Response to "Study the Koran?" and other religious justifications

Submitted by Mark Smith (United States), Jan 24, 2004 at 13:10

I fully agree with Daniel Pipe's commentary on "Study the Koran?" and how history is a better indicator than religious texts. Being a Christian, we have the same historical issues. In studying history such as European history and even our own immediate history surrounding the Civil War, civil rights, and such in the U.S., you find that religion is usually just an excuse to rally the majority on a nationalistic basis for a selfish cause. The European Christian Crusades in the Middle East and other such terriorial extensions were merely countries trying to grow economically more than anything else. The recent lack of support from Russia and France over the war in Iraq was merely economically motivated rather than any other purpose. People need to read between the lines and find the agenda behind the leadership who motivates groups of people to either commit or oppose war. But alas, most people are into their own self interests and greed, and really don't spend much time understanding issues for themselves. That is another historical truth - we will continue to move into the future with the same types of cycles regarding religion and its justification to attack others.

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