Is there any relationship between religion and genocide?

For the most part, religion per se has not been a major
motivating force for genocide in modern times.  However, religion has played a
supporting role in some genocides.

For example, the
Holocaust was not particularly a religiously motivated event.  The victims were mostly
Jews, but the motivation for killing them was not really religious.  However, religion
did help to create the setting for this genocide because it was religion that had led to
a general attitude of anti-Semitism over the
centuries.

There are times when religion is overtly used to
promote genocide.  The clearest recent case of this was in the Bosnian genocide of the
1990s.  There, Christianity was explicitly invoked as a reason for killing
Muslims.

Religion is a major motivating force for many
people, helping to form their values.  Religious beliefs are often very strong and
compelling.  This makes religion a "good" way to motivate people to participate in a
genocide.  However, it is not the only way and it would not be right to suggest that
religion is necessarily connected to genocide.