Religions are used as a pretext for any kind of war

Fundamentalism, extremism, clash of civilizations, religious wars ... Increasingly the media launch alarms because of the violence that is in many ways connected to religion and religious experience. Yet, for many of us religious experience is firmly anchored in idyllic images of serenity and peace, from the "perfect joy" of St. Francis, the recitation of mantras of Hindus and Buddhists, the dance of the Sufis, the Calumet of Peace. Inner balance, contemplation of Creation to bring us closer to the Transcendent, charitable attitudes in daily life, are signs that can be found in all religious doctrines. But then, based on what you call hatred and holy wars? Where did so much violence and hatred for other religions? Why ecumenism and interreligious dialogue has never been able to avoid that religions were used as a pretext for any kind of war? 
The answer, simply, behind the wars of religion there are always other dynamics;

There is the gas behind the war between Israel and Palestine. The Tamar and Leviathan fields that could give the Jewish state a hundred years of cheap energy, and half conceal three billion cubic meters of natural gas but can be found in the territorial waters that stretch from the Gaza Strip on the border with Lebanon. Beirut has already laid claim and Gaza could do the same. Then there are the deposits Marine 1 and Marine 2 thirty-six miles off the Strip. At 603 meters deep guard a little treasure, fought for fourteen years. On 2 June, the national unity government with the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas of love and harmony, was about to entrust the exploitation of the Russian Gazprom. Ten days later, in Hebron, were abducted (and later killed) Jewish students Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel. And all hell broke loose. Providential, according to many, in blocking the deal with Gazprom and avert the prospect that Palestine will set foot in El Dorado in the Mediterranean: the Leviathan, the field-monster that is tempting at all. But first things first. 
It is 1999 when the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement for the exploitation of subsea fields Marine 1 and Marine 2 with British Gas Group and the Greek partner Consolidated Contractors International Company owned by Lebanese Sabbagh and Koury. The proceeds will go to 60% to the English company, to 30% in CCC and the remaining 10% of the investment fund PNA. The license is valid for 25 years and covers the entire area off the coast of Gaza. At the border sprout offshore platforms Israeli Mari-B. A demonstration that, geologically, are precisely the seabed in front of the Strip, the richest of hydrocarbons. With the death of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, the collapse of the national electoral palestine and the arrival of the Hamas government, everything stops. The British want to use the gas to supply Israel in the Gaza Strip. But in 2001 the prime minister Ariel Sharon before challenging the sovereignty of Palestine on offshore fields, then decided states: "We will never accept to buy gas from Palestine." It suggests that those reserves belong, according to him, to Israel. Two years later blocks the attempt to British Gas to supply the Jewish state with methane in Gaza. The British company gets angry and starts dealing with Egypt wants a terminal where to download the extracted gas. The intervention outstretched leg of British Prime Minister Tony Blair blasts the agreement. In 2007, the government approved the proposal of the Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for "the purchase of gas from the Palestinian Authority" to four billion dollars. There are those who does not want that the proceeds go to the Palestinians. So Israel and the PA and Hamas dribbled deals directly with British Gas, to cancel the old contract of Arafat and bring natural gas to the Israeli port of Ashkelon. The negotiations arena. The Palestine claim their share of the proceeds. Tel Aviv does not want to have money to Hamas because it could buy rockets to be launched against Jewish settlements. Someone proposed to settle the bill with the provision of goods and services. Nothing to do. British Group, exasperated, closes offices in Israel. Tel Aviv goes back under. Still nothing. And December 27, 2008 Operation Cast Lead in Gaza unleashes chaos. Officially to undermine the Hamas government that threatens the security of Israel. In reality, the Islamic movement does not want to cede sovereignty over the fields. Then everything changes. In 2009 he discovered the field in 2010 gasifero Tamar jumps off the Leviathan that embraces the fields of mining and stretches prior to the Mari B Field, the border between Gaza and Israel, and connected by a pipeline to Ashdod, where now flying bombs . Resources for 1.68 billion barrels. When, last January, the Palestinian leader Abu Mazen met in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin the alarm. On June 2, the last 007 inform that the national unity government led by Hamas is going to grant exploitation rights to Gazprom for Marine 1 and Marine 2 is too much for Israel, which considers "his" that gas offshore. From there to Levithan is a short step. The rest is history..

Isis, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham), is the movement led by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi who is lording it over the last few months in that part of the Middle East including Syria and Iraq, with the aim of build an Islamic caliphate. The jihadist group in 2006 claimed in a video the desire to build an Islamic state but is known only by the media today, especially for the terror that is spreading and summary executions of citizens who refuse to convert to Islam. At least so it seems, because in reality the group destroys and kills not only what is Christian or of other faiths but also civilians from the Islamic religion. It is difficult to understand by what they hear what the real political dynamics behind this movement of fanatics who is terrorizing the Middle East. Since the terrorist group Isis quickly became army, having the better of other Islamic movements and the rebel Free Syrian Army in the north of Syria and sweeping with a disarming ease the Iraqi defenses. Even Al Qaeda would be unmarked by ISIS, declaring their support for another fighter extremist movement in Syria, Al Nusra, in open conflict with the armies of Al Baghdadi. What is certain is that to understand something more is necessary to enter once more into open war between Sunnis and Shiites that is ravaging the North Africa and the Middle East. 

Who finances Isis? 

How is it that an armed movement becomes limited but all in all in a few months an army irresistible? And because despite not having found resistance armies of the Caliphate have not arrived in Damascus and Baghdad, but they stopped before? And because the West until a week ago was watching? 

Difficult questions, but fundamental.

Meanwhile, it is important to say that Isis is an extremist movement that refers to the Sunni world, and therefore to understand who is funding the Caliphate is necessary to follow tracks leading to the Saudis and Qatar. Recall that Saudi Arabia is the number one ally of the United States in that part of the world.This means that Americans fund this movement of terror? I doubt it, since they are the United States to have moved to stop it even if little. And this delay in action is indicative of Obama to understand the complexity of the situation: it took months of bloodshed in order to move the United States under the fire of a strong pressure of public opinion. Why have not moved before? Probably continue to be enormous contradictions between the strategic economic alliance of Americans in the area and the so-called love for the democracy of the United States government. Always in fact the Saudi allies hold the foot in both camps, doing business with the USA and financing of terror movements. This does not seem to have moved the intentions of the government in Washington. In this chaotic situation, Turkey is playing another important card: another Sunni country, and certainly the most open and democratic country of Saudi Arabia, the country ruled by Erdogan is taking advantage of it to try to settle accounts with the Kurdish PKK, among few movements that are fighting the troops really Isis. And if we think about it, the PKK is the Kurdish liberation movement as "terrorist" by the Americans. Democracies (or presumed) that support Isis or at least do nothing to stop him and movements labeled as terrorists who expose themselves in the front row to stop the army of terror. Great confusion in the sky. Certainly we can say one thing: this is not a war of religion (as long as there are really wars of religion, and we do not believe). Behind the alleged Isis crazy fanatics who want to convert the world to Islam are behind political and economic interests. Follow the smell of money.

As if that were not enough, however, there is another question that is interesting to try to answer: why Isis has not stopped attacking Baghdad on one side and Damascus on the other? In fact it is quite apparently inexplicable fixation to the Kurdistan Caliphate, in front of the wonderful opportunity to take two capitals important: whence also doubts about the relationship between the Caliphate and Bashar Al Assad, who might not be so hostile. In fact, the Syrian regime would not regret leaving the north of the country to the troops of Al-Baghdadi, in the meantime, in addition to frighten the West, they are doing outside of the internal enemies of Assad. A similar might be true for Turkey, which in all these months left guerrillas pass the caliphate from its borders towards Syria: the war of Isis just to Kurdistan, a sworn enemy of Erdogan, arouses more suspicion. On the one hand then the black army does not conflict with Assad's troops for over a year but clashes with the enemies of the Syrian dictator, including the Free Syrian Army, the main landmark of Europe and the United States, from 'other attacks the Kurds doing a favor to Turkey. The strategy, which seems to bring the Caliphate to control a wide area of the Sunni clashes with the continuing search for media attention of Isis: what would have been more resonant of the conquest of a capital city? It is clear that in this story the black army that terrorizes and kills more than a powerful friend in the surrounding area. 

Now the dramatic situation in the Central African Republic, where the conflict has become more intense since December of 2013 resulted in a civil and religious war between Christians and Muslims. A humanitarian emergency which now has thousands of deaths, hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and refugees, and where the situation worse for millions of people who suffer from hunger, view with growing concern by the international community. 

Seleka rebels gathered in the coalition, which is dominated by the Muslim element 

Since its independence in 1960, the Central African Republic has seen poverty, crisis, internal conflicts and dictatorships. After a coup in 2003 that lays the government of Ange-Félix Patassé, General François Bozizé took power in 2003 and is confirmed president in an election in 2005 but clashes between soldiers of the new government and rebels continue, especially in the north to the signing of a truce in 2007 a ​​second civil war broke out in late 2012, with the rebels gathered in Seleka coalition, which is dominated by the Muslim element. The militias of Seleka advancing to occupy the capital Bangui and Bozizé fled the country in March 2013 the rebels proclaimed president Michel Djotodia, historical Muslim opponent of the deposed president, but these can not curb his militia and resigned himself. In this chaos are becoming more frequent harassment and massacres committed by the rebels and reprisals against civilians, with many tragic events and even the re-emergence of the phenomenon of child soldiers. They are lining up well against Seleka militias called 'anti-Balaka' (in the Sango language 'anti-machete', according to one of the interpretations derived from the habit of wearing amulets 'defend' the shots). It is self-organizing groups already at the local level around 2009 to defend the harassment of civilians by armed gangs and other criminals. Note that the Christian population is mainly sedentary, while Muslims are part of nomadic tribes. Sadly takes form a third civil war is increasingly characterized in the religious sense even in the judgment of the same humanitarian organizations, and the state collapses illuminate several outbreaks of conflict: on the one hand Seleka, a Muslim majority, on the other militias anti-Balaka where stand the animists and Christians, into which even supporters of Bozizé and former military. 

Il caso della Repubblica Centrafricana mette in evidenza per l’ennesima volta come la religione, promossa quale strumento ideale di pace, può invece peggiorare la situazione, rendere divisioni e odi ancora più aspri, approfondire il solco tra amici e nemici, tra noi e loro. Anche quando ci sono in gioco altre ragioni, come antiche rivalità etniche o fattori politico-economici, la religione costituisce comunque un ulteriore propellente al conflitto. Anche attirando estremisti dall’estero, come già nella guerra civile nella ex Jugoslavia, ma anche nei più recenti conflitti in Afghanistan, Iraq e Siria che hanno richiamato jihadisti da tutto il mondo.

Emblematico che intere tribù abbiano abbandonato le credenze tradizionali scegliendo cristianesimo o islam per ragioni geopolitiche. La Nigeria, sconvolta dagli attentati degli integralisti islamici nelle chiese che fanno strage di cristiani e dalle occasionali rappresaglie, vede proprio questa frattura religiosa che accentua la divisione tra etnie. Caso analogo in Sudan, dove il sud (a maggioranza cristiana e animista) ha fatto secessione ma è tuttora teatro di conflitto. Una contrapposizione che attraversa dunque tutta l’Africa, con l’islam a nord in conflitto con il cristianesimo post-coloniale a sud, e le credenze animiste nel mezzo in balia degli eventi.