Sacred Wars in the Age of Algorithms
Wars today travel faster than missiles. A strike in the Middle East appears on smartphones in Dhaka within seconds, accompanied by interpretations invoking prophecy, justice, resistance, or apocalypse. In the digital age, conflicts are no longer confined to battlefields; they unfold within networks where religion, political narratives, and algorithmic amplification shape how violence is understood around the world.
This essay examines how the confrontation between the United States, Israel, and Iran illustrates the emergence of digital apocalypticism—a condition in which geopolitical conflicts become embedded in religious imagination and circulate globally through social media infrastructures. It also explores how these narratives travel into places like Bangladesh, where global conflicts intersect with local digital political culture.