Throughout history, Christians and Muslims have often clashed along political lines. Past conflict between American Christians and Islamic peoples had its origin in politics, as shown by the violence between Muslim Barbary pirates and Americans in the early 19th century. Politics also influenced the genocide of Christian Armenians in Ottoman Empire, which was predominantly Muslim, inciting mass outrage by American Christians against Muslims. Finally, the 9/11 attacks carried out by radical Islamic terrorists, which renewed a Christians-versus-Muslims discourse, were connected to past American Cold War politics. Politics was therefore the primary cause of conflict between Christians and Muslims, since each group dominated certain nations that
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Since Turkey was a Muslim state, the Armenians, most of which were Christians alongside being an ethnic minority, were already at risk for being targeted. However, politics, and not religion, was what ultimately caused the genocide; Kidd states that the fear “that the Armenians would revolt in the event of a Russian invasion” motivated the government-sanctioned killings. Since Turkey had allied with Germany in World War I, concerns about the Armenians’ political stance caused the government to retaliate with a genocide. As Christian missionary James Barton argued, “Muslim intolerance [of Christianity] … was only a tool for Turkish political domination.” Drawing on the fact that Islam was Turkey’s official religion, the government used the Armenians’ Christian faith to justify the violence. The politicization of Islam in Turkey thus joined with World War I’s political strife, allowing the Christian-Muslim conflict to reach genocidal …show more content…
The idea of Islamic terrorism against Christians was founded in politics, intertwined with America’s activities during the Cold War; in his article “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism,” Mahmood Mamdani claims that “the mujahideen and al-Qaeda were neofundamentalist products of the Cold War—trained, equipped, and financed by the CIA and its regional allies.” Islamic neofundamentalism evolved out of the Cold War, after the United States recruited radical Muslims to fight against the Soviet Union; the policies of the United States, which encouraged terrorism in other countries that harmed the Soviet Union, therefore led to the formation of an organization that would attack the United States. Furthermore, the Cold War also brought about conflict between Western Christians and Arab Muslims regarding sophisticated weapons such as nuclear bombs; Samuel P Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations?” states that while “[t]he West [promoted] nonproliferation as a universal norm,” “non-Western nations … [asserted] their right to acquire and to deploy whatever weapons they think necessary for their security.” Here, Huntington’s claim shows how Western Christians battled with Arab Muslims for political control, each group wanting to control
Since Turkey was a Muslim state, the Armenians, most of which were Christians alongside being an ethnic minority, were already at risk for being targeted. However, politics, and not religion, was what ultimately caused the genocide; Kidd states that the fear “that the Armenians would revolt in the event of a Russian invasion” motivated the government-sanctioned killings. Since Turkey had allied with Germany in World War I, concerns about the Armenians’ political stance caused the government to retaliate with a genocide. As Christian missionary James Barton argued, “Muslim intolerance [of Christianity] … was only a tool for Turkish political domination.” Drawing on the fact that Islam was Turkey’s official religion, the government used the Armenians’ Christian faith to justify the violence. The politicization of Islam in Turkey thus joined with World War I’s political strife, allowing the Christian-Muslim conflict to reach genocidal …show more content…
The idea of Islamic terrorism against Christians was founded in politics, intertwined with America’s activities during the Cold War; in his article “Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: A Political Perspective on Culture and Terrorism,” Mahmood Mamdani claims that “the mujahideen and al-Qaeda were neofundamentalist products of the Cold War—trained, equipped, and financed by the CIA and its regional allies.” Islamic neofundamentalism evolved out of the Cold War, after the United States recruited radical Muslims to fight against the Soviet Union; the policies of the United States, which encouraged terrorism in other countries that harmed the Soviet Union, therefore led to the formation of an organization that would attack the United States. Furthermore, the Cold War also brought about conflict between Western Christians and Arab Muslims regarding sophisticated weapons such as nuclear bombs; Samuel P Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations?” states that while “[t]he West [promoted] nonproliferation as a universal norm,” “non-Western nations … [asserted] their right to acquire and to deploy whatever weapons they think necessary for their security.” Here, Huntington’s claim shows how Western Christians battled with Arab Muslims for political control, each group wanting to control