There would be no murders in the name of God if the world were filled with scoffers. If there were no religious beliefs there would be no religious conflicts and no insane instrument of destruction such as ISIL. To know this welcome or unwelcome conclusion is true in no way contributes to an understanding of the complex history which has destroyed peace and order in the Middle East and other lands where beliefs from the Middle East have taken root.
Most Canadians who were born into Christian traditions have no knowledge of the controversies which have prevented the unity of Islam for centuries. Islam, as a religion, began with Mohammed in 610. The teachings drew from the scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity. By the time of Mohammed’s death in 632, Islam was a strong and spreading religion. The succession to leadership of the faith produced a schism that still endures. The Sh’ia believed a successor must be of the bloodline of Mohammed. The Sunni believed a successor must be the best-qualified man of the faith. In 1,383 years the dispute has not been resolved.
In 2015, the opposing opinions are articles of faith for many. For others, they are cloaks behind which to a hide naked struggles for territory, wealth and power. World wide, almost 90 per cent of Muslims are Sunni, but the Shi’a minority, oppressed for centuries by the Sunni, is now gaining a disproportionate grip on power. The Shi’a predominate in Iran and Iraq, the Sunni in Saudi Arabia. Iran is virtually a theocracy. In other countries of Islam the political doctrine of the separation of church and state applies, although not as effectively as in Canada. (It is disconcerting to see how in a contest for president in the United States, candidates make political capital of their avowed devotion to the Christian faith.)
Except among non-Christian immigrants in Canada, religious faith is in decline. Canadians do not spill blood over doctrinal differences. But Christians, so-called, have done so in the past. Sectarian disputes within both Christianity and Islam have spilled blood as freely as did eight Crusades sanctioned by the popes of Rome between 1095 and 1291. The Crusades were intended to free the sacred places of Christendom from the control of their Islamic occupiers. People of innocent faith became crusaders. So did others who were bent on plundering. As the period of the Crusades ended, Constantinople, wealthy capital of the Christian Empire of Byzantium, had become Istanbul, capital of the Caliphate of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. Further expansion of the Ottoman Empire ended at the gates of Vienna in 1618. The Christian nations who united to expel the Islamic invaders did not remain united for long.
Constantine (306-337), the Roman Emperor who accepted Christianity, established the Holy Roman Empire by bringing about an end to the persecution of Christians. In 380, the Edict of Thessalonica made Christianity the state religion. In the eighth century, there appeared a document (now known to have been forged) in which Constantine donated Rome and the western half of his empire to the pontiff in Rome. It helped set the stage for the papacy gaining temporal powers and the Roman Empire becoming, like modern Iran, a theocratic state.
There were objectors who did not believe the political authority of the papacy. There were others who believed they could worship God without the intercession of priests and bishops. The first sect to raise strong objections to the structure and practices of the Roman Catholic Church were the Cathars. They were ruthlessly exterminated, but more dissenters appeared. Collectively, the dissenters were Protestants. In 1618, Emperor Ferdinand II of the Holy Roman Empire tried to limit the freedoms of his Protestant citizens. The war that erupted was fought almost entirely on German soil and was the bloodiest, most destructive conflict Europe had ever known. It ended in 1648 with the victory of the Protestant states and the weakening of the Hapsburg dynasty.
It was the last religious war in Europe. In 2015, religious warfare continues in the Middle East.
What the world needs now is wisdom as a necessity and religion as a choice. We need national governments that will be wise enough to believe in the freedom of all non-threatening religions and the exclusion of any and all religions from political power. When all nations are threatened by fatal environmental degradation, disputes between nations, whatever their reasons, are of no consequence
