The Role of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, & Hinduism in War, Genocide, & Terrorism

THE DARK SIDE OF RELIGION: UNVEILING THE ROLE OF JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM, BUDDHISM, AND HINDUISM IN WAR, GENOCIDE, AND TERRORISM

The spike in religious violence is global and affects virtually every religious group. A 2018 Minority Rights Group report indicates that mass killings and other atrocities are increasing in countries both affected and not affected by war alike. While bloody encounters were recorded in over 50 countries, most reported lethal incidents involving minorities were concentrated in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, India, Myanmar, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Hostilities against Muslims and Jews also increased across Europe, as did threats against Hindus in more than 18 countries. Making matters worse, 55 of the world’s 198 countries imposed heightened restrictions on religions, especially Egypt, Russia, India, Indonesia and Turkey.

According to a PEW Research article published by KATAYOUN KISHI in 2018, Islamic extremists were waging global jihad and power struggles between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the Middle East to the persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar. The outbreaks of violence between Christians and Muslims across Africa. According to Pew, 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.

As far back as the 1930, a pamphlet published by the Rationalist Press Association included this quote from historian Bertrand Russell, to which he stated:

“Religion prevents our children from having a rational education; religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethic of scientific co-operation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment. It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age; but, if so, it will first be necessary to slay the dragon that guards the door, and this dragon is religion.”

WAR, GENOCIDE & TERRORISM - THE VATICAN & CHRISTENDOM

It has become a well established fact in modern history that wars, genocide and terrorism have been backed, supported and carried out by both the religiously devout and the religious extremist.

To be noted, when you hear the term Religious War during this heart wrenching part of the article, it refers to wars that have a religious goal, claims a spiritual reward for violence and is authorized and condoned by a religious leader.

Perhaps the most globally recognized “Religious War” of the 20th century was carried about by the Nazi Germany party in corporation with the Vatican Church.

It should be interesting to note that the legitimate authority for a holy war is not the government of a state, but the Church.

As with the case of the 3 Rich, the Nazi party engaged in crimes against religious minorities including Jews, Gyps and Jehovah’ Witnesses, resulted in the estimated death of some 6 million were both instigated and supported by the Vatican during it’s beginnings.

As documented in the The Catholic Church And Nazi Germany By Guenter Lewy, the Nazi-Nationalist coloration came into power on March 5, 1933, winning 52% of the votes and on March 13th, the Priest Pius XI, Cardinal Faulhaber publicly praised Chancellor Adolf Hitler for the stand he had taken against communism.

Prior to this, the Holy See had been working to establish a Concordat between them and Germany that involved maintaining control over religious schooling, assets and the like. Negotiation had failed in the past due to the former German party being predominantly non-catholic. However, with the rise of Hitler, the Holy See saw a new opportunity for negotiations and were willing to implement new strategies to obtain them.

The Vatican's use of the Hitler regime had immediate policy advantage, when a law announced on Feb 27th recognized seven Catholic feast days as LEGAL holidays.

For that reason, although having placed limits on the Nazi Party under the old regime, the Vatican made a momentous reversal. And on March 24th, the Catholic church hastily removed restrictions placed on the Nazi Party in a letter written by Cardinal Bertram that addressed members of the Fulda Bishop's Conference."

The Vatican approved Bishop Bertram's stance on removing prohibitions formerly placed on the Nazi Party and welcoming them into the church.

Hitler saw this as a great diplomatic opportunity to establish a strong relationship with Rome and worked to establish a Concordat.

The Vatican now saw a unique opportunity to use the Nazi political power to carry out own religious agenda, and were willing to implement and support the extermination of the religious minority to achieve their religious ends. Leading many to see that what is noted in history as one of the greatest atrocities of the century was in fact instigated, supported and facilitated by one of the most powerful religious organizations of the world.

And, with the backing of the Vatican, there was now nothing to stand in Hitler's way to gain world domination by employing Vatican supported and inspired tactics to exterminate any religious opposition or entity standing in its way.

At the meeting of the Bavarian Council of Ministers on April 24th,1933, the Premier was able to report that Cardinal Faulhaber had issued an order to the clergy to support the new regime in which he (Faulhaber) had confidence.

A declaration of the Catholic teachers organization, published on April 1, encouraged its members to participate in building the new order and to be helper and friend to the nationalist movement.

When German ministers Papen and Goring of the Nazi party visited the Vatican on April 10, they were received with great honor.

The Catholic Allgemeine Rundschau concluded "The bishops cannot fight where Rome concludes peace. "

When Jehovah’s Witnesses were suppressed in Bavaria on April 13th, the Church, on assignment from Hitler's Ministry of Education, reported any members seen or thought to be still practicing the new forbidden faith.

As Hitler fulfilled his role as executor of religious minorities and began operations of the notorious concentration camps and gas chambers, members of the catholic faith were being persuaded to continue to suppress emotional sympathies.

On April 3, 1938, a Papen, who assumed the title Protector founded an Organization named Kreuz und Alder ( Cross & Eagle) to appeal to German Catholics to join in the creation of the 3rd Reich that personified the “God-Give” mission of the German nationals to deepen Christian-conservative thinking.

The Papen was clear on his purpose to use the Nazi Party for it’s own religiously corrupt means and made this eyebrow raising statement. “Success is not tied to the existence of political parties,” which according to him would not last.

For Hitler's 4th birthday party on April 20, 1935, Monsignor Kaas sent a telegraph of congratulations from Rome that was published in the press.

“For today's birthday, sincere good wishes and the assurance of unflinching co-operation in the great enterprise of creating a Germany internally united, enjoying social peace and externally free.

Kass, who wrote from Rome, was expressing the well wishes of the Holy See.

“The bishops, it goes without saying, rendered the state and the authority what according to God's command is their due. The Church has done this under earlier forms of government and she would do the same under the present one. She would urge the faithful to be obedient and respectful."The bishops gladly recognized that the new state promoted Christianity, raised the level of morality and fought the battle against Bolshevism and godlessness with vigor and success.

During that meeting, Hitler spoke on the long standing view of the church and their views of Jews as parasites, pointing to the fact that the Church had banished them to the Ghettos. He reaffirmed his stance against them and mentioned that he was only going to do what the Church had done for 1,500 years.

As a devout Catholic, Hitler affirmed that he was personally convinced of the great power and significance of Christianity and he would not permit the founding of another religion. A statement, that at that time, went unchallenged by the Holy See.

From such statements, it’s clear that Catholic Church in accordance to Vatican approval, were instrumental in orchestrating, facilitating and implementing the genocide and execution of Jews, Gyps, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religious minorities who did not adhere to the supreme power and doctrine of the Catholic faith.

ArchBishop Gober, in response to an inquiry at the Vatican, had also been told that a concordance between the Reich and the Holy See had been discussed in the talks with Papen and Goring.

So, how did the Vatican escape retribution along with Hitler and the regime with its fall in 1945? Perhaps in part due to the fact that Hitler and the Catholic Bishops only met publicly on a few occasions .

With the death of Pius XI in 1939, Hitler sought to influence the vote of the next Pope who would be more favorable to his policies.

After taking control, Pope Puis XII, remained politically neutral, and chose not to use their influence to ruffle the feathers of Germany, in the interest of the Church in Germany.

In his first encyclical, Summi Pontificatus ("On the Unity of Human Society"), released in October 1939, Pius urged Church members internationally, including Germany to remember a quote from Jesus, "render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." Meaning, Church members were expected to obey the laws of the land even if it meant carrying out the execution of the religious minority, which would soon commerce in the months following his new appointment.

It’s important to note that the Bible nor Jesus ever encouraged disciples to obey Government leaders at all cost. For in that same quote, Jesus continued, “but render God’s things to God.” Meaning, that in the event that a government asks members to disobey God's commandments, the disciple was expected to give priority to obedience to God, which for Jesus' disciples, involved loving their enemies, not killing them.

The Vatican at that time never directly condemned Hitler, his policies or practices, even when Hitler began the use of gas chambers starting at the end 1939.

As Hitler made his way through Europe, seeking to expand his political influence and religious ideologies, many governments sought the support of the Vatican, to help sue for peace. A tactic that failed.

Of course, by this time, war had nearly engulfed the world, as the Vatican passed Intel between countries, to help them escape from a problem they themselves helped facilitate and instigate at the start of Hitler's regime.

On September 26, 1943, Nazi officials demanded of Jewish leaders in Rome 50 kilograms of gold within 36 hours. Otherwise, they would send two hundred Roman Jews to the concentration camps.

The Vatican, with the eyes of the world watching, was still unwilling to offer the money to Jews without a cost, instead, offered an open-ended loan in the amount needed to pay the Germans.

After the money was paid, all Jews, regardless of sex, age, or health, were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. The number deported came to 1,015. Of these, only 16 would survive the war.

The estimate of Jews killed during the Holocaust is between 5.8 M -11 M. However, some experts say that the number may be significantly higher.

In other countries occupied by the Germans, Jews underwent conversion of faith, becoming Catholics, to avoid persecution.

While some claim the Catholic Church was directly responsible for saving hundreds of thousands of lives during Hitlers anti-Jewish campaigns, others note that the Catholic Church who supported and solidified Hitlers rise to power is responsible for not only the lives lost of the millions persecuted including Jews, but that they are by extension responsible for the 75 million lives lost during WWII. Although the international Convention on Civil and Political Rights was not in place then, the fact that the Vatican is responsible for some 75 millions lives must be powerfully considered when meting out justice on behalf of the world.

Despite many Jewish leaders praising Pope Pius XII for his help in “aiding” the Jews during the Holocaust, the reality is that the Vatican played a major role in the establishment of the Third Rich, never publicly condemned their religious intolerance and persecution, and only began helping Jews once the problem extended outside the walls of German and began impacting Church interest in other countries.

Perhaps Pope Pius XII and motives are better understood in the light of what took place when tons of explosives were dropped on Rome in 1943 during WWII, by American Bombers.

As soon as the all-clear had sounded, instead of initially using that moment to provide spiritual comfort and instill courage and hope in the ears of the people, he reportedly went to the Vatican Bank to withdraw cash reserves before driving into the city.

These are sins the Vatican can never atone for.

WAR & THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

A more recent example of mainstream Christian religions inciting violence and intolerance toward religious minority groups is that of Russia.

Although Russia claims not to have a religion of State, Russian Orthodoxy is the most widely possessed and protected faith throughout the Russian Federation, representing some 75% of its population.

Without going to the longstanding history of Russia, we are going to specifically focus on examples of religious violence and intolerance under President Vladimir Putin.

The most recent example would be Russia's war on Ukraine backed and instigated and supported by the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) verified a total of 2,787 civilian deaths during Russia's military attack on Ukraine as of April 26, 2022. Of them, 202 were children. Furthermore, 3,152 people were reported to have been injured. However, OHCHR specified that the real numbers could be higher.

Under Article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it states “any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.” Adding, “any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.”

The Russian Orthodox Church has violated that article and must bear global responsibility for their crimes against humanity.

However, there are more examples of the Russian Orothodx Church using their influence to threaten the lives of its people.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), Pentecostal congregations, and the Evangelical Christian Missionary Union, reported that local authorities in recent years denied them permission to acquire land on which to construct places of worship.

Authorities continued to deny construction permits to several groups including Catholics, Buddies, Muslims and Jews.

According to Elizabeth Cassidy, director of research and policy at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, “The Russian government maintains, frequently updates and enforces an array of laws that restrict religious freedom,” adding, that Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were banned as “extremist” by the Russian government in 2017, are “among the groups most brutally targeted under these laws in recent years,” as praying, preaching and dissemination of materials outside designated places of worship are often prohibited., with some members being tortured and held in prison for things including not being willing to kill or fight in war, sharing their bible based faith with others and meeting in public for worship.

Since the implementation of the anti-terrorist laws, the level of surveillance of all non-Orthodox Christian churches has increased. As a result, Christian activity is often under state surveillance, and church services are sometimes raided by security forces. Christian converts in Muslim regions face immense pressure from family, friends and the local community to renounce their faith. Out of fear, converts often do not even attempt to go to church meetings. Some have been forced to flee or find refuge in safe houses, according to open doors USA.org that also reports at least 14 Christians recently being arrested, including four Christians who worked in a rehabilitation center for drug addicts and were sentenced to five-to-eight years imprisonment.

It’s clear for the aforementioned examples, that the Russian Federation, under the direction and support of the Russian Orthodox Church, are an impediment to tolerance, human rights and global progress.

WAR, GENOCIDE & TERRORISM - ISLAM

September 11, 2001, will forever be a turning point in human history. For it was the day that Islamic extremists, under the belief of religious purity, waged their “Holy War '' against the predominantly Christian US nation.

And while many will argue that Islamic extremist bear no reflection of the true teachings of Islam, and say that radicals are in the minority, the fact remains that radical religious teachings and influence have the greatest impact for harm on the world affairs of today.

On September 11, on a clear, late summer morning, Islamic Muslim hijackers used jet airliners as destructive weapons, targeting the New York City's World Trade Center and the United States Pentagon.

At 8:46 a.m., Flight 11 hit the north tower of the World Trade Center.

At 9:03 a.m., Flight 175 crashed into the south tower.

Eventually causing both towers to collapse which resulted in massive damage to the rest of the complex and nearby buildings.

Some 2,595 people inside and near the towers were killed, along with the 157 people who were aboard the flights.

At 9:37 a.m. the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77, sliced through three light poles in the Pentagon parking lot before slamming into the first floor of the building and exploding in a fireball, instantly killing 125 people inside the Pentagon plus all 64 passengers onboard, including the five hijackers.

At 9:28 am, four hijackers attempted to gain control of United Airlines Flight 93, passengers and crew who were onboard the hijacked aircraft, fought back.

On 9/11, millions of Americans became glued to their televisions, watching in horror as hijacked planes attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

First Officer LeRoy Homer managed to transmit to the ground, shouting, "Mayday! Mayday! Get out!" over the radio amid sounds of violence.

Cleveland Air Traffic Controller replied back but was met by radio silence.

Nearly 3,000 people died as a result of religious inspired propaganda. The victims were not just the nearly 3,000 people who died from the attacks, it included over 33,000 police officers, firefighters, first responder and community members who had to be treated for injuries and sickness related to the attacks. Not to mention the scores of friends, family and community members emotionally impacted and devastated by the heinous crime against humanity done in the name of religion.

Africa

More recently, in 2020, an Islamist group killed some 50 during a massacre in Mozambique.

Killing dozens of villagers in its most bloody attack, more than 50 people were massacred in an attack in Xitaxi in the Muidumbe district after locals refused to be recruited to its ranks, according to police. Most were either shot dead or beheaded.

Bangladesh & Hinduism

Presently in Bangladesh, Hindus are targeted by the government that has placed in their constitution, Islam as the religion of the state.

During the 1971 Bangladesh genocide there were widespread killings and acts of ethnic cleansing of civilians in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan, a province of Pakistan), and widespread violations of human rights were carried out by the Pakistani Army, which was supported by political and religious militias during the Bangladesh Liberation War. In Bangladesh, the atrocities are identified as a genocide.

According to a Time magazine report "The Hindus, who account for three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, have borne the brunt of the Muslim military's hatred."

The genocide lead to some 3 M Hindus being killed by one estimate.

According to R.J. Rummel, professor of political science at the University of Hawaii, the genocide and genocidal atrocities were also perpetrated by lower-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers. These "willing executioners" were fueled by an abiding anti-Bengali racism, especially against the Hindu minority.

"Bengalis were often compared with monkeys and chickens. Said General Niazi, 'It was a low lying land of low lying people.' The Hindus among the Bengali's were as Jews to the Nazis: scum and vermin that [should] best be exterminated.

Soldiers were free to kill at will. The journalist Dan Coggin quoted one Pakistani captain as telling him, "We can kill anyone for anything. We are accountable to no one." This is the arrogance of Power.

How have things changed for Hindus in Bangladesh since then?

According to the BJHM report in 2017 alone, at least 107 people of the Hindu community were killed and 31 fell victims to enforced disappearance. Some 782 Hindus were either forced to leave the country or threatened to leave. Besides, 23 were forced to convert into other religions. At least 25 Hindu women and children were raped, while 235 temples and statues vandalized during the year. The total number of atrocities happened with the Hindu community in 2017 is 6474. During the 2019 Bangladesh elections, eight houses belonging to Hindu families were set on fire in Thakurgaon alone.

In April 2019, two idols of Hindu goddesses, Lakshmi and Saraswati, were vandalized by unidentified miscreants at a newly-constructed temple in Kazipara of Brahmanbaria.In the same month, several idols of Hindu gods in two temples in Madaripur Sadar upazila which were under construction were desecrated by miscreants.

Although freedom of religion is documented to be guaranteed in Bangladesh's constitution, it is evident from the aforementioned cases that religious bigotry continues to be a threat to internal peace and human rights throughout that region.

WAR, GENOCIDE & TERRORISM - BUDDHISM

Although Buddhism is a religion that claims to follow a way of peace and non-violence, that stance has all but been abandoned and forgotten in the 20th and 21st century, resulting in utter chaos.

In Sri Lanka, for example, the 20th century civil war between the mostly Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the Hindu Tamil minority cost some 50,000 lives.

More than 100,000 military and civilian Hindus were killed after the rise of a new leader of Sri Lanka, and were pressured to conform to Buddhism nationwide by Buddhist monks.

In 1956, the non-Buddhist Tamil-speaking population made up 30 percent of administrative service, 50 percent of clerical service, 60 percent of engineers and doctors, and 40 percent of the armed forces. By 1970 those numbers had plummeted to 5 percent, 5 percent, 10 percent, and 1 percent, respectively."

Today, the situation is no better.

In that region, Buddhist have been responsible for bombings of Christian Churches on Easter and attacks on Mosques, Muslim-owned business, and the homes.

Attack on Muslims in Myanmar

Myanmar is a Buddhist state who has used religion to instigate some of the bloodiest atrocities in the 21st century by far.

One such case involves the thousands of Rohingya Musliums that have died and more than 700,000 that fled to Bangladesh during an army crackdown in 2017.

The Rohingya, who numbered around one million in Myanmar at the start of 2017, are one of the many ethnic minorities in the country. Rohingya Muslims are the largest community of Muslims in Myanmar, with the majority living in Rakhine state.

But Myanmar's government denies them citizenship, refusing to recognize them as a people and seeing them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Waves of Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh over the decades but their latest exodus began on 25 August 2017 after militants from a Rohingya insurgent group called Arsa launched deadly attacks on more than 30 police posts.

Rohingyas arriving in Bangladesh said they fled after troops, backed by local Buddhist mobs, responded by burning their villages and attacking and killing civilians.

The government claims that "clearance operations" against the militants ended on 5 September 2017, but analysis of satellite imagery by Human Rights Watch suggests hundreds of villages were destroyed after August that year.

Presently, a leading United Nations human rights expert said the Myanmar military is carrying out "war crimes" against ethnic minorities, even during the Covid-19 pandemic.

WAR, GENOCIDE & TERRORISM - HINDUISM

Similarly, Hindu religious leaders have instigated religious hatred and intolerance in one of the world's largest populated countries, India.

With a population of over 1.3 billion and growing, the danger of a religious state in such a populated region of the world, goes without saying.

Predominantly Hindu, religious minority groups including Muslim and Dalits, have suffered under Hindu inspired political policies.

For example, in Feb 2020, Al Jazeera reported, India’s capital, New Delhi, experienced its worst communal violence targeting a religious minority in more than 30 years. The death toll currently stands at 43 prompting the lockdown of the northeast part of Delhi following the violence.

Reports confirm that Muslims and Dalits have been the targets of lynchings by Hindu activists in the name of protecting cows, a long-standing Hindu nationalist preoccupation.

The violence was triggered after Muslims protesting against a discriminatory citizenship law were attacked.

Over 200 people were injured during four days of violence in Muslim-populated areas of northeast Delhi, as reports of Hindi police looking the other way as mobs went on a killing rampage and damages properties, including mosques, as reported in Aljazeera.

In other videos posted on social media, you can see Muslim youths being beaten in the public, by police officers, reportedly for being out during the Covid-19 pandemic.

WAR, GENOCIDE & TERRORISM - JUDAISM

While anti-semitic ideologies and persecution of Jews persist, the Jewish state of Israel has also been responsible for genocide and ethnic cleansing, often backed by major political allies.

Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians from a 1.9 million population were made refugees beyond the borders of the state. Zionist forces had taken more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, ethnically cleansed and destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in a series of mass atrocities, including more than 70 massacres with the backing and support of it’s political allies all in the name of religion.

It all started back On November 2, 1917. Britain's Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour wrote a letter to the leader of the Zionist movement, Baron Rothschild, stating that the government viewed "with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people", and would use its "best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object".

In that letter, Balfour said “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine"

However, by 1919, Balfour wrote in a memorandum “In Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country... Zionism be it right or wrong is more important than the wishes of 700,000 Arabs,"

• At that time, the Arabs population made up some 94 percent of the population of Palestine.

The Balfour Declaration, and its implementation by the British mandate in Palestine from 1920, culminated in Israel's creation in 1948, and the wholesale dispossession of the Palestinian people.

So, 1917, before the start of the British Mandate (1920-1947), the British issued the Balfour Declaration, promising to help the "establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."

What made the British Empire so keen on establishing an Israel State?

A Britain-based Russian Zionist leader and chemist names Chaim Weizmann, was well-connected in the British government, with friends in high places, due to his contributions to the British war effort during World War I.

For 2 years, Weizmann lobbied for the British to publicly commit Britain to building a homeland for the Jews in Palestine.

By giving their support to Zionist goals in Palestine, the British hoped they could shore up support among the significant Jewish populations in the US and Russia and believed the Balfour Declaration would secure their control over Palestine.

So, with the help of Britain, Zionist immigration to Palestine commenced.

When the Nazi gained power in Germany between 1933 and 1936, The British Empire sent an estimated 60,000 European Jews to Palestine, seizing this as an opportunity to follow through with the Balfour Declaration, for Israel to have a “holy religious” independent sovereignty.

As a result, in 1936, Palestinian Arabs launched a large-scale uprising against the British and their support for Zionist settler-colonialism, known as the Arab Revolt.

The British authorities crushed the revolt, which lasted until 1939, violently; they destroyed at least 2,000 Palestinian homes, put 9,000 Palestinians in concentration camps and subjected them to violent interrogation, including torture, and deported 200 Palestinian nationalist leaders.

Not surprisingly, Weizmann became Israel's first president.

However, Britain soon became targets of the Israel Zionist, who declared war on Britain in 1944 for seeking to limit Jewish immigration.

Zionist quickly militarized and organized a number of attacks against the British. Including the King David Hotel bombing in 1946 where the British administrative headquarters were housed; 91 people were killed in the attack.

By 1947, the British government announced it would be handing over the disaster it had created in Palestine to the United Nations who on November 29, 1947, adopted Resolution 181, recommending the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Allocating 55 percent of the land to the Zionist who only made up 6% of the population.

Unsurprisingly, following the UN Resolution 181, war broke out between the Palestinian Arabs and Zionist armed groups, who, unlike the Palestinians, had gained extensive training and arms from fighting alongside Britain in World War II.

From December 1947 to mid-May 1948, Zionist armed groups expelled about 440,000 Palestinians from 220 villages.

By May 15, some of the most infamous massacres had already been committed; including the Baldat al-Sheikh massacre on December 31, 1947, killing up to 70 Palestinians; the Sa'sa' massacre on February 14, 1948, when 16 houses were blown up and 60 people lost their lives; and the Deir Yassin massacre on April 9, 1948, when 110 Palestinian men, women and children were slaughtered.

Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians from a 1.9 million population were made refugees beyond the borders of the state. Zionist forces had taken more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, ethnically cleansed and destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in a series of mass atrocities, including more than 70 massacres with the backing and support of it’s political allies all in the name of religion.

Massacres and ethic cleansing continued throughout the 20th and 21st century.

Today, Israel continues to oppress and dispose of Palestinians.

The 3M Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, reportedly face home demolitions, arbitrary arrests, and displacement. Their movement is restricted by military checkpoints and the Separation Wall that has obstructed their ability to travel freely.

The Gaza Strip, that is home to some 2 M Palestinians, has been under Israeli siege for over 10 years.

According to activist groups, some 50 laws are based on a religious code that discriminates against those who are not devout Jews.

Every year on May 15, Palestinians around the world, numbering about 12.4 million, mark the Nakba, or "catastrophe", referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that commenced in 1948.

Palestinians observing Nakba face criminal charges and risk of death in Israel.

It is clear from the present situation in the State of Israel, that Jewish religious extremist and false ideologies are responsible for the genocide, ethnic cleansing and war, in that region. They are an impediment to the establishment of peace in security in that region and globally.

CONCLUSION

All mainstream religious organizations have violated the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights Articles 6, 7 & 8 and must be held globally accountable!

Yes, the spike in religious violence is global and affects virtually every religious group. genocide, war and hate crimes have all been the results of religiously incited violence that continues to plague mankind and pose a threat to the very survival of the human race. Left unchecked for far too long, religious majorities have often used their political influence to enact policies, laws and actions systematically designed to oppress the religious minority. The tremendous assault of evil they have imposed on the masses for centuries must not be allowed to continue. Our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will look back on this unique time in history and ask us, what did we do to change it?

The United States and Great Britain must lead the legal charge against these mainstream religious organizations who have been organized for terror for far too long!

International Convention on Civil and Political Rights Articles 7 & 8

Under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights Articles 7 states “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” In addition, Article 8 adds, “No one shall be held in slavery; slavery and the slave-trade in all their forms shall be prohibited.” Adding, “no one shall be held in servitude.”

In conclusion, it is imperative for the United Nations to take decisive action in eliminating mainstream religious organizations that commit human rights violations. Although religious freedom is a fundamental right, it should not be used to shield actions that infringe upon the rights and dignity of individuals. In addition to the articles mentioned earlier, mainstream religious organizations often violate Article 18 (freedom of thought, conscience, and religion) and Article 19 (freedom of opinion and expression) by imposing strict ideologies and suppressing dissenting voices. Moreover, the forced marriage of children, discrimination and gender-based violence are further examples of human rights violations that need to be addressed urgently. By holding these organizations accountable, the UN can contribute to creating a world where religious belief does not infringe upon the rights and well-being of individuals, fostering a more inclusive and equitable global society.