Fundamentalism
255
for example, believe that in sacrificing their lives in the cause of Allah they will immediately be dispatched to heaven. The incidence of violence among fundamentalist groups is almost certainly increased by a link between fundamentalist belief and millenarianism . Other ideologies that have endorsed violence and the use of terror, such as fascism and sometimes anarchism, have been viewed as forms of political millenarianism. However, religion adds an extra dimension to this, in that it creates the heightened expectations and revolutionary fervour of apocalypticism . TYPES OF FUNDAMENTALISM Fundamentalism comes in a number of forms. These include the following: z z Islamism
z z Christian fundamentalism z z other fundamentalisms. Islamism
Islam and Protestant Christianity have been the most likely religious traditions to throw up fundamentalist or fundamentalist-type movements. This is because both are primarily based on a single sacred text and hold that believers have direct access to spiritual wisdom, rather than this being concentrated in the hands of accredited representatives (Parekh, 1994). In addition, both provide a means of achieving comprehensive political renewal, making them particularly attractive to marginalized or oppressed peoples. In the case of Islam, it is not merely a religion but a total and complete way of life. It provides guidance
in every sphere of human existence – individual and social, material and moral, legal and cultural, economic and political, national and international. In Islam, then, politics and religion are two sides of the same coin. However, the notion of a fusion between Islam and politics has assumed a more radical and intense character due to the rise, since the early twentieth century, of Islamism. As far as the notion of fundamentalism in Islam is concerned, this does not mean a belief in the literal truth of the Koran, for this is rarely questioned within Islam, even though differences of interpretation do exist. Instead, fundamentalism (if the term is used at all within Islam) means an intense and militant faith in Islamic beliefs as the overriding principles of social life and politics, as well as of personal morality.
Millenarianism: A belief in a thousand year period of divine rule; political millenarianism offers the prospect of a sudden and complete emancipation from misery and oppression. Apocalypticism: A belief in the imminent end of the world (as we know it), often associated with the return of a supreme or god-like figure, denoting final salvation and purification.
KEY CONCEPT ISLAMISM
and ideals of Islam; (2) that the modern secular state should be replaced by an ‘Islamic state’, in which religious principles and authority have primacy over political principles and authority; and (3) that the West and Western values are corrupt and corrupting, justifying, for some, the notion of a jihad against them. However, distinctive Sunni and Shia versions of Islamism have developed, the former linked to Wahhabism, and the latter to Iran’s ‘Islamic Revolution’.
Islamism (also called ‘political Islam’, radical Islam’ or ‘activist Islam’) is a politico-religious ideology, as opposed to a simple belief in Islam. Although Islamist ideology has no single creed or political manifestation, certain common beliefs can be identified. These include: (1) that society should be reconstructed in line with the religious principles
Powered by FlippingBook