Religious conflicts – Martyrdom or savagery?

Despite — or possibly because of — our history of internecine savagery conducted, in name at least, for nationalism or religion, we should be able to understand the motivations behind the carnage inflicted daily on populations in Middle East.

Just yesterday around 80 people were killed by car bombs in mainly Shia districts of Baghdad or Basra. More than 200 people have been killed in attacks over the past week as tensions between minority Sunni Muslims and majority Shias reached their highest level since US troops pulled out in Dec 2011.

It is strange, then, that a central tenet of nearly every religion is that you should love your neighbour. It is strange, too, that the most violent clashes, physical or social, usually occur between different groups who venerate the same god. Could it be that religion, in these contexts, is just a cover for something far more visceral?