RELIGIOUS FERVOR AROUND THE WORLD has taken increasingly alarming forms, often provoking terror among believers and nonbelievers alike. Politics, geography, history, tribalism, and religious dogma, all weave a complex web of seemingly intractable conditions that result in cycles of violence, hatred, and misunderstanding.
In recent times, we have seen warfare erupt in the Balkans between Christians and Muslims, an ongoing genocide against African Muslims committed by Janjaweed militias in the Darfur region of Sudan (supported by the government in Khartoum), strife between Hindus and Muslims in India and Pakistan, Chechen Wahhabi (sufi) radicals in a pitched battle with Russia, and the continuing tragedy that erodes hope and peace between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East. While some of these conflicts have moved toward uneasy resolutions, the world still wonders, What next? Who next? Does history define our future? Do we have to cross our fingers and hope that our own little corners of the world don't fall victim to religious strife?
Perhaps we need to find a new way of solving the world's crises, to step outside the lines of traditional methods to get a radical new perspective. And not just human strategies, but God-fueled solutions. Which doesn't mean that peace talks, treaties, and various accommodations don't all take important, necessary places in our efforts to bring harmony into the religious arena. But what about a permanent solution to religious warfare?
