Religious Terrorism is Terrorism by those whose motivations and aims have a predominant religious character or influence.
In the modern age, after the decline of ideas such as the divine right of kings and with the rise of nationalism, Terrorism more often involved anarchism, nihilism and revolutionary politics, but since 1980 there has been an increase in activity motivated by religion.
Former United States Secretary of State Warren Christopher said that Terrorist acts in the name of religion and ethnic identity have become "one of the most important security challenges we face in the wake of the Cold War." However, political scientists Robert Pape and Terry Nardin, social psychologists M. Brooke Rogers and colleagues, and Mark Juergensmeyer have all argued that religion should be considered only one incidental factor, and that so-called "religious" Terrorism is primarily geopolitical.
Read more about Religious Terrorism: Definition, Martyrdom and Suicide Terrorism, Financing, Criticism of The Concept of "religious Terrorism"
Famous quotes containing the word religious:
“I have been grateful to you from the day you turned your attention to the follies and fanaticisms of religious sects. Against those fools and impostors you employ the most appropriate weapons: to use others would be to imitate them. It is by ridicule that they must be attacked, and by scorn that they must be punished.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)