POLITICAL DOMINION
"Once started religious strife has a tendency to go on and on, to become permanent feuds. Today we see such intractable inter-religious wars in Northern Ireland, between Jews and Muslims and Christians in Palestine, Hindus and Muslims in South Asia and in many other places. Attempts to bring about peace have failed again and again. Always the extremist elements invoking past injustices, imagined or real, will succeed in torpedoing the peace efforts and bringing about another bout of hostility." Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, addressing the World Evangelical Fellowship on May 4, 2001.
The Prime Minister of Malaysia was describing religious politics throughout history and the world. Although we see a mixture of economics, race, ethnic, and other factors, religion is substantially or completely responsible for the injury, death, and destruction from the wars described below.
Afghanistan is home to radical fundamentalist Muslim terrorists. Osama Bin Laden is the leader of Al Quaeda (The Source) in Afghanistan. They were supported by the Taliban, the Muslim political party that controlled the country. Death tolls for Al Quaeda include bombings of African U.S. Embassies, USS Cole, and the destruction on September 11, 2001, in New York City, NY, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania.
In Bosnia, peacekeepers are trying to keep a fragile peace between Serbian Christians and Muslims.
The Côte d'Ivoire security forces for the government of President Gbagbo started in 2000 cleansing their nation of Muslims and traditional local religions in the North. In 2002 there was a military uprising.
Then, it turns out that Mrs. Gbagbo, the president's wife, who is known to support the armed gangs and death squads that have done so much damage in Abidjan, is an evangelical Christian. What she really wants is to turn Ivory's internal conflict into a holy war against Muslims. (2)
Cyprus has been a battle ground between Christians and Muslims for generations and the UN is currently keeping the peace on the partitioned island. While the Christians control the larger and better part of the island and are wealthier than the poor and smaller portion of Cyprus controlled by the Muslims, the Christians refuse to tolerate or act with charity towards their Muslim neighbors.
In mostly Roman Catholic East Timor, when the country was taken over by Indonesia, mostly Muslim, 20% of its population, about 250,000, died by murder, starvation or disease. Muslim militias engaged in a program of genocide, religious cleansing, and near total destruction of the country's infrastructure.
Ambon Island in Indonesia experienced extensive war between Christians and Muslims in 1999.
Halmahera in Indonesia experienced 30 people known to have been killed, 2,000 Christians were forced to leave and their homes and churches were destroyed.
India is home to extensive conflicts between Animists, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. (3)
Kashmir continues to be fought over by Pakistan and India because Pakistan is predominantly Muslim and India predominantly Hindu.
The religion/ethnic cleansing in Kosovo involved the same sectarian players as in Bosnia, above.
Kurdistan is home to the Kurds who are the largest ethnic group in the world without a homeland. The history of religious violence involving the Kurds and the Muslims in whose countries they reside is extensive. Kurdistan is part of Russia, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey.
Christians and Muslims are continually at war in Macedonia, Nigeria, Philippines, Chechnya, the Sudan and Uganda. In Uganda, the Lords Resistance Army is attempting to create a Christian theocracy based on the Ten Commandments. The Christians are accused of kidnapping 2,000 children a year and raping and enslaving them.
Christians are accused of killing hundreds of witches every year in South Africa.
The minority Tamil Hindus battling the majority Buddhist population is responsible for nearly 65,000 dead in Sri Lanka. (4)
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Political Dominion: Pages 1, (2), 3, 4, 5,
