The final\ud
quarter of the twentieth century saw the emergence of a variety of\ud
security threats, perhaps the most pernicious and\ud
least\ud
understood of which\ud
has been the\ud
rise of religiously motivated violence and terrorism. While\ud
a great\ud
deal has been\ud
written on\ud
this phenomenon, much\ud
has been in the form\ud
of\ud
individual\ud
case studies and those more\ud
inclusive\ud
examinations which\ud
have been\ud
offered\ud
deal\ud
more with the causes of religious\ud
violence and not the underlying processes of\ud
justification\ud
and operational activity.\ud
In\ud
cases\ud
where such an approach\ud
has been\ud
attempted these have been\ud
conducted\ud
in\ud
a cursory\ud
fashion,\ud
presenting generalisations which are not necessarily valid across the entire\ud
spectrum of religious violence.\ud
The\ud
purpose of this thesis is to offer a\ud
holistic\ud
examination\ud
of violence within the three revealed religions\ud
(Judaism, Christianity\ud
and\ud
Islam) in\ud
order to\ud
establish common\ud
features in the conduct of violence across the faiths\ud
and to provide a\ud
framework\ud
whereby the ideological\ud
and operational processes and mechanisms can\ud
be\ud
understood collectively rather than individually. In the process, a number of commonly\ud
accepted generalisations regarding religiously motivated violence will\ud
be\ud
modified or\ud
challenged.\ud
The\ud
method chosen consists of the identification\ud
of a number of\ud
key\ud
components common to all revealed violent groups, ranging\ud
from the formation\ud
of an\ud
ideology\ud
which\ud
justifies\ud
violence to the tactics that are employed, and these key\ud
components are then used to examine the behaviour\ud
of three distinct\ud
group types. The\ud
three group types are represented by ten case studies, chosen to reflect the variety of group\ud
types that have\ud
existed and continue to exist.\ud
The\ud
objective\ud
is to present a\ud
broad\ud
framework\ud
which will enable a greater understanding of\ud
how\ud
religiously motivated\ud
violence\ud
is justified both to internal\ud
and external audiences, the manner\ud
in\ud
which this\ud
violence\ud
is\ud
expressed operationally, and the degree to which the course and trajectory of\ud
group violence may\ud
be\ud
anticipated