COUNTERING VIOLENT EXTREMISM THROUGH AUTHENTIC RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: A COMPARATIVE THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF HINDUISM, CHRISTIANITY, AND ISLAM

Authors: Dr Abu Tayub Md Nazmussakib Bhuyan & Mohammad Abdur Rahman Bhuiyan

ABSTRACT

This study examines how authentic religious education in Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam can serve as an effective antidote to violent extremism. The primary objective was to retrieve and reinterpret scriptural and doctrinal resources that explicitly affirm non-violence, universal human dignity, freedom of belief, and peaceful coexistence, while exposing the hermeneutical distortions used by extremist groups. Employing a qualitative hermeneutical-comparative methodology, the research analysed primary sacred texts (the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, the New Testament, the Qur’an, and authoritative Ḥadīth), classical commentaries, and modern moderate scholarship across the three traditions, supplemented by expert consultations. Findings reveal striking convergence: ahiṃsā and the Sermon on the Mount, the imago Dei, and the sanctity of the children of Adam, “no compulsion in religion” and the parable of the wheat and weeds collectively delegitimise supremacism and sanctified violence. When systematically taught through contextually grounded pedagogy, these resources render extremist narratives theologically incoherent. The study concludes that tradition-specific and potentially collaborative religious-education curricula offer a sustainable, endogenous strategy for preventing radicalisation.

Keywords: Religious Education, Extremism, Peace, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism

REFERENCES

  • Abu-Nimer, M., & Said, A. A. (2021). Faith-based peacebuilding: The role of Islamic NGOs in conflict transformation. United States Institute of Peace Press.
  • Abu-Nimer, M., & Smith, R. K. (2016). Interreligious and intercultural education for dialogue, peace and social cohesion. International Review of Education, 62(4), 393–405. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-016-9582-8
  • Al-Albānī, M. N. (2000). Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd (Vol. 2). Maktabah al-Maʿārif.
  • Al-Bukhārī, M. ibn Ismāʿīl. (1997). Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (M. D. al-Khaṭṭāb, Trans.). Darussalam. (Original work published ca. 846 CE)
  • Al-Nawawī, Y. (1976). Riyāḍ al-ṣāliḥīn. Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah.
  • Al-Qaraḍāwī, Y. (2009). Fiqh al-jihād: Dirāsah muqāranah li-aḥkāmihi wa falsafatihi fī ḍawʾ al-Qurʾān wa al-Sunnah [Jurisprudence of jihad: A comparative study]. Al-Falah Foundation.
  • Al-Qurṭubī, M. ibn Aḥmad. (2006). Al-Jāmiʿ li-aḥkām al-Qurʾān (Vol. 10). Muʾassasat al-Risālah. (Original work published ca. 1273 CE)
  • Al-Ṭabarī, M. ibn Jarīr. (2000). Jāmiʿ al-bayān ʿan taʾwīl āy al-Qurʾān (Vols. 2–30). Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah. (Original work published ca. 923 CE)
  • Appleby, R. S. (2000). The ambivalence of the sacred: Religion, violence, and reconciliation. Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Arena, M. P., & Arrigo, B. A. (2006). The terrorist identity: Explaining the terrorist threat. New York University Press.
  • Augustine. (2018). The City of God (M. Dods, Trans.). Hendrickson Publishers. (Original work published ca. 426 CE)
  • Bin Bayyah, A. (2017). Al-irhāb: al-taʿrīf wa al-aḥkām [Terrorism: Definition and rulings]. Islamic Centre for Strategic Studies.
  • Buitenen, J. A. B. van (Trans.). (1978). The Mahābhārata: Vol. 3, The book of the assembly hall; The book of the forest. University of Chicago Press.
  • Cahill, L. S. (1994). Love your enemies: Discipleship, pacifism, and just war theory. Fortress Press.
  • Cahill, L. S. (2013). Global justice, Christology and Christian ethics. Cambridge University Press.
  • Chapple, C. K. (1993). Nonviolence to animals, earth, and self in Asian traditions. State University of New York Press.
  • Chapple, C. K. (2018). Living the yamas and niyamas: Exploring yoga’s ethical practice. In C. K. Chapple & A. Sharma (Eds.), Hinduism and nonviolence. Routledge.
  • Clooney, F. X. (2010). Comparative theology: Deep learning across religious borders. Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Doniger, W. (Trans.). (1991). The laws of Manu. Penguin Classics.
  • Easwaran, E. (Trans.). (2007). The Bhagavad Gita (2nd ed.). Nilgiri Press.
  • Feuerstein, G. (2003). The deeper dimension of yoga: Theory and practice. Shambhala.
  • Grenz, S. J. (2001). The social God and the relational self: A Trinitarian theology of the imago Dei. Westminster John Knox Press.
  • Grimmitt, M. (2000). Pedagogies of religious education: Case studies in the research and development of good pedagogic practice in RE. McCrimmon.
  • Hafez, M., & Mullins, C. (2015). The radicalization puzzle: A theoretical synthesis of empirical approaches to homegrown extremism. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38(11), 958–975. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2015.1051375
  • Hamidullah, M. (1987). The first written constitution in the world (3rd ed.). Ashraf Press.
  • Hays, R. B. (1996). The moral vision of the New Testament: Community, cross, new creation. HarperOne.
  • Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version. (1989). National Council of the Churches of Christ.
  • Hull, J. M. (2005). Religious education in a pluralist society: A philosophical perspective. British Journal of Religious Education, 27(3), 205–213. https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200500141245
  • Ibn Kathīr, I. (2000). Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm (Vol. 3). Dār Ṭaybah. (Original work published ca. 1370 CE)
  • Jackson, R. (2014). Signposts: Policy and practice for teaching about religions and non-religious world views in intercultural education. Council of Europe Publishing.
  • Jones, S. G. (2017). Waging insurgent warfare: Lessons from the Vietcong to the Islamic State. Oxford University Press.
  • Juergensmeyer, M. (2021). Terror in the mind of God: The global rise of religious violence (updated ed.). University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520927223
  • Kamali, M. H. (2017). The middle path of moderation in Islam: The Qurʾānic principle of wasaṭiyyah. Oxford University Press.
  • Klostermaier, K. K. (2007). A survey of Hinduism (3rd ed.). State University of New York Press.
  • Kruglanski, A. W., Bélanger, J. J., & Gunaratna, R. (2019). The three pillars of radicalization: Needs, narratives, and networks. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190851125.001.0001
  • Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj. (2007). Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (N. al-Khattab, Trans.). Darussalam. (Original work published ca. 875 CE)
  • Olivelle, P. (Trans.). (1998). The early Upaniṣads: Annotated text and translation. Oxford University Press.
  • Patel, E. (2016). Interfaith leadership: A primer. Beacon Press.
  • Prabhupada, A. C. B. S. (1986). Bhagavad-gītā as it is (2nd ed.). Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.
  • Pratt, D. (2010). Religion and terrorism: Christian fundamentalism and extremism. Terrorism and Political Violence, 22(3), 438–456. https://doi.org/10.1080/09546551003689399
  • Quraishi, M. A. (2019). Peace and the limits of war: Transcending classical conceptions of jihad. International Journal of Islamic Thought, 16(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.36051/ijit.16.01
  • Radhakrishnan, S. (1927). The Hindu view of life. George Allen & Unwin.
  • Radhakrishnan, S. (Trans.). (1953). The principal Upaniṣads. George Allen & Unwin.
  • Rambachan, A. (2015). A Hindu theology of liberation: Not-two is not one. State University of New York Press.
  • Saeed, A. (2017). Human rights and Islam: An introduction to key debates between Islamic law and international human rights law. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781784716585
  • Schmid, A. P. (2014). Radicalisation, de-radicalisation, counter-radicalisation: A conceptual discussion and literature review (ICCT Research Paper). International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague. https://doi.org/10.19165/2014.1.04
  • Sharma, A. (2003). Hinduism and human rights: A conceptual approach. Oxford University Press.
  • Sharma, A. (2013). Hinduism and nonviolence. In D. L. Carmody & J. T. Carmody (Eds.), Peace and war in world religions (pp. 53–78). Orbis Books.
  • Stassen, G. H., & Gushee, D. P. (2016). Kingdom ethics: Following Jesus in contemporary context (2nd ed.). Eerdmans.
  • Stassen, G. H., Yeager, D. M., & Cairns, J. H. (Eds.). (2018). Just peacemaking: The new paradigm for the ethics of peace and war (3rd ed.). Pilgrim Press.
  • Stern, J. (2018). Teaching religious education: Researchers in the classroom (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.
  • Sunan Abī Dāwūd. (2008). (Y. al-Qahtani, Trans.). Darussalam. (Original work compiled ca. 889 CE)
  • Sunan al-Tirmidhī. (2011). (A. Khaliyl, Trans.). Darussalam. (Original work compiled ca. 892 CE)
  • Swartley, W. M. (2006). Covenant of peace: The missing peace in New Testament theology and ethics. Eerdmans.
  • The Mahābhārata (Critical edition). (1933–1966). Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
  • The Noble Qur’ān. (n.d.). King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Holy Qur’ān. (References follow standard Cairo edition mushaf numbering)
  • Vatican II. (1965). Dignitatis humanae: Declaration on religious freedom. http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651207_dignitatis-humanae_en.html
  • Vivekananda, S. (1972). Raja-yoga (15th ed.). Advaita Ashrama. (Original work published 1896)
  • Volf, M. (1996). Exclusion and embrace: A theological exploration of identity, otherness, and reconciliation. Abingdon Press.
  • Yoder, J. H. (1994). The politics of Jesus (2nd ed.). Eerdmans. (Original work published 1972)