Throughout history religion has played a key role in shaping societies, and building nations. Religion has also been the cause of death and destruction that so often contradict its own teachings. While most religions are based on peace and love, they too often have become the justification for horrific acts of inhumanity.
After World War II Jewish immigration to the Holy Land increased greatly. With the influx of the Jewish immigrants tensions rose in the largely Arab population. The Jews and the Palestinians could not agree on anything, let alone the issue of dividing the nation into two states, and before long fighting broke out amongst the two groups.(simpson) .
The current struggle for the state of Israel has been going on since 1947 and continues today. The Arabs, largely Islamic, believe the land to be theirs, and the Jews believe the land to belong to them. Both groups believe that god is on their side. Countless Children, women, and men have died horrible deaths due to the unwillingness for these two groups to compromise. Neither God, nor Allah condones the murder of children. Both Judaism and Islam are based on peace. The Ten Commandments teach, you shall not kill(Exodus 20:13), and the Qur"an teaches that god is the judge of man and that man should show generosity to their fellow man.(Carmody, Brink 334) .
The most horrific display of religious carnage was, arguably, the Holocaust. In an effort to stamp out impurity from the earth Adolph Hitler began a campaign that would claim the lives of over 6,000,000 Jews. This number is stifling when compared to other casualty figures from World War II. The United States lost approximately 405,500 soldiers, and Italy lost 262,500 soldiers.(Encarta) Yet the soldiers killed in this war went to fight, while the 6,000,000 plus Jews that were rounded up, shipped like cattle, tortured and killed, were not soldiers or criminals of any kind.
