HBC251 Religious Hate, Violence, and Inter-Religious Relations: A Sociological Analysis – ECA, Singapore

Question 1

Based on the appendix, answer the following questions.

1. Explain what constitutes religiously-motivated hate from a sociological perspective. In your answer refer to at least two examples/illustrations of religiously-motivated hate by adherents of different religions.
2. Discuss Harris’ argument that religion is dangerous and explain why you agree or disagree with it.
3. Examine why some religious leaders may see religious violence as a legimitate means to achieve their goals. Conclude your discussion by referring to McFaul’s thesis on inter-religious relations and, based on your findings, explain whether you agree with his conclusions about the state of inter-religious relations in the world today and in the near future.

In your arguments, apply course concepts such cultural relativism, religio-centricism, religious fundamentalism, religious violence, among others.

• The answer should be in the format of a well-structured essay.
• The word allowance for the answer is 3,000 words.
• You should provide an academically valid rationale for your choice of case studies and examples.
• Avoid merely giving snapshots and descriptions of religious hate and violence – you should maintain a balanced relationship between description and analysis; do not simply provide a long descriptive account framed by brief analytical observations in the introduction and conclusion but instead integrate the two.
• In your references, you must use both course material (Study Guide, assigned readings, lecture notes) and at least five outside academic resources. Avoid over-relying on your sources by merely summarising or paraphrasing them, instead use them as sources of data or ideas to support your own interpretations and analyses.
• The use of AI-generated content is subject to similar rules as that of other sources. If you use AI-generated content, you must acknowledge this by giving the source (ChatGPT, Bing, etc) and information on how the content was generated (input questions, topics). Unacknowledged AI-generated content will be considered as plagiarism.

(100 marks)

Appendix:

Blurb / Case:

In an op-ed article, Ben Ulansey commented that while it’s true that good can come from religion, it is also the “tool that’s required if ever there’s a mass that needs to be manipulated” (Ulansey, 2023). In a similar vein, religious critic and philoshopher Sam Harris quipped in his book, “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason”, that “the danger of religious faith is that it allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them holy”. Separately, in her report to the United Nations General Assembly’s 55th Session of the Human Rights Council, United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, Nazila Ghanea, highlighted that widespread advocacy of religiously-motivated hatred is among the key drivers of polarisation and conflict in the world today and requires immediate and comprehensive attention. The report cautioned that religion is often weaponised as an identity marker against which the ‘other’ is contrasted and thus, religious hatred can be purposefully instrumentalized and amalgamated with other forms of hatred (such as nationality, race, migration state, cultural values, language, among others) in devious and engineered ways.

Adapted from Ben Ulansey (2023). The Dangers of Religion: Religion, science and the cosmos. Medium. Retrieved from https://mediuhttps://medium.com/thought-thinkers/the-dangers-of-religion-cc844b7bfb11m.com/thought-thinkers/the-dangers-of-religion-cc844b7bfb11 and Ghanea, N (2024). Hatred on the basis of religion or belief. Report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. United Nations General Assembly, Human Rights Council. Retrieved from https://undocs.org/a/hrc/55/47