Karen Armstrong Fields Of Blood Analysis

Since the creation of religion, there has always been a debate to whether or not religion is the main cause of conflicts throughout history. In Karen Armstrong’s book “Fields of Blood”, she argues that people use religion as an excuse for the cause of wars and ignore all other aspects. Karen Armstrong is correct. Throughout history, there were many wars and conflicts that weren’t caused by religion yet many leaders used the blame of religion to their advantage to conceal their true intentions. Wars using religion as a cover up for power is shown in the expansion of the Islamic Empire and in ISIS, while motivation from religion opposes Armstrong’s idea.

The expansion of the Islamic Empire shows the possibility of using religion as a cover up for the desire of land and power. Islamic countries were not allowed to harm nor raid other neighboring Islamic countries by the rule of Islam. Thus, provoked them to raid non-muslim countries, gaining the empire lots of land and resources. Every empire and its rulers wants to be the most powerful and the one with the most control that other competitors fear. The Islamic Empire doesn’t differ. As they needed more materials for their survival, using this rule of Islam was a perfect way for rulers to unite and persuade all their people to agree to fight for them.
ISIS is a vicious military group that causes violence to other countries. Majority may view ISIS Islam based, however ISIS uses the religion for the sole purpose of justification. A rule of Islam is it’s okay to fight if it is for a just cause. ISIS uses this excuse to cover up that they really just want power and will stop at nothing to get