Adverse Behaviors in Religious Extremism

Members of various religions often consider an extremism, a form of behavior that goes above and beyond what is required for membership and what is taught by holy books, readings, or scriptures. This is different that religious extremism that is often described as a conflict situation by popular media and internet press.

Some examples of religious extremisms can be as follows:

  • Being Vegan instead of eating Kosher or Halal.
  • Requiring a crime free life style as a precondition of religious membership.
  • Not allowing thoughts of lust, hatred, or jealousy as a condition of religious membership.
    • This is often contrasted to getting into arguments, fights, engaging in non approved sexual behaviors, or engaging in theft or sabotage.

Similar extreme religious requirements can be seen as:

  • Pescatarian diets
    • Vegetarian plus fish, no shellfish or other seafood
  • No ability to remarry
    • One marriage only to remain a church member
  • No pets or popular media items
    • This prevents the error of affection with an animal or idolatry unknowing

Religious extremism in the sense of being overly strict with implementation of religious teachings in someone’s personal life can lead to altered behaviors in an area due to achieving good results for health, mental well being, personal relationships, and mature communications. However, it can also come off as annoying or unnecessary to elders or other adherents who don’t want an additional strict example to follow and attempt to implement in their lives. Regardless of preceptions and attitudes, the behavior is often not harmful overall, it is often definitely not illegal, and rarely does it infringe on the rights of others, because social cohesion and avoidance of conflict is usually a requirement for behaviors in many religious contexts.

In contrast, popular media and internet press specifically refer to conflicts they describe as jihad, modern crusades, or through other terms such as far right extremism, the right being considered a conservative religious construct that goes above and beyond what is required by law in personal conduct; or far right religious extremism, often times the word religion being replaced by a specific religion or left as religion for personal safety reasons.

With religious extremism as described by popular media, there is often very noticeable infringements and violations of someones property, premises, or venues where they are allowed or guaranteed peaceful enjoyment. This can be in an apartment complex, duplex or townhome, near work, or through the commute which is often considered an easement between home, living, or accomodation premises and a workplace or business setting.

These extremism that go beyond strict implementation of religious teachings in someone’s lives often attempt to force conversion or behavoral changes that are not illegal and may be culturally protected rights that fall under cultural rights or ex post facto law requirements. Cultural rights can either be seen as minority rights or common law rights depending on various contexts that apply to a specific situation.

Some specific violations or infringements by those identifying as religious members that are engaged in extremism include the following:

  • Violation of Sexual Health and Expression Rights
  • Infringements of Economic Rights and Favorable Work Conditions
  • Providing substandard housing or living conditions only
  • Violations of the Pursuit of Happiness or Free Will

Other violations aren’t as extreme but can still be seen as annoying and concerning and would often include teaching children contexts of reality that the parent has decided is innapropriate for them to learn about based on age, or learning patterns outside of the school.

In cases of sexual orientation, religious counterpoints, or requirements to make friends on the playground; this can result in a violation of freedom of religion when the child wants to follow their families religion, in addition to violations of freedom of expression and right to peaceful enjoyment. In being forced to be friends with someone there is a major disagreement with, rather than having periodic supervised or unspervised conversations, it can result in accusations of psychological assualt on a child; especially if there are documented behavioral changes such as isolation, depression, anxiety, anger, and increased propensity to physical altercations with care takers.

This behavior can be ongoing and persist into adulthood where adults are harassed about introvertism, xenophobias, requirements for charity, community involvements and other behaviors individual humans may not be comfortable with and should not be forced to participate in as a condition of humane living conditions, freedom of expression, and access to modern human development processes or procedures.

Dialogue, rather than forced participation in certain behaviors, is more important in situations of different demographics living near each other, and this is closely followed by supervised discussion, rather than debate or argumentation as this leads to better human development and social cohesion.