Religious Wars in America Today

By Philip Carl Salzman 

 

Throughout the history of civilization, many major conflicts have been framed as religious wars. Opponents identify with different religions and refer to them in explaining the conflict. 

Beginning in the 7th century, Muslim warriors invaded lands between Morocco and India, north into the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily, and south into Africa, putting “infidel” warriors to the sword, enslaving some of the conquered, converting some, and imposing Islamic supremacy on the others. In post-Reformation Europe, including Britain, France, and Germany, beginning at the end of the 16th century, Catholics and Protestants engaged in sanguineous attacks and battles. Burning opponents at the stake was a favorite punishment and a useful public example.

For example, from 1562 to 1598, there was in France an ongoing religious war between Catholics and Huguenots (Calvinist Protestants) and a ruthless slaughter of untold tens of thousands of French civilians of both faiths. One phase of this war was the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of 1572, during which noble and royal Huguenot leaders, gathered in Paris for a controversial wedding between the Catholic King’s sister and the Protestant King of Navarre, were targeted for assassination. This was followed by a slaughter of Protestants by Catholic forces throughout Paris, which then spread into the countryside to other towns and villages. Estimates of deaths range from 5,000 to 30,000.

More recent religious wars include the conflict between Hindus and Muslims in India, and between India and Pakistan after independence. Catholics and Protestants fought a guerrilla war in Northern Ireland through the 20th century. Attacks on Hindus by Muslims in Bangladesh are current in 2024.

The hundred-year holy war, jihad, by Muslims against the Jews of Israel continues to this day. This is a holy war for Muslims because Israeli Jews have violated two basic principles of Islam. First, Islamic supremacism requires Muslims to be religiously and politically dominant, and those of other religions to be subservient. Second, land once conquered and controlled by Muslims may not be alienated from Muslim control. Thus Israel must be destroyed and Jews killed or made subservient once again, as in the past. (Speaking to Westerners, Muslims will tailor their statements to their audience, claiming the war is about rights to territory and human rights. Don’t be fooled.)

For Jewish Israelis, the conflict is not a religious war. It is a war of survival as a people, and a war to maintain autonomy. Israel, while a Jewish state with a Jewish majority, is in fact the most welcoming multi-religious state in the Middle East, with many Muslim, Druze, Christian, and Baha’i citizens. As well, many Israeli Jews are secular rather than religious. The conflict between Israel and Palestinians, the many Iranian terrorist proxies, and Iran itself is an example of a religious war on one side and a civic war on the other.

For the next example, I must raise the question: What counts as a religious war? The concept of “religion” itself is ambiguous and contested. It is a relatively recent conception, several centuries only, resulting probably from the growing secularization of society. There is nothing separate in ancient Judaism or foundational Islam that was called “religion.” G*d and Allah were part of life and behind the law. In pre-modern society, what we have abstracted out as “religion” was integrated into a unified conception of life and society…

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