Religious just-war framing pairs moral sanctification with enemy dehumanization to authorize slaughter

Evidence

In holy terror, perpetrators twist theology and see themselves as doing God’s will. In 1095, Pope Urban II launched the Crusades with the following impassioned moral proclamation: “I address those present, I proclaim it to those absent; more-over, Christ commands it. For all those going thither there will be remission of sins if they come to the end of this fettered life.” He then dehumanized and bestialized the Muslim enemy: “Oh what a disgrace if a race so despicable, degenerate, and enslaved by demons, should overcome a people endowed with faith in Almighty God and resplendent in the name of Christ!” He then commands the faithful to vanquish the “barbarians”: “Let those who once fought against brothers and relatives now rightfully fight against the barbarians under the guidance of the Lord” (Geary, 2010). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 349

Categorization

• XREF: The coupling of self-righteous cause with dehumanization of the target parallels how supporters of punitive policy sanctify law-and-order while dehumanizing out-groups, per the vault’s authoritarianism claims. — connects to: Sacralized scriptural precedent is invoked to authorize killing enemy civilians in the IDF — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 893
• SHARE: The Urban II proclamation is a vivid, quotable primary text for anyone interested in rhetoric of holy war.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 349