Argumentative Research: Modern Religious and Ethnic Violence

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Argumentative Research: Modern Religious and Ethnic Violence.
Religious and ethnic rivalries have attracted several interests to various scholars in recent. This is attributed to the historical trend of unending periods and instances of conflict, rivalry, and confrontations that persist between different religions or ethnicities. Religious and ethnic rivalries are not anything, one would dare to call recent. This is because it started way back in the centuries (Chevalier, Pierre and Edward n.p). In this paper, interest is drawn towards the hostilities between ancient religious groups namely the Cossack, Poles, and Tatars. The paper will explore the Cossack revolt against the Poles and warfare with the Tatars concerning modern religious and ethnic violence. It is always a puzzle to many people as to why these conflicts happened and they continue to happen until this century. History provides that most of these confrontations were in a bid to control power, access resources, and protecting boundaries. As Kaplan puts it religion was mostly used as a custodian of a covenant that promises to pledge allegiance to one’s religion no matter what. This is why Kaplan finds interest in the story of Taras Bulba and his two sons who are sent to war with the Poles. This story explains how religion is capable of installing a bond of belonging to people making them do anything for it. For instance, Taras shot his son for falling in love with an enemy (Yoon and Saera 137). This is what happens in modern religion where people are ready even to die or kill to protect religion. In modern days, religious and ethnic violence is likely going to remain witnessed in various parts of the world.
Historically the Cossack was known to be a war group that was considered so superior. The Cossack military tradition can be dated centuries back and was rooted in the world of the steppe and the nomadic Turkic peoples who lived there ( Rourke n.p). Being on flat land that was not so conducive for agriculture, Cossack people invested much in the army and fighting. Historically, the revolt between Cossack and Tatars is considered one of the strongest rebellions of the time (Andrzej 85). The most interesting part of the Cossack religious group was its unity in doing things. It is believed that Cossack was a group of peasants who had come together from various lands ( Serczyk 73). This unity characterization is what embodies the current religious and ethnic groups. Like for the Cossack, their unity was in the aim of achieving an economic millage by fighting those who had better opportunities a scenario that is experienced in today's religious and ethnic formations.
When these groups are formed, the first thing they look for is to strengthen their relationship with a section of authority. Either the government or the opposition. This gives such groups more attention and to some extent a source of resources. The Cossack having won the pride of being strong warriors were adored by many leaders who wanted to take power and control others. This happened through manipulation where those in demand for power made power a quest for the group. In most cases, these groups brand themselves as freedom fighters and liberators. Cossacks had managed to win the title of freedom, self-rule, and independence fighters something that made kings accept them in a bid to capture more territories. When Cossack had won better expansion, they started fighting the empire to abolish slavery which led to a revolution. A most religious movement that ends up in a conflict in the modern days has all claimed their love for fighting for human rights. This is why the examination of demographic, economic, social, religious, and national factors shows why the Khmel'nyts'kyi Uprising was one of the most "revolutionary" revolts in early modern Europe (Sysyn 115-39).
From a general point of view, therefore, this paper can claim that the Cossack uprising was military wars with the neighboring ethnic groups as well as religious groups that fort to secure dominance in their territories. According to Jerzy(86-87), The Cossack uprisings (also rebellions, revolts) were a series of military conflicts between the Cossacks and the states claiming dominion over the territories Cossacks lived in, namely the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. This historical background on Cossack revolts explains the basis of religious and ethnic violence, which is a reason why such violence will continue to be witnessed. This is because, the reasons why the Cossacks went into war with other religions were for economic gains, power hunger by leaders, and lastly the desire to protect and expand their territory.
In the world today, violence that is linked to religious subscription is on a notable level. It is most likely increasing in some parts of the world. For example, the cases of Islamic extremists waging global jihad and the power struggle between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the Middle East, the persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar, and outbreaks of violence between Christians and Muslims across Africa. “According to Pew, in 2018 more than a quarter of the world's countries experienced a high incidence of hostilities motivated by religious hatred, mob violence related to religion, terrorism, and harassment of women for violating religious codes. ( Robert and Ali n.p). This global spread of religiously fueled violence has left many scholars casting aspersions on how a religious group whose core mandate is to preach peace and wellness turns to be the source of violence. As it was the case of the Cossacks, in the early centuries, religious and ethnic I violence is fueled by the desire for territorial expansion and protection, political power interest, and economic gains thus the reason for the unending religious and ethnic violence.
Religious and ethnic conflict as a result of territorial expansion and protection. Kaplan explains that religion instills the feeling that a supreme god is the one fighting on their behalf. In the past centuries, dominant religions and ethnic groups occupied and subdued smaller groups. In some countries, some laws are anchored based on the dominant religion's wish without considering the minority or the subdued. This makes these minority groups feel a denial of their freedoms and right to worship. This forces them to devise ways of claiming their space and since no laws are providing the need to demand their space, they end up doing so through people’s movements. Once the minorities start the movement to recover their space, then the dominant, feeling threatened, tries all the means to subdue them. This antagonism results in, captivities, mob attacks, worship centers demolitions, and finally a full-blown war. Since the holy readings provide for the need to fight for the truth, religious groups find themselves defending their violent acts with the holly readings.
Secondly, territorial-based religious violence is witnessed when a particular religious group intends to extend their religion to nations where such religion does not exist in a scenario that in the Islamic religion, scholars call it transitional jihadist. For instance, al-Qaeda and IS deciding to establish a caliphate across internationally recognized borders, using violence (Svensson Isak and Desirée 1127-48). This is a very common trend in the modern Islamic religion. Similarly, there have been several cases of Christianity and Muslim violence over the dominant control. A good case scenario is the Nigerian Christian-Muslim faceoff during the 2010 Jos riots which saw clashes between Muslim herders against Christian farmers near the volatile city of Jos, resulting in hundreds of casualties with credible sources estimating that 500 people were massacred in night-time raids by rampaging Muslim gangs (Clayton and Jonathan; Gledhill and Ruth n.p). There is no doubt that territorial expansion of religious and ethnic groups will be an eminent occurrence in our modern society and it will always result in conflict as witnessed before.
Political power interest and religious conflict in the modern world. As seen in the case of Cassock revolts, where most of their activities were guided by the political interest of their leaders, in today’s society, the common religious and ethnic violence is a result of the need to acquire political power. Individuals with political interests present goodies to the religious groups that are seen to be popular so as they can be supported to either acqui...