My plan to end religious terror and violence and achieve lasting peace by CB

     What are my plans to end religious terror?  Let’s first define what terrorism means again.  By "terrorism" I mean the deliberate and organized use of force or violence against innocent civilians to advance a political, economic, religious or social agenda, engaged in by governments, organizations or individuals.  If I can end this type of violence, it would be somewhat hard to do.
     The first thing that I would do is use one of the scenarios from TMG.  Scenario #5 is the best way for me to end religious terror.  It is “when secular authorities embrace moral values, including those associated with religion” (p. 244).  I believe that if we all had a mutual respect for other religions, we could possibly get along better.  I come from a country where there are many different religions, and oddly enough, most of the religions get along.  The thing that makes all the different groups work, is the fact that they take religion seriously and it becomes a part of their lives.  Most of the world’s religions have some things in common.  Most of them believe in making religious practices apart of the society they live in.  In the first essay I wrote on 9/30/05, in paragraph 1, I mentioned that these religious extremist has the perception that their communities are already under attack, being violated, and that their acts are therefore the response of the violence they have experienced.  If people feel this way then it will be hard to achieve lasting peace.  Then there must be a mutual respect for what people believe in.  There was a time when African-Americans were treated differently just because of their color.  The amount of things that happened could have been avoided if the Whites had a mutual respect for them.  
     I think another way for me to end religious terror and violence and achieve lasting peace is to educate people about other religions.  This class for instance is a good start.  I never knew that so many religious groups were involved in terrorist activities.  It seemed that the only groups that we hear about are the Muslims and the Jews.  If we can educate people about what to value from each religion, then they might just be able to see the good in another person’s religion.  
     As we’ve learned from readings many Muslim youths become suicide bombers because they believe that upon their deaths, their souls would be immediately whisked up to an Islamic paradise where they would be rewarded for their deadly deeds.   Traditional Islamic texts describe this paradise as one in which alcohol always flows and the soul is eternally indulged with the best of every kind of food and luxury. In TMG (p.79), Hamas leaders said these young martyrs “would receive seventy virgins and seventy wives in heaven…and their families would receive a cash payment worth twelve to fifteen thousand U.S. dollars.” Therefore, they are taught, as an example of one variation of the theme, that he will be eternally rewarded in Paradise with the benefits of endless sexual pleasures of young virginal girls.  
     Throughout all the religions that we’ve discussed, we saw that killing in retaliation is never the answer.  Many people in these religions already felt that they were the victims and if they are targeted in response to what they’ve done, it is no different than what they were doing all along.  We must then use wisdom to see how we can achieve peace among these groups.  Taking the time to learn about what people believe and why they believe what they do, will be rewarding.  It’s just like when you have two people who want to be together but they come from different backgrounds.  If each of them take the time to find the good in the others culture, then they will both see the value each has to offer the other.  
     In conclusion, I personally don’t think that we will ever achieve lasting peace but we can at least try.  Through educating one another about out different religious beliefs we might be able to stop all the terrorism and violence that has been going on.  As long as we “all” love our neighbor as ourselves and respect each other, we will be better off.  I think it is so much easier to love than to hate because it takes so much energy to hate.  With this said, hopefully we can see the good in everyone and stop all the madness of killing innocent people just to be heard.