Religion has and continues to be a major cause of violence in the world. In medieval ages, the most expansive wars were the Crusades which were carried out by the Christian army in an attempt to reclaim the Holy Land from the Muslims. These Crusades were destructive and they led to the death of my communities whose only fault was belonging to a different religion. As it is, most religions preach peace and it would therefore seem contradictory that they practice or even encourage violence. However, these two concepts of religion and violence can go hand in hand since many religions (most notably Christianity and Islam) allow violence to take place under certain circumstances. These circumstances range from liberating fellow believers for the Christians to waging holy wars against non-believers for the Muslims.
In my opinion, religion provides a source of conflict and violence. It does this by bringing significant differences in people who might otherwise have lived together in peace. Since each religion sees itself as the only true one, they view people who do not share in the faith as being wrong. Some religions even insist that their followers should actively seek to convert others and those who resist may be forced through violence. Moving beyond the violence and conflict caused by religion is important if world peace is to be achieved. I believe that this can be brought about if every religion learnt how to tolerate others and accept that there might be more than one true faith. Gaining some knowledge on other religions might help assist to being about tolerance since a lot of intolerance comes from ignorance. Religions could also emphasize on love and peaceful coexistence with people of different faiths.
