If it's not religion that causes terrorists...?

Question

...then why are there no Buddhist suicide bombers. Tibetan Buddhists have really been treated wrongly by China, and yet they are still peaceful. Why did the Hindus under the British Empire use peaceful methods to get the British out? The tennants of a religion determine how the followers react to problems.

Answer 1

Because Buddhism teaches respect for life, unlike the cult of Muhammad (often confused with a religion) which teaches that anyone who disagrees with their ideology should be killed.

Answer 2

First, lets define religion: an institution to express belief in a divine power.

Religion has nothing to do with Jehovah, Jesus Christ, Allah, etc...

Have you ever heard of Pol Pot and the Cambodian genocide. Pol Pot grew up as a Buddhist. Granted he tried to destroy Buddhism but I just wanted to point out that any religion or philosophy can bread a monster!

It is the people behind the religion, and the people behind them, that twist the holy texts to get the masses to conform to their own agenda! This is where the terrorists come from.

I am a Christian and have great respect for Muslims and their devotion. We could all learn allot from them. I also know that the majority do not condone and are appalled at the actions of certain "Muslim" factions. The majority of Christians do not condone what America is doing.

Answer 3

Allow me to put some incite into this. First, you are correct in that Buddhists (along with many other religions of "inner peace") do seek to be peaceful, and therefore have come across heavy onslaught from many enemies. But I would like to point out that Buddhism was created by a man somewhere arounf the 5th or 6th Century BC. Somewhere around 1800 BC was where Christianity (well Judaism at the time) was really established. History preceeding this can be tracked via biblical and geological means, but I will not state such things for the time being. My point is that, religion is not supposed to drive terrorism. In fact, Christianity, which has been adapted into many other religions, teaches peace. Before you go and say "but the Bible taught war and to kill people and blah blah blah"....go and read it. There were times of old were people were killed. But then God decided to reach us in a different way because we weren't listening. With the coming of Christ, we were told to love all, respect all, and to be examples of these qualities to all (and to turn the other cheek - take punishment without retaliation). Unfortunately, there are two things that counter these commands among the Christian community. First, as Christians, we still sin....this can lead to us still hating, even though God has told us not to. Second, some Christians may not truely be Christians, and therefore will hate and kill. But, don't think for one second that "religion" teaches killing. Men teach killing. The God that exists, and has for an eternity, created us to love, not kill each other. And he has told us. So if anyone ever tells you that religion makes people kill, know that not every religion does, and that God, the Being, has been telling us for years not to kill. If you do not believe me, read it for yourself - that is the only way to truely learn and believe. God Bless.

Answer 4

If it weren't religion, it would be something else. People always find a reason to hate and destroy.
Jesus preached peace and love, but Christians have committed horrors in his name. It was just as good an excuse as any, I guess. The fact that the terrorists of 9/11 were Muslims doesn't mean their primary problem with the United States was religious. I don't think it was. If it had been strictly about religion, they wouldn't have hit the Pentagon, a military headquarters. They wouldn't have hit the World Trade Center, which was about finances and money. They'd have aimed at St. Patrick's, or the National Cathedral, etc.

Answer 5

Since Buddhism is a religion and there is a shortage of Buddhist suicide bombers, that suggests that religion as such does not cause terrorism. Likewise, the fact that some terrorists have been Marxists, suggests that even atheists can be terrorists.

Answer 6

All people take on ways to make things happen that they want to happen. Don't forget that the problems in the middle east have deep roots and the extremists believe they have no choice. Would you say that the founders of our country were terrorists? By today's standards they were. Anyone at anytime, no matter their belief system, can be moved to be terrorists, just depends on the who, what, why and where and just what they see as the problem.

The Islamic extremists believe we are the problem. Israel is the problem. And they can not fight us straight up, of course, because they would lose and they know that.

During the second world war we fire bombed Tokyo numerous times and nearly burned it to the ground. We fire bombed many German cities. To terrorize the citizens to get them to push their government's to surrender. And to demoralize them. But to the US, we thought it to be needed to shorten the war.

Answer 7

Yeah and MArtin Luther King Preached non-violent civil disobedence in order to eliminate racial prejudice in America and he was a religious leader.

Depends on the religion.

Islam, for example, claims they are directed to go to war to remove oppression and invasion or occupation.

I have no idea why the IRA chose to use violence but I'm glad they've stopped and joined the polticial process.

Answer 8

Yeah, I have wondered that question, too. If it's not Religion's fault, why have Europeans and Americans killed the most people on Earth? Why was there a WWI? and a WWII after that? What happened to the native Indians? Strange, isn't it?

Answer 9

Hindus and Muslims have in a virtual state of war since Indian Independence.

Answer 10

Because some religions are more violent than others. Islam inspires the most violence of all. Read Surah at-tawba (chapter 9) in the Quran. Most of the Quran is filled with violence but Surah at-tawba is super nasty...in short, it literally commands muslims to committ genocide on all non-muslims.