Editing Violence (section)

=== Religion and politics ===
{{Main|Religious violence}}
{{further|Ideology}}
[[File:Taliban beating woman in public RAWA.jpg|thumb|[[Taliban]] beating woman in public]]
[[File:La masacre de San Bartolomé, por François Dubois.jpg|thumb|The [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre]] of French Protestants, 1572]]
Religious and political ideologies have been the cause of interpersonal violence throughout history.<ref>"Doctrinal War: Religion and Ideology in International Conflict," in Bruce Kuklick (advisory ed.), ''The Monist: The Foundations of International Order'', Vol. 89, No. 2 (April 2006), p. 46.</ref> Ideologues often falsely accuse others of violence, such as the ancient [[blood libel]] against Jews, the [[medieval]] accusations of casting [[witchcraft]] spells against women, and modern accusations of [[satanic ritual abuse]] against day care center owners and others.<ref>[http://www.religioustolerance.org/ra_case.htm 42 M.V.M.O. Court Cases with Allegations of Multiple Sexual And Physical Abuse of Children].</ref>

Both supporters and opponents of the 21st-century [[War on terror]]ism regard it largely as an ideological and religious war.<ref>[[Richard A. Clarke|Richard Clarke]], ''Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror'', Free Press; 2004</ref>{{Pages needed|date=November 2024}}<ref>[[Michael Scheuer]], ''Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror,'' Potomac Books Inc.,  2004</ref>{{Pages needed|date=November 2024}}<ref>[[Robert Fisk]], ''The Great War for Civilisation – The Conquest of the Middle East'', Fourth Estate, London, October 2005</ref>{{Pages needed|date=November 2024}}<ref>[[Michelle Malkin]], Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week kicks off, October 22, 2007; John L. Esposito, ''Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam'', Oxford University Press, USA, September 2003</ref>{{Pages needed|date=November 2024}} In 2007, US politician [[John Edwards]] said "the War on Terror was nothing more than a "slogan" and "a bumper sticker.""<ref>[https://www.foxnews.com/story/john-edwards-bumper-sticker-complaint-not-so-off-the-mark-new-memo-shows John Edwards' 'Bumper Sticker' Complaint Not So Off the Mark, New Memo Shows]</ref> In 1992, former research fellow with the US [[Cato Institute]], [[Leon Hadar]], considered that it wasn't "in America's interest to launch a crusade for democracy, neither is it in her interest to be perceived as the guarantor of the status quo and the major obstacle to reform".<ref>Leon T. Hadar, [http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-177.html The Green Peril: Creating the Islamic Fundamentalist Threat] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071115120516/http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-177.html |date=2007-11-15 }}, August 27, 1992</ref>

Vittorio Bufacchi describes two different modern concepts of violence, one the "minimalist conception" of violence as an intentional act of excessive or destructive force, the other the "comprehensive conception" which includes violations of rights, including a long list of human needs.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1478-9299.2005.00023.x|pages=193–204|title=Two Concepts of Violence|journal=Political Studies Review|volume=3|issue=2|year=2005|last1=Bufacchi|first1=Vittorio|s2cid=144475865}}</ref>

[[Anti-capitalist]]s say that [[capitalism]] is violent, that [[private property]] and [[Profit (economics)|profit]] survive only because police violence defends them, and that capitalist economies need war to expand.<ref>Michael Albert [https://web.archive.org/web/20050312224037/http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=6842 Life After Capitalism – And Now Too]. Zmag.org, December 10, 2004; [http://www.urban75.org/mayday/capitalism.html Capitalism explained] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109044307/http://www.urban75.org/mayday/capitalism.html |date=2007-11-09 }}.</ref> In this view, capitalism results in a form of [[structural violence]] that stems from inequality, environmental damage, and the exploitation of women and people of colour.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Wally|last1=Gordon|title=Capitalism and violence|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13623699708409316|journal=Medicine, Conflict and Survival|date=1 January 1997|issn=1362-3699|pages=63–66|volume=13|issue=1|doi=10.1080/13623699708409316}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=Bram|last1=Büscher|first2=Robert|last2=Fletcher|title=Destructive creation: capital accumulation and the structural violence of tourism|journal=Journal of Sustainable Tourism|date=4 May 2017|issn=0966-9582|pages=651–667|volume=25|issue=5|doi=10.1080/09669582.2016.1159214|s2cid=155376736 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2017JSusT..25..651B }}</ref>

[[Frantz Fanon]] critiqued the violence of [[colonialism]] and wrote about the counter violence of the "colonized victims."<ref>Charles E. Butterworth and Irene Gendzier. "Frantz Fanon and the Justice of Violence. "Middle East Journal, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Autumn, 1974), pp. 451–58</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-XGKFJq4eccC&q=the%20wretched%20of%20the%20earth|title=The Wretched of the Earth|first=Frantz|last=Fanon|year= 2007|publisher=Grove/Atlantic, Inc.|via=Google Books|page=44|isbn=978-0802198853}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | author = Jinadu Adele | year = 1972 | title = Fanon: The Revolutionary as Social Philosopher | journal = The Review of Politics | volume = 34 | issue = 3| pages = 433–36 | doi=10.1017/s0034670500026188| s2cid = 144606756 }}</ref>

Throughout history, most religions and individuals like [[Mahatma Gandhi]] have preached that humans are capable of eliminating individual violence and organizing societies through purely [[nonviolent]] means. Gandhi himself once wrote: "A society organized and run on the basis of complete non-violence would be the purest [[anarchy]]."<ref>Bharatan Kumarappa, Editor, "For Pacifists," by M.K. Gandhi, Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, India, 1949.</ref> Modern political ideologies which espouse similar views include pacifist varieties of [[Voluntaryism|voluntarism]], [[mutualism (economic theory)|mutualism]], [[anarchism]] and [[libertarianism]].

[[Luther Seminary]] Old Testament scholar [[Terence E. Fretheim]] wrote about the Old Testament:
{{blockquote|

For many people, ... only physical violence truly qualifies as violence. But, certainly, violence is more than killing people, unless one includes all those words and actions that kill people slowly. The effect of limitation to a "killing fields" perspective is the widespread neglect of many other forms of violence. We must insist that violence also refers to that which is psychologically destructive, that which demeans, damages, or depersonalizes others. In view of these considerations, violence may be defined as follows: any action, verbal or nonverbal, oral or written, physical or psychical, active or passive, public or private, individual or institutional/societal, human or divine, in whatever degree of intensity, that abuses, violates, injures, or kills. Some of the most pervasive and most dangerous forms of violence are those that are often hidden from view (against women and children, especially); just beneath the surface in many of our homes, churches, and communities is abuse enough to freeze the blood. Moreover, many forms of systemic violence often slip past our attention because they are so much a part of the infrastructure of life (e.g., racism, sexism, ageism).<ref name=Fretheim>{{cite journal |journal=Word & World |first=Terence |last=Freitheim |title=God and Violence in the Old Testament |volume=24 |issue=1 |date=Winter 2004 |url=http://wordandworld.luthersem.edu/content/pdfs/24-1_Violence/24-1_Fretheim.pdf |access-date=2010-11-21 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119093532/http://wordandworld.luthersem.edu/content/pdfs/24-1_Violence/24-1_Fretheim.pdf |archive-date=2012-11-19 }}</ref>
}}