Is Religion a threat to human security? A case study of Islam

Abstract

Religion as a form of fundamentalism has the capacity of destabilizing human security. It has the potential of radicalizing violent extremism. Violent extremism as an ideology focuses on the mindset and religion plays a significant and crucial role in legitimizing the idea of terror in the mind. Religion too has an important role to play in delegitimizing the idea of religious extremism and peace building if it is well administered by conscientious leaders. Nonetheless, for an effective authentic peace to be realized there is the necessity to explore and act on all dimensions of the social institutions for any sustainable peace building process and practices to be realized in any given situation. This paper points out the unique force religion (especially from the Islamic perspective)
has on human behavior especially in contexts of violence, but still makes a concession that forces such as tribal identities is still a force that cannot be underestimated in the ladder of emotional attachments in matters affecting our deepest beings.