Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to another Religious Education lesson with me, Mr Green.

Today, we are going to do, some really good work, looking at different religious responses, to the issue of terrorism.

Now, if you need to go and get anything for today's lesson, please do that now, a reminder, the four things that you need, are a pen, a different colour pen, some paper to work on, and of course, your theology brains.

So if you need to get any of those things, please pause the video now, and go and fetch them.

So before we begin, just want to put a little warning at the start the lesson we are about to complete contains some reference to terrorism.

It's all about terrorism today's lesson.

For some people that will 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're going to look at terrorism today.

Firstly get a definition of terrorism, and then move on to have a look at Christian and Islamic views on terrorism, we'll also really importantly look at how some may misinterpret scripture, both Christian and Islamic scripture, to claim that that scripture supports terrorism when in fact, it does not.

So let's start off by getting a definition of terrorism.

On your screens you can see a lovely short definition.

Terrorism is the unlawful use of violence, usually against innocent civilians in order to achieve a political or religious goal.

Let's just start off, by writing up that definition so please pause the video, and write that definition down for me, please.

So, we can now going to have a look at how some have misinterpreted scripture, to claim it supports terrorism and as I said a moment ago, that problem exists both in Christianity, and within Islam.

So let's begin just by looking at some general responses to terrorism that are a true of both Islam and Christianity.

So the first point, really important, that terrorism is not supported by any religion.

Religious teachings seek to protect innocent life.

And one key teaching that links that is a sanctity of life, the belief that all life is sacred, because it's a precious gift from God, and therefore, that precious gift needs preserving and protecting.

Clearly, terrorists break that rule, don't they? So, they wouldn't be acting in accordance with any religious teaching if they're the breaking a fundamental concept, such as, the sanctity of life.

Secondly, or thirdly I should say, religious teachings tend to promote non violence.

And again, we would have seen that in the lesson at Oak National Academy, when we looked at the, at responses to violent and non violent protest.

Peaceful means are what should be used to settle disputes and the overarching aim, has to be to get peace.

And we would have looked at the teachings of Jesus, who demonstrated and called for non violent responses saying turn the other cheek and to love your enemies, and in those lessons, we also looked at the Islamic responses where they're called incline towards peace, demonstrating that the overarching goal within Christian and Islamic teachings, is to promote peace.

And clearly terrorists don't do that they're seeking to sow division, not peace.

So those terrorists that claim to undertake acts in the name of religion, can't claim the support of their religion.

They tend to quote only a very specific part of scripture to justify their actions.

That's a really dangerous thing to do.

'cos any piece of scripture needs to be understood in a much more fuller sense than just looking at it in isolation.

So we're going to have a little look at some of the bits that might be taken out of context, to justify terrorist acts to start off with, and of course, there's a really important job of explaining why those quotations don't actually lend support to terrorist actions.

So, first looking at how people might misinterpret the Qur'an, so you can see a quotation on your screens.

"So let them fight in the way of God who sell at the present life for the world to come We shall bring him a mighty wage" Just to prepare ourselves the work we're about to do.

I just want you to pause the video, and write out that quotation for me.

Good so we've got that quotation written down now let's have a look about how it's been misinterpreted and what an authentic interpretation might be.

So some may wrongly claim that this verse supports terrorist acts.

They may think that fighting for Allah as it says, and dying in that fight guarantees the mighty wage of heaven.

However, that would be incorrect.

It clearly tells people to fight in the way of God.

And that would be following the rules of lesser jihad.

Remember the rules of lesser jihad a key rule is, you can use force to defend the faith.

And other rules within lesser jihad, involve making sure your force is proportionate so, not killing women, not killing children, not killing the elderly, not harming trees, not burning trees, not killing the livestock of your enemies, and terrorist actions don't follow any of those rules, they seek to kill in a fairly indiscriminate way.

So, as we just said, lesser jihad does allow the use of force, to defend the faith, but lesser jihad also prohibit the killing of women, children and the elderly, and unnecessary harm to the environment.

Terrorist acts clearly ignore the rules of lesser jihad, so can't claim they're fighting in the way of God, and therefore, really important it cannot claim, that that verse, you've just written down, supports the actions that they undertake.

So that will be false to say that Qur'an verse supports the actions of terrorism.

So I'd like you please to pause the video and use the information you see on your screen in particularly the words I pulled out in pink, to explain why the quotation does not support terrorism.

So that problem does not just exist within Islam.

It is also true to say, that some in the past, and indeed present day, might in fact use this quote from the Bible to justify terrorist actions and just like we saw, in the Qur'an there, it's misinterpreted to arrive at that conclusion and deliberately misinterpreted to arrive at that conclusion.

I would like you please again, just to prepare for your work in a moment just by writing out the quotation and then we'll have a look at explaining in detail why that quotation does not support terrorist actions even though some may claim that it does.

So we have that quotation written down now "Life for life, eye for eye" Now let's consider and explain why it's not an authentic interpretation to claim, that terrorist act is done in the name of Christianity by referring to that quotation.

And it's important to note here, isn't it that terrorist aren't only falsely committed in the name of Islam, but terrorist acts are also falsely committed in the name of Christianity.

And that's the first point I want to make really clear.

Terrorist acts have also been committed wrongly in the name of Christianity, and terrorist groups, particularly those involved in The Troubles in Northern Ireland, committed acts of terrorism and on occasion, would justify them with the Bible in particular, perhaps that reference we've just noted down eye for eye, life for life.

But that would not be a justifiable interpretation.

Christianity would not allow for the unlawful taking of life.

We mentioned a moment ago the sanctity of life, didn't we? The view that life is sacred it's a gift from God and therefore needs, to be protected and preserved.

Clearly a terrorist act goes against that.

In addition to that the teaching being referred to, life for life eye for eye was deliberately replaced by Jesus.

The teaching was replaced by Jesus with "If anyone slaps you on your right cheek, let him slap you on your left cheek too" And that's a really clear command look, you do not use violence to respond to injustice.

Instead, you need to make sure you use peaceful means to respond to injustice.

Terrorists clearly are not concerned with using peaceful means.

They use the most dramatic, painful and damaging means, that they can to try and cause, loss of life and damage and division within society.

So it isn't a case, that authentic reading of the Bible would allow, for that quotation to be used to support terrorist acts.

Now, again I'd like you to use information on the screen, but particularly the bits you can see on pink, to explain why the quotation you wrote down, life for life, eye for eye, does not support terrorist acts.

Let's have a look at consolidating everything we've just learned then.

So you can see on your screens there are seven statements and those statements are either true or false.

So your first job is to read those statements and identify whether they are true or false.

Now if the statement is true, I just want you to write the word true, and then copy out the statement.

But if the statement is false, I'd like you to write the word false, then write out a corrected version of the statement.

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

Great effort so let's do some feedback.

So the first couple were false so hopefully you corrected the first two by saying, terrorist acts are committed in the name of both Christianity and Islam, and terrorists on both Christianity and Islam are really mistaken, when they claim religious scripture supports their acts of terrorism.

It is true that a Qur'an does not support terrorism, and it is true that the Bible, does not support terrorism.

It's also true, that terrorists who claim to be Muslim and fighting 'in God's way' are incorrect, as God's way involves obeying the laws of lesser jihad, and terrorists ignore those rules.

Next one is false, so it needed correcting.

So you should have hopefully written something along these lines.

Terrorists who claim to be Christians and following the teaching 'life for life' are incorrect to do so.

This teaching only allows a proportionate force, and was actually replaced by Jesus.

He suggested all responses should be peaceful, and the final one was false too so hopefully, you've corrected that to something along these lines.

Both Christianity and Islam strongly reject the use of terrorism.

So please pause the video now, have a look at your work against what you can see on your screens and use your different colour pen, to make any corrections, amendments, or additions to your lovely theology work.

So we're now going to look at some specific responses, that come from both Islam and Christianity, when responding to the issue of terrorism.

So some common views on terrorism within Christianity and Islam.

And we've said some of these before, but I really do think they're worth emphasising again and again.

So authentic and recognised religious leaders from both faiths condemn terrorist acts in the strongest possible terms. Both Christianity and Islam reject terrorism for a number of reasons.

Firstly, they believe in the sanctity of life.

Secondly, they promote a non violent approach where possible to conflict, and thirdly, those within each religion that do believe violence can be justified, tend to state this is only as a last resort and with minimum force.

Remember sanctity of life, life is holy, gift from God so it needs to be protected and preserved clearly terrorist don't do that, do they? They seek to take life and damage life.

And the second point, these religious scripts promote a non violent approach.

Remember when we spoke about the words of Jesus turn the other cheek that's a peaceful response, isn't it? Within Islam, in conflict, they're told to incline towards peace.

Again, demonstrating peace needs to always be on your mind you need to be moving towards peace.

Again, that isn't something that terrorists seek to do.

And the third one, there is an acceptance within thought in both Christianity and Islam.

That force can be used under certain circumstances, but there are really strict and clear rules around that has to be the last resort, and it has to be done with minimum force.

And again, that is something that's completely ignored by terrorists so both Christianity, and Islam have religious leaders that condemned terrorist acts in the strongest possible terms. So, sanctity of life.

Let's remind ourselves of that.

The sanctity of life is the belief that all life is sacred for a number of reasons.

It's created by God, and each life is therefore valuable to God.

And then there's a number of extensions that come from that so because life is created by God, and because each life is valuable to God, it becomes apparent that only God can give life.

A life must be respected and protected, and life must not be taken.

And within Islam, there are three exceptions to not be able to take a life one of them is lesser jihad but as we've already said, terrorist acts don't fall under the category of lesser jihad.

So can you please pause the video for me, and summarise the sanctity of life using all the words you can see in pink on your screens, and then explain how it can be used to impose terrorists acts.

Have a go at that for a few minutes and unpause your video and join me for some feedback.

So, hopefully you have something similar to this, that the sanctity of life is the view that life is sacred, it was created by God, and is valuable to Him.

Therefore, only God can give and take life and life must be protected.

And then you explain that the sanctity of life would therefore oppose terrorist acts as they seek to destroy life, which God has created and is valuable to Him.

And that would be, a teaching, you can apply from both a Christian and an Islamic perspective to the issue of terrorism.

So we're now going to look, at some further Islamic responses and some further Christian responses.

I'd like you in a moment to copy out this table.

And in this table, you can see, there are four quotations, two from the Bible on the right, and two from the Qur'an on the left.

And these quotations can all be used to really strongly oppose terrorism.

What I'd like you to do, is draw out the table, then explain how these quotations can be used, to condemn and oppose terrorism in the strongest possible way.

And if we just look at them briefly together, "Fight for the cause of God, for those who fight you, but do not transgress" Remember the cause of God can be to defend the faith.

And if you're defending the faith, it says do not transgress.

If you transgress, you break rules that are saying, do not break rules.

Remember, the rules are the rules of lesser jihad.

We spoke about those earlier, didn't we? Making sure any force your use is proportionate and in particular, not killing innocent civilians.

The second in the Islamic Qur'an inclined towards peace.

It's a really clear instruction isn't it? You need to make sure, you're always moving towards peace and have peace as an option.

Terrorists don't do that, do they? On the right hand side words, looking at Christian responses, "Happy are those who work for peace, God will call them his children!" Christians are called to work for peace.

Terrorist actions do the very direct opposite, don't they? They do not work for peace, they cause destruction, they are violent by definition, and they seek to sow division, not unity.

And then the fourth one, "Do everything possible to live at peace with everyone" Terrorism is clearly not doing everything possible to live at peace, is it? It's deliberately, working against peace.

So, please pause the video now, draw out that table, and finish off the explanations to give me some really good clear explanations as to how those teachings found in both the Qur'an, and the Bible, can be used to strongly oppose terrorism.

So let's check the left hand side of your table the Islamic responses say, that first one "Fight for the cause of God, those who fight you, but do not transgress" And that can be to strongly oppose terrorism because any fighting, must be done for the cause of God, and the cause of God could be to defend the faith.

When in conflict, you must obey the rules of lesser jihad and terrorists quite simply do not do this.

They don't respect innocent life.

And the next one, if they're inclined towards peace and inclined to it, that can be used to strongly oppose terrorism because peace is the ideal to strive towards, and terrorism does not aim at or achieve, at long lasting peace they are not inclining towards peace.

They're inclining towards violence, and destruction.

So pause the video now, check your work against the answers you can see on your screen, and make any amendments or additions or even corrections to your work in a different colour pen for me.

And now let's check the right hand side of your table.

The Christian responses so the first quotation we're looking at is "Happy are those who work for peace, God will call them his children!" We can use that to oppose terrorism 'cos to be a child of God, you have to work for peace.

Terrorists don't work for peace, their 'work' is aimed at fear, death, destruction and division.

And the next one, do everything possible to live at peace with everyone.

That's telling Christians that they must do all they can to work for long lasting peace.

Terrorism does not help establish long lasting peace, it seeks to do the very opposite.

So again, pause the video now to check your work, make any corrections or amendments or additions.

So more terrific work from you today, well done, you have become a fine theologian.

Now, I would like you please to attempt the summary quiz, to check, you can recall all the key information we have covered.

If you wish to share your work with Oak National Academy, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging at National Academy or using the #LearnwithOak, Thank you very much.

I hope you have enjoyed our time together, I look forward to seeing you again soon, enjoy the rest of your day.

Goodbye.