It is bitter irony that today millions who claim to be religious - those who counsel peace, advocate the community of humankind and voice concern for the welfare of others - often perpetrate madness, mayhem and murder on a grand scale, and all in the name of some "righteous" cause. It would seem that the crusades, inquisitions and witch hunts of our dark and blood-drenched past have taught us nothing. In just the first few years of the 1990s the world has witnessed Sikh violence against Muslims in India, Serbian Orthodox Christians against Croatian Catholics and Bosnian Muslims in the shattered Yugoslavia; the extremism of Muslim holy laws throughout Africa and the Middle East; Catholics against Protestants in Northern Ireland; the Branch Davidian inferno in Waco, Texas; Hindus and Buddhists engaging in violent clashes in Sri Lanka; and the United States' first real experience of international religious terrorism on its own shores - namely, the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City. These are but a few of the horrific episodes that make so many people question the benign message of modern religion.
In Holy Hatred: Religious Conflicts of the 1990s, renowned journalist James A. Haught, author of the widely acclaimed Holy Horrors: An Illustrated History of Religious Murder and Madness, demonstrates in gruesome detail that humanity in general and the world's religions in particular have learned little from the brutal mistakes of their predecessors. Whether it be masses of Hindus storming the gates of a Muslim mosque in India; a car bombing in Belfast; the shotgun murder of an abortion-clinic physician in Florida; "ethnic cleansing" at the hands of Orthodox Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina; or the bounties placed on the heads of those who dare to question the iron law of Islam; the frightening effects of "fractious faith" can be seen in virtually every part of the globe. But before rational people can join together to develop constructive answers to the conflicts of religious tribalism, which divide nations, communites and families, the gripping realities of recent years must be acknowledged.
Vividly illustrated with compelling photographs and valuable maps, Holy Hatred offers a sobering chronicle of the many acts of cruelty, molestation and slaughter of innocents that humanity has permitted to take place in the came of one religion or another. Included are reports on incdients in twenty-five nations: Afghanisatn, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Kuwait, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the former Soviet Union, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Trinidad, Turkey and the United States.
Whether as willing participants or as casual observers, we have permitted the bloodshed to continue; it is up to each of us to stop it.
James A. Haught is editor of the Charleston Gazette and the author of Holy Horrors: An Illustrated History of Religious Murder and Madness (Prometheus, 1990). He has won awards for his journalism from the National Press Club, the American Bar Association, and People for the American Way. In 1989, Haught was honored with the Hugh L. Hefner First Amendment Award for his newspaper articles on defence of the separation of church and state.