poverty is a lack of resources, a lack of resources is a lack of power.
it's hard to fight back when you lack power, asymmetric warfare may be the only viable option.
sociologically speaking, religion is a framework for understanding, imposing, and accepting the power and economic dynamics that are fundamentally at play. the power dynamics include women being oppressed and divided and silenced and kept in poverty. religion is a powerful way of getting them to accept it, by preaching e.g., that god has a special purpose for women that doesn't conflict with men getting what they want (power and resources and sex).
when terrorist kill you if you don't convert, what they're really asking is for you to submit to their authority. converting religion is merely one method of demonstrating that submission.
put it this way: if everyone in the planet converted to their preferred religion, but they were still in poverty and still having to work for oil-rich rulers and america was still the wealthiest country on the planet while they see themselves as getting the shaft economically, do you really think they would lay down their arms?
religion isn't really the driving force. it's an important part of the propaganda, but it's really about power and economics.
religion plays a part in our propaganda, as well, of course. we dwell on their religion in large part to avoid discussion about the problems of poor wealth distribution. focusing on religion makes it easy to just think of them as evil people who don't respect other religions. it's much more complicated when you think of them as people who are getting the shaft economically and maybe this sort of thing is an inevitable by-product of the poor resource distributions that exist in those areas.
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