What is the significance of religion as a cause of conflict in the modern world?

Religion is getting the key driving force for conflict in the 21st century after the 9/11 attacks. After the collapse of Soviet Union there was a steady increase in tension between civilizations, which was clearly seen in 1993 when Yugoslav Civil War broke out. As Samuel Huntington argued, there is going to be a decline in ideology and instead rise in civilizational conflict. His thesis was clearly justified after Islamic fundamentalists carried out attacks in US in 9/11. After the attacks on USA, president Bush declared war against terrorism and carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan and Iraq Al Qaeda training camps. USA justified its invasion of Afghanistan as an attack for changing the autocratic regime and establishing “beacons of democracy”. Huntington clearly criticized Bush’s administration for this as he argued that it is impossible to transplant western values and democracy on a different civilization, which existed for hundreds of years. He marked 9/11 as the beginning of the conflict between West and Islam. In recent days ISIS carried out an attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine journalists who continuously mocked Allah, but justified their act as “freedom of speech”. Thus Samuel Huntington’s book “Clash of Civilizations” clearly shows us that religion is a key driving force for many jihadists, which resulted in a full-scale conflict between the West and Islamic worlds. Critics clearly argue that the tension and cause of conflict rose in the modern world because of the inequality in the Third World and in the Global South. In eyes of the critics, poverty leads to the “seeds of terrorism” which causes a conflict with wealthy states. However they clearly oppose air strikes and instead believe that governments should provide funding for infrastructural projects. Overall, it is clearly seen that religion is causing conflict in the world, which was seen after the 9/11 attacks. There is a tension between Western values and Islam, which may result in a full-scale conflict in the future. On the other hand, global inequality and North-South divide is also an issue which divides the world and leads to a conflict such as civil wars or terrorist attacks.