Introduction The persistent spread of extremist violence throughout the world is an considerable alarm and concern today, especially because the force is largely connected with religion. For instance, the mass shootings in Orlando, Florida, which targeted people of a specific sexual orientation was associated with religious sentiments (Gopin, 1997). The shootings caused 49 deaths and 53 injuries, one of the worst mass shootings in the US. It has also been observed that motivated religious violence by Muslims and Boko Haram have affected both Christians and Muslims in West African countries. As such, religiously motivated violence has been a common feature in the past histories and also current realities in significant religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, as well as other minor religions. The violence takes many different forms such as weapons, hate speech, or other kinds of violence attacks (Basedau, Pfeiffer and Vüllers, 2014). Religion has also been associated with hatred, attacks, and oppression against specific communities or groups of people. It is crucial to explore this topic indepth in order to unearth the history of religious conflict and violence since there is so much research which has provided a proper account of such conflicts. This paper will add to the available research on religiously-motivated violence, by exploring causes and origin religious conflict and violence, its impacts, as well as the way forward for peace to prevail. .

1. Introduction
The persistent spread of extremist violence throughout the
world is an considerable alarm and concern today, especially
because the force is largely connected with religion. For
instance, the mass shootings in Orlando, Florida, which targeted
people of a specific sexual orientation was associated with
religious sentiments (Gopin, 1997). The shootings caused 49
deaths and 53 injuries, one of the worst mass shootings in the
US. It has also been observed that motivated religious violence
by Muslims and Boko Haram have affected both Christians and
Muslims in West African countries. As such, religiously
motivated violence has been a common feature in the past
histories and also current realities in significant religions such
as Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, as well as
other minor religions. The violence takes many different forms
such as weapons, hate speech, or other kinds of violence attacks
(Basedau, Pfeiffer and Vüllers, 2014). Religion has also been
associated with hatred, attacks, and oppression against specific
communities or groups of people. It is crucial to explore this
topic indepth in order to unearth the history of religious conflict
and violence since there is so much research which has provided
a proper account of such conflicts. This paper will add to the
available research on religiously-motivated violence, by
exploring causes and origin religious conflict and violence, its
impacts, as well as the way forward for peace to prevail.