The following, extrapolated from a somewhat controversial speech by President Barack Obama at a recent National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, speaks to our topic:

“​From a school in Pakistan to the streets of Paris, we have seen violence and terror perpetrated by those who profess to stand up for faith, their faith, professed to stand up for Islam, but, in fact, are betraying it. We see ISIL, a brutal, vicious death cult that, in the name of religion, carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism — terrorizing religious minorities like the Yezidis, subjecting women to rape as a weapon of war, and claiming the mantle of religious authority for such actions.

We see sectarian war in Syria, the murder of Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, religious war in the Central African Republic, a rising tide of anti-Semitism and hate crimes in Europe, so often perpetrated in the name of religion.

……​Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history.”

Join Jerry Frost, Founder and Chair of the Peace and Conflict Program at Swarthmore College, this Wednesday at Einstein’s Circle where we will deal with the conundrum of religion and war and he will​ discuss with us the studies that led him to his conclusions.