“ideology Is the Origin of All Contemporary Conflicts” Discuss

“Ideology is the origin of all contemporary conflicts” Discuss

An ideology is a systematic body of concepts regarding human life or culture, or in simpler terms the core beliefs and customs of a group, for example the culture of democracy and capitalism in the majority of the western world. The current conflict in Syria can be regarded as contemporary as it is occurring in present day, but although the origin, how the conflict started, is due to the radicalist ideology of the ISIS islamic group, ideology in general cannot be regarded as the sole cause of all contemporary conflicts.

On the 7th of October 2001, under a month after the infamous 9/11 attacks in Manhattan, the USA conducted their first airstrikes on targets in Afghanistan. The ‘War on Terror’ came after the Taliban Afghan government refused to hand over Osama Bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders to the wrath of the US court system, demanding the USA give evidence of Bin Laden and other’s involvement and if so, they would be tried in an Islamic Court in Afghanistan. This conflict has been arguably the largest contemporarily, and the effects of 9/11 are still fully visible in today’s society, but it ultimately originated from a religious standpoint. Bin Laden announced a Jihad, or Holy War, against the United States with documents signed in 1998, calling for the killing of American citizens, due to the US’s support of conflicts against Muslims in various parts of the world including Somalia, Israel and Iraq. The example of one of the largest wars since World War 2 as being a war not originated from conflicting ideologies shows that the statement is a vast generalisation.

However there are major wars ongoing due to ideology. The ISIS group has been rejected by many Muslim leaders around the world as they have strayed from the path of true Islam - in the Quran, noble verse 17:33 states: “Nor take life - which God has made sacred - except for just cause”. Most Islamic groups regard this as an permittance of the death penalty, but murder of innocent people is not condoned by Allah. However, the last phrase opens the passage up to interpretation, as ISIS and Al-Qaeda regards all non-worship of Allah as a ‘just cause’. Salafi Jihadism, the ideology taken by ISIS, is a violent Islamic branch that rejects democracy and Shia law, has caused the current refugee crisis due to the group’s violence and taking of hostages, causing a civil war displacing civilians. The conflict continues as it is uncertain whether external forces will interfere with the conflict, which could escalate. ISIS’s condemnation of democracy, an ideology, shows that contemporary conflicts can originate from ideology.