Globalization manifies the religious conflict

The statement that cause you rumminating is more of a dicta than a ratio. Frankly, I have not done any statistics to back up the assertion and the comment is made with instinct out of general observation and general knowledge of history.

My unscientific view is that the religious segtarianism and polarization have widened following the globalization in particular in the form of communication and transportation.

My observation is that religious conflict doesn't exist in a country where a particular religion has the hegemony, like those in South America, Saudi Arab and Japan.

Country where followers of different faiths are sizable and yet the country is stable without polarization are few in between. In Asia, Korea is exemplary where the Christians and Buddhists are at peace. Though Malaysia is without violence, the polarization does exist with government backed Islamization policy from 1980s.

Where followers of two competing faiths in a country are sizable, religion is always used as a cause or a pretext. Sri Lanka (Buddhism vs Hinduism), India (Hinduism vs Islam), Thailand (Buddhism vs Islam), Iraq (intra-Islam), Northern Ireland (intra-Christianity) are examples where the domestic religious segtarianism reaches the level of violence.

The world at large is dominated by the rivalry between the two great monotheistic tradition, represented by Islam and Judeo-Christianity, played out in the proxy conflict between Israel and Palestinan.

The scope of this conflict stretches from the islands in the Philippines and Indonesia to inland in Africa. The actors of this conflict reside in the cities in Europe and America as well as in the oasis town in Arab and villages in Asia.

This conflict is not new, it is millenium old. Yet the intensity of the rivalry between these two monotheistic faiths has taken a new chapter of accute intensity following the globalization.

Any incident with religious dimension (think of salman rushdie, Danish cartoon, collateral damage by American, 911, Palestinian retaliation against Israelis) whether domestic or international can quickly be turned into a much bigger religious rivalry and often civilizational clash supported and funded by an international network of supporters and sympathizer whether organized or individual.

This is not possible in the past to reach the current scale and intensity when the mode of communication is not instant and the mean of transportation is slowed. Thanks to cell phone, satelli

I am inclined to believe that the security check and liquid items limit imposed on me at airport can be traced to this religious segtarianism. We are just too polite not to admit it.

This is my argument that globalization has exarbated the religious conflict like never before in the world at large.

Religion itself arguably is not the cause, it is always the people, said many religious apologist and moderate. This is the same as the car is not the cause of accident but the driver.

Yet, didn't we regulate traffic rules and impose on the passenger the safety belt. The same applies to the practice of religion.

There has to be rules. It is not a restriction on freedom of idea, conscience or religion. It is the rules governing the practice of religions to make sure tolerance replaces violence and diversity replaces adversity.