IS FUNDAMENTALISM SPECIFIC TO ANY PARTICULAR RELIGION

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

IS FUNDAMENTALISM SPECIFIC TO ANY PARTICULAR RELIGION?

For a vast majority, the term “fundamentalism” evokes images of hostage crises, embassies under siege, hijackings, and suicide bombers. But these images hardly present a comprehensive picture. People in the west associate fundamentalism with Islam, this is indeed a mistaken belief. Fundamentalism is defined as " the affirmation of religious authority as holistic and absolute, admitting of neither criticism nor reduction; it is expressed through the collective demand that specific creedal and ethical dictates derived from scripture be publicly recognized and legally enforced ." (Lawrence)

Therefore the essence of fundamentalist belief is doctrinal confirmity, of not only oneself but the conformity of the rest of society too .While some try to reach their goals through violence, the majority work through political parties within the electoral process. People like and his al-Qaeda network are only at fringes. Even if fundamentalism is to encompass such aberrations, such brand of fundamentalism is a characteristic of all (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism) the religions. This paper by citing episodes of fundamentalism in leading religions substantiates the theseis that fundamentalism is not specific to any particular religion.

Beginning with Judaism, the bombing of Hotel King David in July 1946 is an incident that starkly explifies the Jewish Fundamentalism. The British entered the premises of the and took away with them a large number of sensitive documents. These documents were kept at the King David Hotel for intelligence analysis. For vengeance and as a way of destroying these documents, Irgun Tsvai-Leumi, a Jewish fundamentalist group decided to target the hotel. Furthermore, Zionists mark yet another episode of Jewish Fundamentalism. Zionism ( sect of Judaism) is based heavily upon linking the Jewish people to the Land of Israel ...

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The most daunting example of fundamentalism is found in Christianity. Nicolas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei were famous astronomers who led to a breakthrough in astronomy by promulgating the heliocentric model of the Solar System (the Earth goes round the Sun, rather than the Sun going round the Earth). Though has model was logically coherent and later accepted to be valid, they were persecuted by the Catholic Church because their system was in conflict with the Bible. In addition, crusades epitomize Christian fundamentalism. Crusades were a series of military campaigns, sanctioned by the church that took place during the through . Originally, they were endeavors to capture the from the , but some were directed against other Europeans, such as the against , the against the of southern France and the . People were forced to convert to Christianity, if they refused, they were put to death.Thus Crusades were in part an outlet for an intense religious piety which rose up in the late 11th century. Yet another example is the attempt, by some Christian fundamentalist groups to shut down, by force, abortion clinics. Some have even gone to the extent of threatening and intimidating employees, and even murdering the doctors working these clinics.

Hinduism hasn’t escaped the fundamentalist episodes either. The Hindu religion advocates that society should be divided into four broad classes called VARNAS, namely BRAHMIN, KSHATRIYA, VAISYA, and SUDRA in descending order of importance. This stratification of society is by every sense of imagination inhumane and results and nothing more than slavery for the SUDRAs who are treated as untouchables. Being that as it may, the fact is that there still exists fundamentalist segment in the hindu society who attest to this stratification. Not only this, In December 1992, Hindu fundamentalists demolished Babri Mosque situated in the city of Ayodhya . They alleged that the first emperor (Babur) had destroyed an existing temple at the site, which believe was the temple built to commemorate the of and called for the re-contruction of Ram temple.

Islam isnt short of people who harbor fundamentalist believes either. Osama bin Laden led the seprember 11 attack on the pretext of a holy war “jihad” against the infidels. The 1993 Dehli bombings carried out by the muslim militant group in part had the same pretext as well. Moreover, muslim fundamentalists in Iran, Sudan, some parts of Persian Gulf and lately Afghanistan, have amalgamated with the political forces to institute a particularly harsh set of rules as political law Called the Sharia or the Islamic law.

In Light of the above mentioned examples it is extremely important to realize that that fundamentalism is not synonymous to terrorism or violence, but rather people who harbor fundamentalist beliefs are so committed to their dogma they can go to any extent (from mere activism to violence) to eradicate any exceptions to their dogma. It is all but natural to encounter such people in all the religions. What is interesting is the reason why people from all the religions harbor such tendencies? Probably because it offers an easy way out - a fundamentalist need not think deeply about a doctrine or be highly educated in it; as one Mormon leader once said, "Don't think for yourself. The thinking has already been done."