A religion’s violence depends on context, not inherent character

Evidence

The entire argument in this book can be summarized in eight interrelated principles. … 2. Religion is more in the situation than in the person. … 5. Religious actions speak louder than words. … 8. Religious groups cooperate in order to compete. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 19 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

It followed from this that Islam, as defined by its classical texts, was the key lens through which Muslim-majority societies could be understood. If women were oppressed it was because of the teachings of the Koran; if Muslims supposedly lacked an entrepreneurial spirit it was due to “Islamic tradition”; if modernization was rejected, again the Koran was to blame. In short, a whole host of characteristics associated with the West but allegedly absent from the “Muslim world” could be explained by recourse to religious texts and the mentalities they supposedly created. In this book, the term “Muslim world” has been put in quotation marks precisely to challenge the notion that Islam is the single most important factor in defining the people who live in the Middle East, North Africa, and elsewhere, or that there is a single undifferentiated entity called the “Muslim world.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 123 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Religion factors into most wars but rarely causes them — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 512; Popular blame of religious belief for violence remains scientifically untested; Religion bundles separable traits whose conflict roles must be disaggregated (+15 more)

Related

• Popular blame of religious belief for violence remains scientifically untested (similarity 0.87)
• Attributing every social characteristic to religious texts erases contextual factors (similarity 0.86)
• Religion factors into most wars but rarely causes them (similarity 0.86)
• Philological analysis of key texts established Muslims as static subspecies (similarity 0.84)
• Religious behavior depends on situational context, observable action, and intergroup competition (similarity 0.84)
• Religious violence shifts historically within traditions, so no religion is inherently violent (similarity 0.83)
• Treating Islam as monolithic enables claims that it is inherently anti-democratic and violent (similarity 0.83)
• Only Muslim violence is read as caused by the perpetrators’ religion (similarity 0.83)
• Religious tolerance and violence change within a tradition across centuries (similarity 0.82)
• Religion bundles separable traits whose conflict roles must be disaggregated (similarity 0.82)
• Textual Islam became the catch-all explanation for every attributed lack in Muslim societies (similarity 0.82)
• Islamophobic ideology selectively attributes violence to religion only in the Muslim case. (similarity 0.82)
• Christian violence is never generalized to all Christians, but Muslim violence is. (similarity 0.81)
• Islamophobia is increasingly theorized as a form of racism rather than mere religious prejudice (similarity 0.81)
• Religion must be decomposed into parts before asking which cause conflict (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Religious behavior depends on situational context, observable action, and intergroup competition #corroborates (0.92) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 19
• Popular blame of religious belief for violence remains scientifically untested #corroborates (0.85)
• Attributing every social characteristic to religious texts erases contextual factors #corroborates (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 123
• Religion carries no necessary political meaning but is anchored in tendential historical formations #corroborates (0.80)
• Religion bundles separable traits whose conflict roles must be disaggregated #expands (0.78)
• Medieval depictions of Islam as heresy served to justify violence and resist conversion #exemplifies (0.75) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 139