Fear of enemy religion functions as a people’s opiate that sustains them in conflict

Evidence

From the Marxist-Leninist point of view, all religion is an invention with which we encourage ourselves to support dangers we cannot control, but the social utility of religious belief to groups in conflict will be clear to all. What we believe about the religion of our enemies as dangerous to our own religion might even be called the hashish of the people, since it arouses them to hatred and sustains them in conflict. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1720

Categorization

• XREF: Inverts Marx’s opium metaphor into an account of how the enemy’s faith rouses a people — connects to the construction of Islam as dangerous. Directly useful for the Islamophobia genealogy. — connects to: Belief in vengeful ancestral spirits sustained a society’s institutionalized warfare; Religion factors into most wars but rarely causes them — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 512; A protective-war doctrine legitimizes violence when Buddhism is deemed threatened. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 78 (+1 more)
• SEED: The ‘hashish of the people’ inversion is a quotable twist framing an essay on how Western fear of Islam operates as a stimulant.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1720

Broader Connections

• Belief in vengeful ancestral spirits sustained a society’s institutionalized warfare #exemplifies (0.85)
• Religion factors into most wars but rarely causes them #qualifies (0.75) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 512