"They're fighting over which religion is the most peaceful". No, they aren't.

I saw this as a caption of a cartoon, but even if you haven't seen the cartoon, it's a fairly common flippant comment.

It's also wholly incorrect.

The concept that a lot of wars are religiously motivated is a fairly erroneous concept in general.  Some are, but a lot of the ones people claim are, aren't. And the idea that all religions are fighting for "peace" is complete bunk, as not all religions espouse peace never do they contest each other for the title of most peaceful.

That's right, they don't.

Indeed, the entire concept of a religion of peace is pretty much uniquely Christian although some other religions do incorporate that to varying degrees.  Some of the ones that people believe do, quite oddly, don't have that in the form we imagine.  Peace as a central virtue is not necessarily incorporated into every religion the same way it is in Christianity.  

Buddhism?  Surely it's central virtue is peace, there's one, right?

Oh, you know of course that there were Japanese fighting Buddhist monks, Sōhei. They even ran schools on the use of their arms.  You know that, right?  That they killed people in that pursuit. 

Hmmmm. . . .

This isn't easy to make light of.  I don't know, for example, that we can compare them to Knights Templar, as they seem quite different indeed.

Islam has frequently been cited as a "religion of Peace" by non Muslims, and that has been picked up by some Muslims as well. But it certainly didn't originate that way.  Islam was spread by the sword for almost all of its early history, with Judaism and Christianity being tolerated in the lands they captured, at the price of paying a special tax for belonging to either of those faiths, and with other faiths faring less well.  Violence in the name of Islam has never left it.  This doesn't mean all Muslims are violent, but stating that its a "religion of Peace" requires some examination.

Some will maintain, of course, that there have been violent Christians. And there has been. But violence has never been a tenant of Christianity.  It has been of Islam and it doesn't do the faith justice to pretend otherwise.  

What's the point of this?  It's not a comment on any faith. But, the frequent claim that various faiths are fighting for the title of "most peaceful" are just flat out wrong.  I"m not aware of that ever happening.