The issue of religious terrorism has become more prevalent as people around the world turn on the news to hear of killings attributed to a higher power. 

Deaths associated with religious acts of terrorism have increased by 80 percent when compared to 2014, with almost 33,000 people killed in the last year alone, according to the Global Terrorism Index. 

However, these types of acts are not new to the world and certainly weren’t created in the last century. They are instead vital and bloody parts of our world’s vast history.

Christians fought Muslims for the Holy Land of Jerusalem during the Crusades, Protestants and Catholics killed each other during the French Religion Wars and Hitler enacted his anti-sematic views on the world during the Holocaust.

Despite this long history, the toll of religious terrorism is often not seen in bullets but segregated divides.

With the emergence of ISIS, replacing al-Qaeda for the millennial generation, speculation about the true nature of Islam and whether its extremist followers are truly following the words of the Quran has led many Muslim students to feel unfairly judged.

“There’s many basics that make a Muslim a Muslim such as praying five times a day or having to donate whatever you can every week or so,” said Sultan Alsayegh, senior in chemical engineering and the president of the Muslim Student Association. “If you don’t fast in what we call Ramadan, where we have 30 days to fast in a row, then you aren’t a Muslim. I’m thinking ISIS didn’t do that. So that’s three out of the five pillars of Islam that they aren’t doing.” 

Alsayegh doesn’t believe American media accurately portrays Muslims and their religions and doesn’t think many understand Islam as a whole.

“A lot of people in America take their sources from the media, [but] the media usually takes this to the extreme and picks one side that will make an interesting story,” Alsayegh said. “In my opinion, a news source may take Islam and just associate it with terrorism, and then those who are naive enough believe whatever places like CNN tell them because they are professionals.”

Regarded by Muslims as a peaceful religion, the core aspects of Islam focus around the five pillars: Shahadah, profession of faith; Salah, prayer; Zakat, charity; Sawm, fasting; and the Hajj, pilgrimage to Makkah.

“Everyone knows that Islam is a peaceful religion,” Alsayegh said. “The word Islam actually means peace, and we say Salam, which to us is like ‘hello.’ It means peace. In Islam, it is said that if you kill you will go to hell, therefore you can’t kill. So if you commit a big sin such as that I wouldn’t consider you a true Muslim.”

Despite attention being directed toward ISIS in the last five years, Islam is not the only religion to have violent followers.

November 2015 marked the month that Robert Dear massacred three people inside of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado. Although Dear appeared to be clinically insane, he did voice his opinions on radical Christian views and used “god’s work” to kill abortion supporters.

In 1995, Yigal Amir, of Jewish relation, claimed he acted on the word of god after assassinating Yitzhak Rabin, an Israeli politician who died of multiple gun shot wounds fired by Amir.

In 1999, Dara Singh, a member of the militant fundamentalist Hindu group called Bajrang Dal, was sentenced to death after burning alive an Australian missionary and his sons in their sleep. He claimed he committed the act for the purpose of eradicating Christianity from the area.

To Hector Avalos, professor of philosophy and religious studies at Iowa State, this represents a common misconception among religious followers.

“ISIS is genuinely believing that what they are doing is under Islamic obligation because what they do can be traced back to actual passages in the Quran,” Avolos said. “You could ask, for example, 10 Christians if they believe their religion is violent and 9 out the 10 will say no. I believe that you can find both the peaceful Jesus and the bad Jesus in the New Testament. Most people don’t see themselves as doing something bad and therefore have a hard time admitting those truths.”

Avalos said he sees the argument of religious violence as two camps that most people fall into when arguing for one side or the other.

“One argument is that ‘it’s not religion that’s causing the violence, it’s politics and economics that are using religion,’” Avalos said. ”The other argument is ‘no, it is religious. It’s not that they are using religion, the conflict is in direct result of a religious belief.’”

Hunter Oberbroeckling, junior in mechanical engineering and the treasurer for the Atheist and Agnostic Society, believes that both arguments have some validity.

“There are very clearly people who use aspects of religion in positive nature such as helping the poor or helping families, but there’s also people who take it to very harmful extents,” Oberbroeckling said. “This just happens to be that with religious attacks, there are so many statements and so thick of books [that] you can really justify anything with them, so to some extent it is the people who are doing these attacks trying to validate their beliefs, but it’s still part of the text a lot of the time.”

Although examples of violent passages can be found in both the Bible and Quran, some students support the notion of radicals using religion for their own gains.

“Based on my beliefs, I believe that God is loving and merciful and would not call upon his people to do something like that [violence]. If someone is a Christian I don’t believe they could do that, but I can see how things happen in people’s lives and make them feel like they need to act on their beliefs,” said Linnea Stephens, junior in child, adult and family services and the president of The Salt Company, a non-denominational Christian student group.

Jordan Simon, senior in event management and the president of ISU Hillel, a Jewish-based student group, has a difficult time seeing people of her faith committing violent crimes.

“I don’t think anyone would act violently coming from my religion, especially as Jews,” Simon said. “We don’t preach or stand out in the free-speech zone and convert people to our side. We enjoy our religion and it’s more about family and community, so I don’t necessarily see violence coming from that. But I guess anyone could interpret anything in anyway if they want.”

From killings to mass forms of hate speech, it’s difficult to pinpoint where hate and religion mix to become violent, but a constant struggle for a worldly religious goal and conversion among non-believers remains a constant factor.

“When you look at any conflict there is always something that is insufficient resources. Let’s take a couple for example,” Avalos said. “If one does not feel as though they have respect from the other, then that’s a scarce resource that they’ll fight over. Looking at most family fights and national fights, someone doesn’t think there’s enough of something.” 

Avalos compares the struggle of insufficient resources to Muslims and Christians using passages from each other’s holy texts to justify attempting to convert the world to their respective religions.

“What isn’t there enough of for Islamic terrorists? Muslims, not enough Muslims in the world. They want to make the whole world Muslim,” Avalos said. “Then Christians don’t believe there’s enough Christianity in the world. Jesus in Matthew 28 said, ‘Go throughout the world and make disciples,’ so this is where the conflict begins and violence erupts.”

Qaraqosh at one point was the largest Christian city in Iraq, with the religion dating back to the ancient Assyrians, who were converted to Christianity, and later the Orthodox Church. As of mid-2014, militant ISIS forces captured the city, sporting the phrase “Convert or Die” and slaughtering any Christians who opposed the regime’s ideology.

“I was in Vietnam for eight weeks, and the purpose of that was to interact with university students who have never heard the gospel or Jesus before,” Stephens said. “It’s hard when you love something or believe so strongly and want another person to see why you think it’s glorious, and I learned a lot about myself in that it’s not my duty to save someone or make them believe in what I want.”

However, the idea that all religion is based on conversion of non-believers doesn’t sit well with every student.

Despite the trip’s goal of helping people understand the ideals of Christianity, Stephens sees no issues with people who wish to refrain from the faith.

“It’s more about reaching out to these people and giving them the opportunity to hear, planting a seed, and then if they want to hear more, then I think that’s awesome,” Stephens said. “However, I also have to be OK with the fact that they may want to just believe what they want to believe. It was hard at first not to get angry, but with time, I learned that I’m not a fixer or a hero.”

As for the future of terrorism across not only America but the world, violence doesn’t seem to be haltering any time soon and will most likely continue to be a prominent part of the 21st century.

“You go as far back as the Holocaust, Hitler wanted the ‘pure’ race, and so certain religions may be inclined to overpower or spread their beliefs more than others,” Simon said. “So I do think there will always be that competitive nature. If someone has a very strong opinion about something, especially about religion, they are obviously going to want to tell people about it and get them interested.”

For Avalos, ending skirmishes will involve more than just an adjustment for people but also a changing of mindset when it comes to faith.

“People are under the illusion that if you destroy ISIS, you destroy [extremist groups] forever,” Avalos said. “It’s never going to end until people get beyond thinking that invisible beings exist and are telling them what to do. You have to change mentalities, otherwise it will never end.”