Lesson video

Hello, fine theologians and thank you for joining me for another religious education lesson.

Today, we are going to learn all about holy war and I've got examples of holy war from within Christianity and Islam.

Now in order to do that, you just need to make sure you've got four things and they are a pen, a different colour pen, some paper to work on, and of course your theology brains.

And if you need to go and get any of those things before you start, please pause the video now and go and get them.

So before we get started, just useful to flag to you that the lesson we're about to complete contains references to war.

And for some people that may well be a sensitive topic.

And if that applies to you, you may want to do the rest of the lesson with a trusted adult nearby who can support.

So we've got two main things we are looking to do today.

We are first looking to explain some historical examples of holy war within Christianity.

Then we also want to record the example of the Battle of Badr and link that to the concept of lesser jihad.

So let's start off with getting a definition.

By holy war, we mean fighting for a religious cause or for God.

And holy Wars would normally be controlled by a religious leader.

Can you please just pause the video and write down that definition, then unpause the video and join me again once you've done that.

So we're going to start looking at Christian views on holy war before then looking at some historical examples of holy war.

So let's just have a look at what Christians might say about this concept of holy war.

In the past for a war to be considered holy by a Christian, it would have needed to be authorised by a religious leader.

Someone like the Pope, for example.

And the purpose must've been to protect or defend the faith from attack.

Couldn't be about aggression, it had to always be about self defence.

And it was believed that those who took part gained spiritual rewards and those that died would go straight to heaven.

Now the concept of a holy war doesn't really feature in current Christian thought.

And we'll unpack that a little bit together in a moment.

I'd like you please to pause the video in a moment and summarise information using all the words in pink, and then have a go at thinking to some reasons why the concept of holy war doesn't really feature in modern Christian thought.

And I put some hints there for you.

You might want to think about the qualities of God and think about whether that evident in conflict in war.

You might want to think about the sacrifice of Jesus and think how that might link to the concept of war.

And then also remind yourselves of some of the teachings of Jesus that we've looked at in this unit and consider whether they would support or oppose the concept of war.

So pause the video now please, and have a go at those two tasks.

So let's your check your summary.

So hopefully you've got something like this.

For war to be holy for a Christian it need to be authorised by a religious leader and fought in order to defend the faith from attack.

Those taking part would gain spiritual rewards and those that died would go straight to heaven.

But as we've mentioned the concept of holy war, doesn't really feature in current Christian thought.

And we're going to look at three reasons why that is the case.

And this is the second bit of your task there.

So, I asked you to think about the concept and qualities of God, didn't I? And when we think about the concepts and qualities of God, some words come to mind, words like justice, love and mercy.

And therefore we can perhaps say God for Christians, sets a standard for justice, for love, and mercy.

And war causes destruction, death, and poverty.

And these consequences aren't godly.

So shouldn't be brought about in the name of God.

And a holy war is a war fought for religious purposes.

Isn't it? And it wouldn't necessarily make sense therefore, to say, look we're fighting for justice, love and mercy in the name of God, whilst at the same time causing destruction, death, and poverty.

Secondly, I asked you to think about the sacrifice of Jesus.

And we can say, look Jesus died on the cross for forgiveness of sins so that humans could be reconciled to God.

And that gives an important model for Christians in terms of how human beings should act and humans should seek peace and reconciliation rather than conflict.

And the importance of reconciliation is modelled in the sacrifice.

Isn't it? Jesus dies on the cross so that human beings can be reconciled to God.

So human beings need to seek reconciliation in their own life.

And that involves working for peace and restoring relationships rather than seeking conflict, which is going to damage relationships.

And third, Jesus taught his followers to respond to injustice with love and peace not violence.

Some of the things we've looked up already in this unit are quotations like "turn the other cheek" and "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." They seem to offer, don't they? An instruction to respond non-violently.

So to then go about fighting a war in the name of God, when you have Jesus God on earth, preaching what looks like non-violent responses.

Again doesn't seem to match up very well.

So if you need to add any of these to your work, please pause the video now, check your work against this and get down anything that you haven't yet got.

So we're going to start looking at the Crusades now.

And I'll go through it in some brief bullet points first before then giving you a little bit more detail.

So the middle ages crusades lasted from 1096 until 1291.

The key Christian objective within the Crusades is to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslims. In 1095 Pope Urban II declared first war calling for an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

And lots of willing volunteers responded to the Pope's call to action.

And the mission that of reclaiming the Holy Land was initially achieved in 1099.

So let's just flush this out in a little bit more detail.

So we know the Crusades, the Middle Ages Crusades goes a long period of time in the 11th and throughout the 13th century.

And throughout this time there were a number of religious battles or what Christians at the time would have thought of as being holy wars to seize control of the Holy Land.

And in 1095 Pope Urban II decree that Christian should seek to retake control of the Holy Land from Islamic control.

And this is viewed as a start of the first Crusade.

There are lots of willing volunteers for Pope Urban II's call to form this armed pilgrimage, to seize back control of the Holy Land with the use of military force.

And those that signed up wore a cross as a Mark the purpose of their conflict.

And after a number of battles in 1098, the Crusaders were ready to launch an offensive of the Holy Land of Jerusalem.

They entered the city in 1099 after the opposition surrendered.

Upon entering, they promise to protect innocent life, yet quickly went back on their word and promptly slaughtering, literally hundreds of men, women, and children.

And the intentions of the Crusaders have been debated some think perhaps, they were economic motivations.

Others thought fighters wanted to earn patent through the warfare.

So now we've had a little look at the Crusades as an example of a historic Christian holy war.

I would like you please, to have a look at the following six statements you can see on your screen.

And I'd like you to work out and think about whether the statement is true or false.

If the statement is true, I'd like you just to write the word true, followed by the statement.

But if the statement is false, I'd like you please to write the word false, followed by a correction of the statement.

So please pause the video now and have a go at that for me.

Excellent, let's now have a look at some feedback.

So the first one was false.

So it needed correcting and hopefully correct it to say something along these lines.

So Crusades are an historical example of a Christian holy war.

The next two are true.

So they just needed writing out.

In the first Crusade the Christians were led by Pope Urban II.

And the next one, The stated aim of the First Crusade was to regain the Holy Land.

The final three were all false, so all needed correcting.

So hopefully you have something similar to, There are lots of willing volunteers to the Pope's call to arms. In 1099, the opposition surrendered.

And the Christians promised to protect life, but then went back on their word as they entered the city.

Please check your work against the answers you can see on your screens and make any corrections or amendments that are needed.

So if you pause the video now and do that for me, we'll then have a look at our second example of a Christian holy war.

So we're now going to look at the Battle of Jericho and the Battle of Jericho gives us another historical example of a holy war from the history of Christianity.

And it's a story that picks up after Moses had just managed to free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.

So the Israelites have escaped Egyptian slavery with the help of Moses.

They'd been kept as slaves by the Egyptians for around 400 years.

Now it not only with the help of God through Moses that they were eventually free, but the famous story of the 10 plagues.

And Moses upon freeing them was intent on leading the Israelites back to the Promised Land.

And this was a key mission to get the land that God had promised them, the Land of Canaan.

And Moses gave Joshua, who's going to become a really important figure in this story an specially important task.

He was to go ahead to the Land of Canaan and in particular Jericho in order to act as a spotlight and to scout out the area.

And he was able to do that with the help of a local woman.

A woman named Rahab who we'll find out a little bit more later in the story.

And subsequently, Joshua became a really important military leader and indeed led the Israelite tribes after the death of Moses.

He led the Israelites in this battle, the Battle of Jericho.

Jericho was the first city, which was attacked by the Israelites after they successfully managed to enter the land of Canaan after crossing the River Jordan.

And it's believed that Joshua received this instructions for the Battle of Jericho from God.

God instructed him to march around the city walls blowing trumpets, and they were to do this once a day, for six days.

The next day, the seventh day Joshua told his soldiers of a different order he had just received from God.

The order in the city except for Rahab and her family, remember Rahab is a person who helps Joshua when he was a spy in the city, should be killed.

Everyone apart from Rahab and her family.

And the army responded to the plan with enthusiasm roaring really loudly.

And when the roar was heard the wall surrounding the city of Jericho miraculously came tumbling down.

And Joshua and his army quickly established control of the city and went about fulfilling God's orders, killing all apart from Rahab and her family.

So let's just remind ourselves of some of the key details on that story.

So the Israelites escaped Egyptian slavery with the help of Moses who was intent on leading them back to the Promised Land.

Moses sent Joshua to spy on the city of Jericho.

Joshua became a significant leader of the Israelite tribes in particular, the army.

Joshua received orders from God about how to conduct the battle.

And God's plan worked.

The Israelites were able to seize control of the city and killed everyone apart from Rahab and her family.

Remember that plan to march around the city walls, six consecutive days blowing trumpets, and on the seventh day roaring really loudly when Joshua shared that plan so the walls came tumbling down.

So then go in and reclaim the city.

So now we've had a look at that story I'd now like you please to do the same task, but applying it now to the Battle of Jericho.

So you've got six statements, identify whether each statement is true or false.

If it's true, write down the word true, followed by the statement.

And if it's false, please write down the word false followed by correction of the statement.

So please pause the video now, and have a got that for me.

So let's do some feedback.

So the first one was false, so that needed correcting.

And say Moses was intent on leading the Israelites to the Promised Land.

The second one is true, so it just needed writing down.

And he sent Joshua on an important mission to spy on Jericho.

The third one was false.

Joshua received the plans for the battle from God.

The fourth one was true.

Joshua's army did march around the city for days blowing trumpets.

The next one was false so needed correcting.

So on the seventh day, the walls of Jericho miraculously fell down.

And the last one was true.

So all were killed apart from Rahab and her family.

And that Rahab had helped Jericho to spy on the city.

So now we're going to have a look at Islamic views of holy war and the historical example of the holy war in the Battle of Badr.

And let's just look at the views first.

So the concept of holy war in Islam is linked to the concept of lesser jihad.

And hopefully you remember what lesser jihad is.

Remember all jihad involves a struggle.

And lesser jihad particular is a struggle to build a good Islamic society and protect the faith.

And it can allow but does not demand the use of force.

And that includes going to war in order to defend the faith.

So we're going to have a look at how the Battle of Badr puts that teaching in to practise, in a moment.

But before we do, can you please just copy out the definition of lesser jihad.

So pause the video, copy out the definition and then rejoined me once you've done that.

So let's remind ourselves of the Battle of Badr then.

And this battle really crucial in the origins of Islam.

And it's a battle we've spoken about a number of times in this unit on the Oak National Academy already.

You need to remember that Muhammad lived in a city called Mecca.

Which is where the Kab'bah the first house of God is.

However, when Muhammad was growing up, he saw that people were using the Kab'bah to worship idols, which really upset him because he understood and realised that the Kab'bah was first and foremost an only a place for worshipping Allah.

When Muhammad was upset about these things, he would go to a cave to think about them.

When he was in the cave, it was then where the Angel Jibril came and instructed him to read.

And Angel Jibril reveal to him the words of the holy book, the Quran the direct word of God.

When he preached the messages of the Quran to the Meccans, the Meccans didn't like him.

They found them very challenging.

If they were true they'd have to change their way of life.

And actually that made them quite angry.

His message was not well received.

The Meccans threatened Muhammad and threatened his followers.

So Muhammad ended up fleeing to a town called Yathrib.

And he started a community there and he renamed the city Medina.

And Medina means city of the prophet.

So an appropriate name for the city to have.

But the Macans were still really unhappy and they continue to threaten Muhammad and challenged him to a battle.

But Muhammad was actually really reluctant to fight.

And we can tell this as well, can't we? Because when it was threatened, instead of engaging in a battle, he actually fled, he went elsewhere.

However, the fact the Meccans didn't go away and Muhammad realised that in order to protect himself, his followers and the faith, he was going to have to fight back.

So in 624 the tribes in Mecca began preparing a assault and an attack on Medina, putting an army together so they can deal with a threat they fought Muhammad posted them.

But Muhammad's army and Muhammad heard of this and marched to Badr.

And in the Battle of Badr, Muhammad's army won, killing a very small number of people.

Rather than killing the opposition, they did that utmost to capture them alive.

And they treated these prisoners they managed to capture, well.

Promising to release them if the tribes they belong to would educate them to read and write.

So we can say a couple of things, which are important examples in the Battle of Badr.

Firstly, try to avoid conflict at all times.

We saw that with the Muhammad, didn't we? Fleeing Mecca, trying not to engage in battle.

And then we also see that actually sometimes it might be a necessity to use force to defend the faith.

And the third thing we can see within the Battle of Badr is actually how you engage in warfare.

Muhammad did his utmost, didn't he? To make sure that his actions during warfare and the actions of his army who were in warfare were proportionate not extremely, just a minimum amount of force and treating the opposition soldiers with respect.

So I'll just recap the key detail.

So Muhammad's early preaching angered the Meccans.

Remember, it was a challenge to them.

If Muhammad was right, the way they were living was wrong.

They needed to change.

And it would've had economic implications as well for them.

So Muhammad fled to Yathrib and renamed the city Medina.

Rather than engage in a battle with the Meccans.

But Muhammad's following grew.

The Meccans still felt threatened by him and is following.

So they plan to attack Muhammad and his followers and Muhammad felt he had to respond.

So he took his army to Badr So, what I'd like you to do now is answer the following five questions in full sentences to get a really good explanation of the Battle of Badr.

So we know how it linked to lesser jihad and holy war.

So please pause the video now, and answer those five questions for me.

So the first three questions you can see on your screen.

So we know Muhammad wasn't keen to use force.

Rather than fighting back against Meccans, he fled to Yathrib and it subsequently became renamed Medina.

Meaning city of the prophet.

Second question.

Ultimately Mohammed had to defend himself, his followers and the religion.

If it didn't fight back to defend, then he and his followers would have been killed.

And the third question, Muhammad treated the opposition with respect.

Only around 70 were killed.

And where possible his army captured opposition forces alive rather than killing them.

And he promised to release them back to their tribes if they would be taught to read and write.

So just check your answer to the first three questions for me.

If you need to make any corrections or amendments or additions do that for me now please.

And the fourth and fifth questions.

Muhammad acted with minimum force and without cruel vengeance.

Acting in that way improves the chances of reconciliation and reconciliation improves the chances of long-lasting peace.

Through these actions in the Battle of Badr we can see he's got his mind on reconciliation and because he's got his mind on reconciliation also on restoring peace, and long-lasting peace.

And fifth, Battle of Badr was fought in the cause of God.

It was fought to defend the faith.

It was also controlled by a religious leader, Muhammad.

Therefore, it meets that criteria of lesser jihad and holy war.

So again, please pause the video to check your answers against the answers you can see on your screens and make any corrections if you need to.

Now, as well as having rules dictating, when you can go to war, within Islam there are also rules, which conduct actions within a warfare.

And these are the rules of conflict.

And these rules come from Muhammad.

Muhammad gave Abu Bakr, who became the first caliph remember, 10 rules for conflict.

And these 10 rules are, Do not commit treason.

And if you commit treason what you're doing is betraying your own side.

If you're fighting for Islam fight for the cause of God, you can't betray Islam and you can't betray the cause of God.

The second one is, Do not deviate from the right path.

Remember the right path in Islam is submitting to Allah and thereby following the rules of Allah.

So really important in conflict still to keep your mind on the rules that Allah has given.

The third one, Do not mutilate dead bodies.

And that's essentially an instruction to respect the deceased soldiers.

And if we link that back to the story of the Battle of Badr we can see that in action.

Can't we? Muhammad wanted to make sure that his actions were as reconciliatory as it possibly can be in warfare.

Remember he captured rather than killed where he could and released where he could.

So that you can have that reconciliation afterwards and move to peace.

If within conflict, you really disrespect the deceased and mutilate their bodies.

You can imagine that reconciliation, then after peace is going to be a lot harder to achieve.

The fourth is, Do not kill a child.

The fifth is, Do not kill a woman.

The sixth is, Do not kill an elderly person.

So here you can see rules four, five and six are about trying to minimise the people impacted by the conflict and not killing those people that are not engaging in the conflict.

Seven and eight are about caring for the environment.

Do not harm the trees.

Do not burn the trees.

Particularly those trees that are going to provide fruit.

Nine is, Do not kill the enemies animals.

And 10 is, Do not harm those who have devoted their life to the monastic service.

Monastic services is those who have devoted their life to the faith.

So what I'd like you to do now then, is pause the video, copy out the rules of lesser jihad then explain how these rules link to reconciliation and lasting peace.

So please pause the video now, and have a go at that.

So let's check your work.

So the rules of lesser jihad link to reconciliation as they demand the action in conflict is reasonable and proportionate.

And that can be seen in the conditions which prohibit killing innocent civilians like women and children, and causing needless damage to the environment.

And that makes a possibility of reconciliation after conflict more likely.

And if opposing sides in a conflict are able to reconcile that then makes long-lasting peace much more likely.

If you need to pause the video, just to check your answer again, so you can turn your screens, please do that for me now.

Excellent work today.

You have learned a lot about holy war and in particular these three examples of Crusade, the Battle of Jericho and the Battle of Badr.

Please make sure you attempt the summary.

Of course to check if you can recall the key information we have covered.

If you wish to share your work with the Oak national Academy, please ask your parent or carer, to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, using information you can see on your screens.

Thank you very much for joining me today.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and I shall hope to see you soon.

Goodbye.