Twisting the Sacred: How the Pahalgam Attack Exposes the Paradoxes of Faith

The April 22 Pahalgam attack reveals how extremists weaponize religion to justify violence, distorting sacred texts and symbols. Yet, the compassionate response from local Muslims underscores faith’s potential for peace. The article explores religion’s paradoxical role—as both a tool for war and a source of justice, unity, and healing.

Highlights

• Extremists misused Islamic concepts like jihad and justice to legitimize violence.
• Political actors have long manipulated religious tensions for their own gain.
• Islamic and Hindu teachings emphasize compassion, restraint, and nonviolence.
• Kashmiri Muslims risked their lives to protect victims, reaffirming religion’s humane core.
• The article distinguishes between Jihād al-Akbar (spiritual struggle) and Jihād al-Asghar (armed defence), highlighting how extremists exploit the latter.
• The piece argues that religion itself is not inherently violent or peaceful—it reflects the intentions of its interpreters.

The April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed the lives of 26 Hindu tourists in Kashmir, is a chilling reminder of how religious identity can be weaponized. The attackers reportedly invoked Islamic slogans, seeking to recast a political and territorial conflict as a holy war—a grotesque distortion that justified murdering innocents as “defending the faith.” Yet, amid the horror, many first responders were Muslims who viewed protecting lives as a sacred obligation and an Islamic duty. This stark contrast underscores a deeper truth: the very religious traditions that extremists abuse, have also inspired profound acts of compassion, resistance, and justice.

This incident is a reminder that religion remains one of humanity’s most powerful forces, which is capable of inspiring both profound compassion and devastating violence. Religion has shaped cultures, laws, and moral codes for millennia. However, its paradoxical role as both a catalyst for conflict and a path to peace often lies in how religious texts are interpreted and implemented. The binary between good and evil has long been present in religious discourse, and understanding religion’s role in both war and peace requires an exploration of these internal tensions. This article attempts to provide an overview of the paradoxes inherent in this discourse.

Religion as a tool for war

Throughout history, religion has often been used to legitimize power and demonize the “other.” Leaders and extremists alike have selectively interpreted sacred texts to justify aggression, hatred, war, and even genocide. For example, Islamic extremists misuse verses such as Qur’an 9:5 (“slay the polytheists wherever you find them”), ignoring their specific historical and contextual meaning. They disregard the Qur’an’s broader teachings, which emphasize restraint and forgiveness: “Fight in the way of God those who fight you but do not transgress. Indeed, God does not like transgressors (Qur’an: 2:190).”

Similarly, Hinduism’s Bhagavad Gita is set on a battlefield, where Lord Krishna advises the warrior prince Arjuna to uphold dharma (righteous duty): “Considering your dharma, you should not waver. For a warrior, there is nothing greater than a war against evil.” Such teachings are often misused to frame conflicts as religious mandates when, in reality, they deal with moral dilemmas in specific historical contexts.

In India, deep-rooted Hindu-Muslim tensions over disputed religious sites—most notably Ayodhya’s Babri Masjid/Ram Janmabhoomi—have long served as political tinder, ignited by leaders seeking to polarize society. The Pahalgam attackers echoed this dangerous pattern, hijacking revered Islamic symbols—the Qur’an, jihad, and justice—and warping them into justifications for bloodshed. Amplified by political hate speech and sectarian propaganda, such distortions tear further at India’s social fabric, fueling cycles of division and distrust.

In Islamic theology, jihad fundamentally signifies a struggle against evil. Most notably, it emphasizes self-reformation and the internal moral struggle, Jihad al-Akbar (the greater jihad), which holds a position of pre-eminence within the tradition. This stands in contrast to Jihad al-Asghar (the lesser jihad), which refers to external struggle, including armed defence, and is inherently context-dependent and bound by ethical and legal constraints. It is this lesser, and often misinterpreted, dimension of jihad that extremists have selectively exploited to justify violence across numerous countries.

As such, the Pahalgam attack is a grim reminder of how religious symbols of peace and devotion can be perverted by those who manipulate faith for political violence, even though the actual causes of such violence are often political, economic, or ethnic in nature.

Religion as a Tool for Peace

Despite being misused, the foundational teachings of most religions promote peace, compassion, and justice. For instance, the Qur’an explicitly prohibits aggression against innocents: “Whoever kills a person [unjustly]... it is as if he has killed all of humanity. And whoever saves a life, it is as if he has saved all of humanity” (Qur’an 5:32). It also calls humanity to mutual respect and coexistence: “O mankind! We created you from a single pair and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other—not despise each other” (Qur’an 49:13).

Likewise, Ahimsa (non-violence) emerges as a central tenet across many of its holy texts in Hinduism. For instance, in Anushasana Parva the thirteenth book of Mahabharata that captures Bhishma's final instructions to Yudhishthira before his death, it is stated: “Ahimsa paramo dharmah (Non-violence is the highest duty).”

The perpetrators of the violence, as evident in Pahalgam, misused these sacred teachings for hatred, but many others, Muslims and Hindus alike, responded by upholding the values of compassion and unity. For instance, in the aftermath of the attack, stories emerged of how local Kashmiri Muslims sheltered and aided Hindu victims, shared widely across social media. In fact, one of the local pony operators, who provide services to tourists, was killed by extremists while trying to save the tourists. Likewise, scores of others escorted hundreds of others to safety in these moments of despair. These moments reaffirm that while some may distort religion for violent ends, the majority of people continue to uphold its true essence, which is peace.

Is Religion a Tool for Both War and Peace?

The Pahalgam attack demonstrates how selective and false interpretations of religion can ignite violence. But it also highlights the potential of religion to guide people back to its true values of peace, dignity, mercy and justice. The dual nature of religion stems from its deep entwinement with human identity. While sacred texts hold timeless wisdom, these must be approached with humility and interpreted with context. When tied to power and fear, religion can become a tool of division, fuelling hatred and polarization. When rooted in empathy and compassion, it becomes a bridge between adversaries.

Religion is neither inherently violent nor inherently peaceful. It is a powerful force in human hands, shaped by intention and interpretation. The challenge lies in reclaiming religion from those who distort it and promoting readings grounded in justice, dignity, and compassion. Religion can divide or unite, depending on the choices its followers make. When rightly understood and practised, it still holds the potential to light the way toward a more peaceful and just world.

Ameena Alvi is a Postgraduate student at the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace & Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.