where Protestants demand their right to do their traditional marches through Catholic neighborhoods, while Catholics, on the other hand would rather die than have that happen. As passions continue to burn, violence is inevitable. Sometimes it a struggle over resources that eventually leads to religious violence. Most times the resource that is the subject of contention is land. For India and Pakistan, the subject of contention is Kashmir. And most of the conflict resides in the Indian-controlled Kashmir, because it just happens to be that India is Hindu, Pakistan is Moslem and the majority of people in Kashmir are Moslem. The Kashmiris on the Indian side, being Moslem, want to become part of Pakistan. Thus, a lot of fighting takes place in Indian-controlled Kashmir. For Israel and the Palestinians, the bone of contention is Jerusalem. The Jews were promised this land in their Holy Scriptures. Palestinians have lived there ever since the Diaspora of the Jews in A.D. 70, and as they are Moslem, Jerusalem is one of the holy sites of their religion. Nationalism often has a heavy hand in the prolonged crisis in this case. Such conflicts never die down because no one is ready to give concessions to the other. They fear that if they back down in any way they will look weak. Thus the conflict continues. It is important to note that some of these conflicts have risen out of countries that used to be under dictators, or were communist. Again, we are apt to dismiss them as purely religious. These peoples have been oppressed for so long that even after the dictators are gone, they feel a need for more rights and more power and a true identity of their own, through their politicians. Thus, nationalism grows. Nevertheless, as they search for their own space, they come across each other. Moreover, in cases where each ethnic tribe has its own religion (which is common), the passions of nationalism could explode into gigantic proportions. This has been ...
