Prevention of Violent Extremism and Radicalism of Major Religions

Hans Ucko encourages the world to solve the violence caused by extremism and radicalism using the peaceful message of religion in his “Introduction to the Theme, Religion and Violence.” Ucko’s argument is a well-made and credible source that may be used for a variety of use cases. This document was written in response to the increasing prevalence of acts of violence or terrorism that has been justified by religion.

In the “Introduction to the Theme, Religion and Violence,” published in 2017 in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies Vol. 52, No. 1, scholar, Hans Ucko, urgues the world to join the “struggle against the spirit, logic, and praxis of violence” by using religion to lead the “reflection”. Ucko, also, details his stance on using religion to justify acts of violence, shows how religions are portrayed currently, and how the world should address this issue.

Ucko’s paper is well organized with an introduction, detailed body paragraphs, and a reflective conclusion. Despite using little statistical evidence, Ucko backs up his opinion with facts and well-known concepts, and he uses specific and relevant beliefs from different religions. However, Ucko uses only major religions as examples in his response which represents a hole in part of his argument. Major religions may have a different relationship with a tendency to violence compared to smaller religions. The other part of his argument that acts of violence and aggression are justified by religion despite religion usually sending a peaceful, loving attitude is sound. This is due to his use of real-world examples, actions from trusted sources, and basic human logic. Moreover, Ucko’s use of high academic language and specific religious vocabulary is an example of ethos because it leads the reader to believe the author is knowledgeable and well educated.

In all, Hans Ucko makes a strong argument about the relationship between religion and violence with strong, hard facts and sound logic. His sources are well known, appear quite credible, and are unlikely to be heavily biased. However, Ucko does make one or two key points that have little or no concrete evidence and are more psychological ideas. For example, the idea that violence has a sort of “demonic attraction” has no way to prove with hard evidence because it is a psychological, and emotional phenomenon. Aside from those one or two key points, the work, overall, is quite sound and an incredibly strong statement about the relationship between religion and violence. Because of this fact, this source would likely be a credible source for any number of uses including research or even a critical debate.

This is a significant topic because people are dying due to the violence and terrorism caused by the extremism and radicalism of major religions. These major religions are being used incorrectly to justify this violence and terrorism because of a lack of education. Overall, this document presents a strong argument and solution for this topic with facts and opinions based on credible and relevant evidence. This document can be used to help make the world a more peaceful place by pushing people to create peace instead of violence.