Economics and quests for power fuel all conflicts.
Religion, patriotism, ideology and emotion are simply tools to arouse the masses and recruit combatants.
The Crusades used religious fervor as the catalyst to restore Christianity to territories conquered by Muslims.
Religion also was the catalyst for warfare between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, between Christians and Muslims in the Balkans and between Christians and Muslims in Darfur, Somalia and other African countries.
Government propagandists even used falsified reports of Huns ravishing Catholic nuns to gird America for war against Germany in World War I. Earlier in our history, the North used the emotional issue of slavery to pit American against American in the Civil War.
And today the conflicts in Iraq and other Middle East countries are incorrectly cast in religious terms.
Behind all past and present strife, however, are economics and quests for power.
Pure and simple, whether it’s Christian against Christian, Muslim against Muslim, or Muslim against Christians and Jews.
God help us all. (31 DECEMBER 2006)
