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WHH Faith's Civil Wars

Though history’s religious battles often pit one faith against another, today’s struggle is a very different,
and universal, one. Virtually every major world religion (not just Islam) faces an internal tug of
war. Indeed, religion today is caught between the saint on one side and the suicide bomber on the
other.

By Ralph Peters

The rebellion of Islamist extremists against the West obscures the greater religious conflict looming over the
21st century: The decisive struggle will occur not between religions, but within them.

The great religious civil war of this century afflicts not only Islam but also Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and
Buddhism. It's the conflict between those in every faith who promote a punitive, disciplinary deity and those
who worship a merciful, loving god. Not all confrontations will be violent, but many will be venomous.

Alarmed by the atrocities that a relative handful of radicalized Muslims have committed against us, we overlook
the fact that, overwhelmingly, the victims of Islamist terror have been other Muslims. Compared with the
intrafaith savagery at work, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, were a sideshow.

Viral elements within Islam have graduated from fundamentalism to fanaticism. That shift might be a harbinger,
not an echo. A global transition is underway from the believer to the enforcer, from the fundamentalist who
warns us of consequences after death, to the fanatic who threatens consequences here and now.

Because of the comprehensive failure of the Middle East to compete in the modern era, this devolution from a
transcendent god to an ill-tempered warlord, from the luminous to the ominous, is immediately evident in
Islam's old homelands. But apart from the Muslim-on-Muslim atrocities staining the region, this battle also
rages, if in less violent forms, in the USA — as well as in Africa, Latin America, India and wherever faith is
extant. In an age when Buddhist monks indulge in violent protests and Hindus level mosques on mythic
pretexts, when extremists haunt both sides of the Israel-Palestine question and American Christians seek to
legislate the behavior of fellow citizens, there are three related struggles underway:

* The contest between those who obsess about external forms and behaviors and believers whose faith is
spiritual first and last. The surest indicator of a religion in crisis is an expanding list of things forbidden.

* The demotion of the divine to worldly dimensions — God as a real estate magnate obsessed with owning
blood-soaked dirt. (One of the many blessings Americans enjoy is that God hasn't staked any property claims
here.)

* The global war to deny equal rights to women or to revoke the rights they have gained. The insistence by
religious elders that they know how their god wants women to comport themselves is a blot on every faith:
When old men make the rules, young women suffer.

The globalization of insecurity

Why do we face this universal rift in faiths today?

In the past, each major religion has suffered its share of crises. But now elements in all religions perceive
themselves as living under siege and demand a barracks-room rigor in response.

Blame globalization. Contrary to the claims of pop bestsellers, globalization and its attack dog, the Internet, do
not portend a harmonic convergence of human cultures. While globalization is a boon to the educated, the
capable and the confident, to the practically and emotionally ill-equipped it's a destabilizing, terrifying force.

Yet, the premise upon which we have to act is that globalization is a fact, and neither Islamist extremists nor
trade unions will be able to force the process into reverse. In a globalizing world, many are helped, some are
damaged and the masses are just confused.

Those masses are the prize at which religious demagogues aim. Overwhelmed by a torrent of information (often
wildly inaccurate) delivered by ever more communications means, the average global citizen literally does not
know what to think. And humans crave certainty, especially during periods of upheaval. They need little
encouragement to default to debased forms of religion that provide condensed answers and reassure them of
their eternal superiority — even if the infidels are richer and more powerful at the moment.

The trenches

This global response to a crisis of confidence reflects the old maxim that "there are no atheists in foxholes."
Entire civilizations perceive themselves as trapped in embattled trenches, with powerful shells of change
bursting all around them. The more traditional the society, the harder it is for its members to rally and respond
constructively.

We are witnessing an inspiring reinvigoration of faith on one hand and, on the other, a redaction of faith's
complexities to exploit the fear and jealousy abounding — promising vengeance on this side of the grave.
Twenty-first century religion will be caught between the saint and the suicide bomber. The nemeses of every
faith will be those who can't tell the difference.

This doesn't mean that interfaith struggles will disappear: I've seen firsthand how Christianity threatens to
become a "church militant" in response to Muslim imperialism in Africa, and have been similarly appalled by
exchanges with Arabs who hope to exterminate Jews and with Jews who argue for ethnically cleansing Arabs.
Terror in the name of faith is a growth industry.

But even as we confront that terrorism, we need to look beyond it to the sword-of-Damocles question hanging
over our new century: Not "Is God Dead?" (that bit of nonsense from a frivolous yesteryear), but "Will the god
of love and mercy triumph over the god of battles?"

Ralph Peters is a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors and the author of the forthcoming book Wars
of Blood and Faith: The Conflicts That Will Shape the 21st Century.