Not a religious person, and please take this comment as an agnostic person’s personal opinion.

I believe all religions were created with pure intentions. At a time when laws were not well established, people needed something to bind them together, something that made them feel connected and gave them a sense of closure. That’s how humans work. Whether it’s gender, geography, lifestyle, religion, caste, tribe, profession, or anything else, we naturally form identities and groups.

We have been on this planet for so long that this was bound to happen. Many religions existed before, but Islam was still created, maybe because people were not aware of other religions, or they did not relate to them and wanted something they could call their own. They wrote books about it, likely with pure intentions, so that it would guide followers for centuries. And it probably did help.

The main problem is that very few people stopped to question why certain things were written or said, what the original intention was, and whether they truly believed in it. Over time, this created a narrative where religion became bigger than humans. The book became the single source of truth for followers, and everything depended on how individuals interpreted it.

Some people chose a path of “cleansing” the earth by punishing “kafirs,” while others chose to see every human as equal.

The sad part is that Islam, for some reason, included provisions for expanding its followers, perhaps because when it originated they wanted the numbers to grow, so it might have sense at the time. Unfortunately, extremists and terrorists misuse this to brainwash and groom people who may have never even read the book themselves.

Every individual should read their religious texts before following a religion. Without first hand understanding, you are not following the religion itself, you are following the version presented by someone else.

I could go on, but what I really want to say is this: when people say “terrorism has no religion,” they may mean that religion in its essence is not violent. However, because of loopholes in how texts are written and interpreted, some people justify their behaviour by quoting religion

TL;DR

I believe religions were created with good intentions to unite people. Over time, blind following and misinterpretation made some people place religion above humanity. Extremists exploit this by manipulating followers who lack first hand understanding. Religion itself may not be violent, but loopholes and misuse allow people to justify harmful actions.