Siyasal Terörizm ve Dinin Araçsallaştırılması
Political Terrorism and the Instrumentalization of Religion

Summary/Abstract: The instrumental use of religion in politics is not just a contemporary political behaviour. Religion has been a major tool that many societies use/have used to shape how they live since the beginning of humanity. In principle, all religions show people a truth that reflects an ideal way of life, and makes individuals acquire goals by making various promises. Religions may vary in name, form, and practice, they nevertheless are all based on man’s struggle between good and evil. However, over time, the mutual interaction of religion and politics – the latter having been created to organize and manage communities – grew in popularity. Thus, a more functional mean of influencing individuals began to emerge. In other words, people have used religion throughout history to consolidate the authority or power they desire to establish over others politically, to mobilize them for certain purposes, and to make "good people" out of them – good in the sense what political powers desire. In addition, certain terrorist groups and organizations use religion to consolidate their world view and ideology over political power. This situation brings forward the concept of political terrorism and the instrumentalization of religion– which plays a key role in shaping this concept – to the agenda. So much so that terrorists instrumentalize religion–whose main purpose is to show people truth and keep them alive – for their own purposes and ideologies, hence transforming them into a tool that threatens people's lives and scares society. This study will try to reveal how people instrumentalize religion and transform it into terrorist organizations.

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