The ones running the governments around the world know that free minds are difficult to control, therefore, they promoted extreme ideologies, most of which clash with the main religions and some of them use the religions to further their goals by twisting, cherry-picking, misquoting the teachings of the religions and selling the illusion by attacking the basis of the religions they're setting the minds free!
If you don't control your mind, someone else will.
-John Allston
This can't be more obvious than the war on Islam, the religion which the first word in its teaching was 'Read' as an order, and that has called throughout its main book, the Quran, for the human being to think, explore, work their minds to reach the truth.
That's when the Moguls came and destroyed the libraries, slaughtered the scientists, and burned the universities, then came the Ottomans to continue their wars on the free thinkers and delivered to us what is known by Muslims as the dark 4 centuries, then there were the crusaders, 1st wave, 2nd wave, and now we're living the 3rd wave of them, and all of them attack the religions, mainly Islam, and use the ignorant of Muslims against their own religions by misquoting and misinterpreting the teaching of Islam betting mainly on non-Arabic speaking Muslims.
Think and do not let them think on your behalf and then use you for their evil goals.
You can apply the above on any topic in life.
Image source: New Syria FB page.