Title of Unit

2019 Sandwell SACRE RE Sample Plan for Key Stage 3 The Sandwell Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education Non-Statutory Exemplification Unit 3.6 Unit 3.6 Title: Religion: is it a cause of conflict or a power for peace? Year Group: 8 / 9 2019 Sandwell SACRE RE Sample Plan for Key Stage 3 The Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education / Non-Statutory Exemplification Religion: is it a cause of conflict or a power for peace? Year Group: 8 or 9 About this unit: This unit explores issues of peace and conflict with reference to Christianity, Sikhism and Islam and some non-religious views of life may also be studied. The philosophical and moral issues of pacifism, self defence and justice are explored. All human beings experience peace and conflict, and ask and answer questions about the role of religion. What we believe about God and humanity has an impact on our attitudes to war and peace. The unit poses many questions about the nature of religion and links between religion and war and religion and peace: From the experience of injustice, feelings of revenge or hate arise. How are these to be dealt with or understood? Why is there conflict and war? What do people believe about human nature and the prevalence of conflict? Christianity, Sikhism, Islam and non-religious belief systems offer resources for exploring questions about conflict, war and peace; these include sacred texts and stories, practice in the faith community and historical examples, including Sikh teaching about God, equality and service to others (sewa) sets ideals for Sikh living; the teaching and example of Jesus about loving your enemies, forgiveness and living at peace inspires the Christian community. In Islam, the religion means ‘peace’ and the Prophet established peace where war had been common in the first Islamic communities. Among Humanists, a long opposition to nuclear war and commitment to other peace causes has been common. But communities of belief and faith don’t always live up to their ideals. Why is conflict so common among human communities? Does religion cause conflict, or make peace? What role has religion had in some conflicts across the world recently, and why? What do I believe about conflict, war and peace? The focus is on the complex study of examples of peace and conflict, and on enabling pupils to think for themselves about questions to do with peace and conflict. Pupils are encouraged to consider what can be learned from different religions and from non-religious belief systems and to enquire into examples and teaching while also referring to their own experiences, beliefs and values. Where this unit fits in: This unit builds upon prior learning in RE. It expects pupils to have a basic grasp of the different religions involved, and to be skilled in using arguments and examples to explore and explain viewpoints. The philosophical focus is on evaluation, with the intention that pupils will be able to make informed judgements about the role of religion in conflict and conflict resolution. This unit will help teachers to implement the Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education by providing them with well worked examples of teaching and learning about the themes of conflict and peace, interfaith dialogue and the weighing up of religious truth claims. Estimated teaching time for this unit: 8 - 12 hours. It is recognised that this unit may provide more teaching ideas than a class will cover in 12 hours. Teachers are invited to plan their own use of some of the learning ideas below, ensuring depth of learning rather than trying to cover everything. You might, for example, select just two worldviews to investigate. 2019 Sandwell SACRE RE Sample Plan for Key Stage 3 The unit will provide these opportunities. ▪ Pupils have opportunities to consider a diverse range of views and examples about questions of conflict, war and peace. ▪ From the study of sources of authority within religions pupils will be able to examine and develop reasoned viewpoints on questions of value and commitment, as they relate to issues of conflict and peace. ▪ In this example, case studies and viewpoints from Christianity, Islam and Sikhism will be considered. Any school may plan to address the questions of the unit with reference to another religious tradition. ▪ Pupils will be able to think about their own views about conflict, war and peace. What things, if any, is it right to fight for? To live for? To die for? Is it ever right to kill for your convictions? ▪ Experiences and opportunities provided by this unit include case studies in conflict resolution, discussion and dialogue and exploring the connections between RE, philosophy, ethics and citizenship. Significant background ideas: In Christian traditions, belief in God as redeemer and in reconciliation between God and humanity is a key to understanding the ideals of the Christian community. Sacred text, story, inspirational leaders, case studies of reconciliation and theological ideas are sources for this unit. The role of the Holy Spirit in discipleship, and the place of inspirational leaders in the church’s action for justice are a suitable focus for study. While Christian pacifism is one strand of the faith across the centuries, just war doctrines are another: not all Christians see issues of conflict and peace in the same way. The Sikh religion begins with unity and peace – Kabir and Guru Nanak saw the unity of humanity under God as a key tenet. Both Guru Arjan, the fourth, and the ninth Guru Tegh Bahadur were martyred for their faith. The Tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, established the Khalsa, a brotherhood of those prepared to defend their faith at a time when the community was under attack. The tension between the need to defend and the pursuit of peace is illustrated in many stories of the Gurus. In the contemporary world, the Sikh experience of minority status is interesting and relevant here: Sikhs in India and Britain deserve understanding and human rights, but these are sometimes threatened. Islam means ‘peace’ and in the earliest Islamic communities ended tribal fighting and sectarianism, establishing the ‘Ummah’ (global Muslim community) and using Shariah law to seek a civil society of fairness and of diminished prejudice and intolerance. In the modern world, Muslim aid agencies (Islamic Relief, Muslim Hands, many others) seek to make peace through development. Muslim co-operation and contributions to inter faith work are many and various. In recent times, the stereotyping of Islam as associated in some inevitable way with terror or fanaticism has done much harm, as have the un-Islamic actions of some self styled ‘Islamists’. RE will not shy away from the difficult topics of fundamentalism or jihad, but will seek balance and fairness in seeing all sides of complex questions on these matters. Muslims, Sikhs and Christians may agree that religion is a source of teaching that shows paths to peace, that the power of God can inspire heroic action for peace and that ‘defending the faith’ poses difficult issues. They may also accept that religious people fail to live up to high ideals, and sometimes make their religion a justification for their conflicts. Different responses to this are seen in all the faiths and beliefs. Non-religious people sometimes say that ‘religion causes war’ and this is true. But the unit uses the category of ‘bad religion’ to distinguish the idea of religion as a cause of conflict from the peacemaking purposes of many faiths. In one sense, ‘religion’ is a generic categorization, and it is no more coherent to ‘imagine no religion’ than it would be to ‘imagine no politics.’ Still, the non-religious critique of faith and its propensity to start fights is to be taken seriously in this unit. The particular question of this unit is: does religion make for peace or conflict? The aim of the unit is to explore teaching and example from religions to enable pupils to see that this is a complex question. Simplistic answers from year 8 pupils are not a good outcome to this work. Given the prevalence of the (not necessarily coherent) idea that ‘religion causes war’, teachers may choose to place some emphasis on the peacemaking role of some inspirational religious figures, as well as analyzing the question philosophically and ethically. 2019 Sandwell SACRE RE Sample Plan for Key Stage 3 KEY STRANDS ADDRESSED BY THIS UNIT ▪ Beliefs and concepts: how do Muslims, Sikhs and Christians use their sources of authority to help them seek peace? How far are they successful? What happens when they are in conflict? ▪ Interfaith dialogue: What can Sikhs, Muslims and Christians learn from each other? How can they contribute to community cohesion? What can I learn about conflict from these religions? Does religion cause war, or make peace? ATTITUDES FOCUS: Pupils will explore attitudes of: ▪ Self awareness by becoming increasingly sensitive to the impact of their ideas and behaviour on others, and the influences upon them; ▪ Respect for all by being ready to value difference and diversity for the common good; ▪ Open mindedness by being willing to learn from others and go beyond surface impressions. Prior learning Vocabulary Resources It is helpful if In this unit, Web: pupils have: pupils will have http://www.cleo.net.uk is the main site for the Cumbria and Lancashire an opportunity Education Online, and offers access to an expanding range of high quality Studied basic to use words resources for RE topics. Sikh and and phrases Islam gateway: www.islamicity.com/science Christian belief related to: Islam: www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/introduction/woi_knowledge.html and practice www.humanism.org.uk makes some atheist materials available earlier in their Specific Testing God – Channel 4 – www.becauseyouthink.tv.

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