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==History==
==History==
{{undue}}

British journalist and politician [[Ian Gilmour]] has cited the historical case of the [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre]] in 1572, a beginning of Roman Catholic mob violence directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants), as an instance of religious terrorism on par with modern day terrorism, and goes on to write, "That massacre, said [[Pope Gregory XIII]], gave him more pleasure than fifty [[Battle of Lepanto|Battles of Lepanto]], and he commissioned [[Vasari]] to paint frescoes of it in the Vatican".<ref name="gilmour">{{cite journal|title=Terrorism review|author=Ian Gilmour, Andrew Gilmour|journal=Journal of Palestine Studies|volume=17|issue=2|year=1988|publisher=University of California Press|page=136|doi=10.1525/jps.1988.17.3.00p0024k}}</ref> It is [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre#Death toll|estimated that]] 2,000 to possibly 25,000 [[Huguenots]] (French Protestants) were killed by Catholic mobs, and it has been called "the worst of the century's religious massacres". The massacre led to the start of the "fourth war" of the [[French Wars of Religion]], which was marked by many other massacres and assassinations by both sides. [[Peter Steinfels]] has cited the historical case of the [[Gunpowder Plot]], when [[Guy Fawkes]] and other Catholic revolutionaries attempted to overthrow the Protestant establishment of England by blowing up the [[Palace of Westminster|Houses of Parliament]], as a notable case of religious terrorism.<ref>{{cite news|publisher=New York Times|author=Peter Steinfels|date=2005-11-05|title=A Day to Think About a Case of Faith-Based Terrorism|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/05/national/05beliefs.html}}</ref>
British journalist and politician [[Ian Gilmour]] has cited the historical case of the [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre]] in 1572, a beginning of Roman Catholic mob violence directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants), as an instance of religious terrorism on par with modern day terrorism, and goes on to write, "That massacre, said [[Pope Gregory XIII]], gave him more pleasure than fifty [[Battle of Lepanto|Battles of Lepanto]], and he commissioned [[Vasari]] to paint frescoes of it in the Vatican".<ref name="gilmour">{{cite journal|title=Terrorism review|author=Ian Gilmour, Andrew Gilmour|journal=Journal of Palestine Studies|volume=17|issue=2|year=1988|publisher=University of California Press|page=136|doi=10.1525/jps.1988.17.3.00p0024k}}</ref> It is [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre#Death toll|estimated that]] 2,000 to possibly 25,000 [[Huguenots]] (French Protestants) were killed by Catholic mobs, and it has been called "the worst of the century's religious massacres". The massacre led to the start of the "fourth war" of the [[French Wars of Religion]], which was marked by many other massacres and assassinations by both sides. [[Peter Steinfels]] has cited the historical case of the [[Gunpowder Plot]], when [[Guy Fawkes]] and other Catholic revolutionaries attempted to overthrow the Protestant establishment of England by blowing up the [[Palace of Westminster|Houses of Parliament]], as a notable case of religious terrorism.<ref>{{cite news|publisher=New York Times|author=Peter Steinfels|date=2005-11-05|title=A Day to Think About a Case of Faith-Based Terrorism|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/05/national/05beliefs.html}}</ref>
===Modern Christian terrorism===
===Modern Christian terrorism===

Revision as of 20:18, 23 February 2011

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Christian terrorism comprises terrorist acts by groups or individuals which claim Christian motivations or goals for their acts. As with other forms of religious terrorism, actors typically rely on idiosyncratic interpretations of the tenets of faith—in this case, primarily the Bible. Such groups may use the Old Testament scripture to justify violence or seek to bring about the "end times" described in the New Testament,[1], while others hope to bring about a Christian theocracy.[2]

History

British journalist and politician Ian Gilmour has cited the historical case of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572, a beginning of Roman Catholic mob violence directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants), as an instance of religious terrorism on par with modern day terrorism, and goes on to write, "That massacre, said Pope Gregory XIII, gave him more pleasure than fifty Battles of Lepanto, and he commissioned Vasari to paint frescoes of it in the Vatican".[3] It is estimated that 2,000 to possibly 25,000 Huguenots (French Protestants) were killed by Catholic mobs, and it has been called "the worst of the century's religious massacres". The massacre led to the start of the "fourth war" of the French Wars of Religion, which was marked by many other massacres and assassinations by both sides. Peter Steinfels has cited the historical case of the Gunpowder Plot, when Guy Fawkes and other Catholic revolutionaries attempted to overthrow the Protestant establishment of England by blowing up the Houses of Parliament, as a notable case of religious terrorism.[4]

Modern Christian terrorism

Extremist groups incorporate a religious component,[who?] relying on their own interpretation of the Bible to justify acts of terrorism, targeted on groups as diverse as medical workers in abortion clinics and racial, ethnic and religious groups.[5][dubious – discuss]

By country

India

The National Liberation Front of Tripura, a rebel group operating in Tripura, North-East India classified by the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism as one of the ten most active terrorist groups in the world, has been accused of forcefully converting people to Christianity.[6][7][8] The state government reports that the Baptist Church of Tripura supplies arms and gives financial support to the NLFT.[7][8][9] The Church is also reported to encourage the NLFT to murder Hindus, particularly infants.[9] NLFT has also declared a ban against Hindus celebrating Durga Puja and other Hindu festivals.[10]

The insurgency in Nagaland was led by the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) and continues today with its faction NSCN - Isaac Muivah which explicitly calls for a "Nagalim for Christ."[11]

In Assam, an extremest group named Manmasi National Christian Army (MNCA) with around 15 members from the Hmar ethnic group, have placed bloodstained crosses in Hindu temples and forced Hindus to convert at gunpoint.[12]

Northern Ireland

Some scholars, such as Steve Bruce, a sociology professor at the University of Aberdeen, argue that the conflict in Northern Ireland is primarily a religious conflict, its economic and social considerations notwithstanding.[13] Others, such as John Hickey, take a more guarded view.[14] Writing in The Guardian, Susan McKay discussed religious fundamentalism in connection with the murder of Martin O'Hagan, a former inmate of the Maze prison and a reporter on crime and the paramilitaries. She attributed the murder to a "range of reasons," including "the gangsters didn't like what he wrote". The alleged killers claimed that they killed him for "crimes against the loyalist people".[15]

Although often advocating nationalist policies, these groups consisted of and were supported by distinct religious groups in a religiously partitioned society. Groups on both sides advocated what they saw as armed defence of their own religious group.[16]: 134–135 

The Orange Volunteers are a group infamous for carrying out simultaneous terrorist attacks on Catholic churches.[17]

Romania

Orthodox Church movements in Romania, such as the Iron Guard and Lăncieri, which have been characterized by Yad Vashem and Stanley G. Payne as anti-semitic and fascist, respectively, were responsible for involvement in the Bucharest pogrom, and political murders during the 1930s.[18][19][20][21][22]

Uganda

The Lord's Resistance Army, a cult guerrilla army engaged in an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government, has been accused of using child soldiers and committing numerous crimes against humanity; including massacres, abductions, mutilation, torture, rape, porters and sex slaves.[23] It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit medium, primarily of the Christian Holy Spirit which the Acholi believe can represent itself in many manifestations.[24][24][25][26] LRA fighters wear rosary beads and recite passages from the Bible before battle.[27][28][29][30][31][32]

United States

See also: Anti-abortion violence in the United States
Ku Klux Klan with a burning cross
The End. Victoriously slaying Catholic influence in the U.S. Illustration by Rev. Branford Clarke from Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty 1926 by Bishop Alma White published by the Pillar of Fire Church in Zarephath, NJ.

Beginning after the Civil War, the Protestant-led, white supremacist Ku Klux Klan members in the Southern United States engaged in arson, beatings, cross burning, destruction of property, lynching, murder, rape, tar-and-feathering, and whipping against African Americans, Jews, Catholics and other social or ethnic minorities.[citation needed]

During the twentieth century, members of extremist groups such as the Army of God began executing attacks against abortion clinics and doctors across the United States.[33][34][35] A number of terrorist attacks were attributed to individuals and groups with ties to the Christian Identity and Christian Patriot movements; including the Lambs of Christ.[36] A group called Concerned Christians were deported from Israel on suspicion of planning to attack holy sites in Jerusalem at the end of 1999, believing that their deaths would "lead them to heaven."[37][38] The motive for anti-abortionist Scott Roeder murdering Wichita doctor George Tiller on May 31, 2009 was religious.[39]

Hutaree was a Christian militia group based in Adrian, Michigan. In 2010, after an FBI agent infiltrated the group, nine of its members were indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit on charges of seditious conspiracy to use of improvised explosive devices, teaching the use of explosive materials, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence.[40]

Motivation, ideology and theology

See also: Anti-abortion violence, Christian Patriot movement, and Christian Identity movement

Christian views on abortion have been cited by Christian individuals and groups that are responsible for threats, assault, murder, and bombings against abortion clinics and doctors across the United States and Canada.[citation needed]

Christian Identity is a loosely affiliated global group of churches and individuals devoted to a racialized theology that asserts North European whites are the direct descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, God's chosen people. It has been associated with groups such as the Aryan Nations, Aryan Republican Army, Army of God, Phineas Priesthood, and The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord. It has been cited as an influence in a number of terrorist attacks around the world, including the 2002 Soweto bombings.[41][42][43][44]

See also

References

  1. ^ B. Hoffman, "Inside Terrorism", Columbia University Press, 1999, p. 105–120.
  2. ^ Mark Juergensmeyer (2010-04-15). "The Return of Christian Terrorism". AlterNet. Retrieved 20011-02-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  3. ^ Ian Gilmour, Andrew Gilmour (1988). "Terrorism review". Journal of Palestine Studies. 17 (2). University of California Press: 136. doi:10.1525/jps.1988.17.3.00p0024k.
  4. ^ Peter Steinfels (2005-11-05). "A Day to Think About a Case of Faith-Based Terrorism". New York Times.
  5. ^ Al-Khattar p29
  6. ^ "The MIPT terrorism annual 2004" (PDF). National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. 2004.[dead link]
  7. ^ a b "Constitution of National Liberation Front Of Tripura". South Asia Terrorism Portal.
  8. ^ a b "National Liberation Front of Tripura, India". South Asia Terrorism Portal.
  9. ^ a b Bhaumik, Subhir (April 18, 2000). "'Church backing Tripura rebels'". BBC News. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
  10. ^ Tripura Society's Website, Independent, and Authentic Information & Views About Tripura
  11. ^ http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/nagaland/terrorist_outfits/Nscn_im.htm
  12. ^ Christianity threat looms over Bhuvan Pahar Assam Times - June 23, 2009
  13. ^

    The Northern Ireland conflict is a religious conflict. Economic and social considerations are also crucial, but it was the fact that the competing populations in Ireland adhered and still adhere to competing religious traditions which has given the conflict its enduring and intractable quality.

    Steve Bruce (1986). God Save Ulster. Oxford University Press. p. 249. ISBN 0192852175.: 249  Reviewing the book, David Harkness of The English Historical Review agreed "Of course the Northern Ireland conflict is at heart religious". David Harkness (1989-10). "God Save Ulster: The Religion and Politics of Paisleyism by Steve Bruce (review)". The English Historical Review. 104 (413). Oxford University Press. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^

    Politics in the North is not politics exploiting religion. That is far too simple an explanation: it is one which trips readily off the tongue of commentators who are used to a cultural style in which the politically pragmatic is the normal way of conducting affairs and all other considerations are put to its use. In the case of Northern Ireland the relationship is much more complex. It is more a question of religion inspiring politics than of politics making use of religion. It is a situation more akin to the first half of seventeenth‑century England than to the last quarter of twentieth century Britain.John Hickey (1984). Religion and the Northern Ireland Problem. Gill and Macmillan. p. 67. ISBN 0717111156.
  15. ^ Susan McKay (2001-11-17). "Faith, hate and murder". London: The Guardian.
  16. ^ English, Richard (2003). Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA. Pan Books. p. 119. ISBN 0-330-49388-4.
  17. ^ Claire Mitchell (2006). Religion, Identity and Politics in Northern Ireland. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 51. ISBN 0754641554.
  18. ^ Paul Tinichigiu (2004-01). "Sami Fiul (interview)". The Central Europe Center for Research and Documentation. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ Radu Ioanid (2004). "The Sacralised Politics of the Romanian Iron Guard". Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. 5 (3): 419–453(35). doi:10.1080/1469076042000312203.
  20. ^ Leon Volovici. Nationalist Ideology and Antisemitism. p. 98. ISBN 0080410243. citing N. Cainic, Ortodoxie şi etnocraţie, pp. 162–4
  21. ^ "Roots of Romanian Antisemitism: The League of National Christian Defense and Iron Guard Antisemitism" (PDF). Background and precursors to the Holocaust. Yad Vashem – The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority: p. 24. {{cite journal}}: |page= has extra text (help)
  22. ^ Payne, Stanley G. (1995). A History of Fascism 1914–1945. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press (pp. 277–289) ISBN 0-299-14874-2
  23. ^ Xan Rice (2007-10-20). "Background: the Lord's Resistance Army". London: The Guardian.
  24. ^ a b Ruddy Doom and Koen Vlassenroot (1999). "Kony's message: A new Koine? The Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda". African Affairs. 98 (390). Oxford Journals / Royal African Society: 5–36.
  25. ^ "Ugandan rebels raid Sudanese villages". BBC News. 2002-04-08. Retrieved 2010-01-02.
  26. ^ K. Ward (2001). "The Armies of the Lord: Christianity, Rebels and the State in Northern Uganda, 1986–1999". Journal of Religion in Africa. 31 (2).
  27. ^ Marc Lacey (2002-08-04). "Uganda's Terror Crackdown Multiplies the Suffering". New York Times.
  28. ^ "In pictures: Ugandan rebels come home". BBC News. Retrieved 2010-01-02. One of the differences on the LRA pips is a white bible inside a heart
  29. ^ David Blair (2005-08-03). "I killed so many I lost count, says boy, 11". The Telegraph.
  30. ^ Matthew Green (2008-02-08). "Africa's Most Wanted". Financial Times.
  31. ^ Christina Lamb (2008-03-02). "The Wizard of the Nile: The Hunt for Africa's Most Wanted by Matthew Green". London: The Times.
  32. ^ Marc Lacey (2005-04-18). "Atrocity Victims in Uganda Choose to Forgive". New York Times.
  33. ^ Frederick Clarkson (2002-12-02). "Kopp Lays Groundwork to Justify Murdering Abortion Provider Slepian". National Organization for Women.
  34. ^ Laurie Goodstein and Pierre Thomas (1995-01-17). "Clinic Killings Follow Years of Antiabortion Violence". Washington Post.
  35. ^ "'Army Of God' Anthrax Threats". CBS News. 2001-11-09.
  36. ^ Bruce Hoffman (1998). Inside Terrorism. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231114680.
  37. ^ "Apocalyptic Christians detained in Israel for alleged violence plot". CNN. 1999-01-03. [dead link]
  38. ^ "Cult members deported from Israel". BBC News. 1999-01-09. Retrieved 2010-01-02.
  39. ^ "George Tiller's killer has no regrets, doesn't ask for forgiveness". Houston Belief. 1999-02-09. Retrieved 2010-02-28.
  40. ^ "US 'Christian militants' charged after FBI raids " BBC, March 30, 2010. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
  41. ^ Mark S. Hamm (2001). In Bad Company: America's Terrorist Underground. Northeastern. ISBN 1555534929.
  42. ^ James Alfred Aho (1995). The Politics of Righteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism. University of Washington Press. p. 86. ISBN 029597494X.
  43. ^ Alan Cooperman (2003-06-02). "Is Terrorism Tied To Christian Sect?". Washington Post.
  44. ^ Martin Schönteich and Henri Boshoff (2003). 'Volk' Faith and Fatherland: The Security Threat Posed by the White Right. Pretoria, South Africa, Institute for Security Studies. ISBN 1919913300.

Bibliography

  • Mason, Carol. 2002. Killing for Life: The Apocalyptic Narrative of Pro-Life Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  • Zeskind, Leonard. 1987. The ‘Christian Identity’ Movement, [booklet]. Atlanta, Georgia: Center for Democratic Renewal/Division of Church and Society, National Council of Churches.
  • Al-Khattar, Aref M. Religion and terrorism: an interfaith perspective. Greenwood. January 2003. ISBN 978-0275969233
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