Religion and Extremism

Douglas Pratt is Professor of Studies in Religion at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, and Adjunct Professor of Theology and Interreligious Studies at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He is an Associate of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and the New Zealand Associate, UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations Asia – Pacific.

Douglas Pratt's book Religion and Extremism cannot come at a more opportune time. Through a painstaking historical analysis Pratt demonstrates beyond doubt that all religions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have had a violent past and path, whether one thinks that violence is inherent in religion, or religion has a violent core, or religion, though peaceful, can be instrumentalized as a violent means to achieve secular goals. Pratt forces adherents of all religions humbly to acknowledge this sad fact; like an addict who cannot be healed unless he or she recognizes his or her addiction, so believers cannot work for peace unless they first confess their addiction to violence. This is Pratt's uplifting message that we all need to hear.

• Preface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. Accommodating Diversity: paradigms and patterns 3. Diversity Resisted: exclusion and fundamentalism 4. Texts of Terror: scriptural motifs for extremism 5. The Jewish experience of extremism 6. Forms of Christian extremism 7. Trajectories of Islamic extremism 8. Mutual extremism: reactive co-radicalization 9. Extremism and Islamophobia 10. Conclusion Bibliography Index