when the first Muslim invaders appeared and they clashed in both a philosophical and violent sense. Hindu violence returned in the mid-twentieth century, when they finally regained control of India. They smashed a Muslim temple at Ayodhya (Ahmad, et. al., 207), and Sikh and Tamil rebel groups rebel against their authority. However, what is even more notable about Hinduism, is its rigid caste system, in which peoples have set social classes, that are totally unchangeable, and are products of the religion. The untouchables were considered as low as animals, and forced to do menial work such as sweeping and leather working. They were forced into a life of separatism, and the rest of Hindu culture either ignored them completely or hated them. And on the other side of the world, in Central America, the Aztec people were powerful warriors, who swept across the Mexican plains, conquering villages and whole peoples (Ahmad, et. al., 450). Their religion consisted of brutal human sacrifices of enemy slaves - in fact the sacrifices grew so many in number that they were watching their population decline significantly, which eventually allowed the Spanish invaders to overcome them. When we look at the aggregate spectrum of cultures and religions, we see a significant relationship between religions and violence, one could conclude that much of the world’s problems today are echoes of past religious exploits in places such as Latin America, India, and Africa. To say that religion on a whole is violent and counter productive would be a massive abstraction - and a false one too. In fact, the purpose of this essay is not to denigrate the notion of organized religion, but to clarify the purpose of the Islamic religion, and to dispel the commonly held notion that Islam is solely a cult of violence. Through the ages, religion brought light to literally billions of people. It has inspired artists, scientists, writers and scholars. It was the founding b...
