the heart of religion and the way we relate to our own death and the death of others cannot be dissociated from the question of violence. We know it from Emile Durkheim and others. We may have studied violence and religion as a...