Islamic fundamentalism

Islamic fundamentalism is primarily used in the Western world to describe Islamist groups. However, usage of the term is often expanded to include all of the following aspects of Islam and the modern Islamic world:

As a social and political movement

As with adherents of other fundamentalist movements, Islamic fundamentalists hold that the problems of the world stem from secular influences. Further, the path to peace and justice in this world lies in a return to the original message of the faith, combined with a scrupulous rejection of all Bid'ah ("innovation") and perceived anti-Islamic traditions. Sometimes this results in Islamism.

Related Topics:
Fundamentalist - Secular - Peace - Justice - Bid'ah - Islamism

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Groups advocating Islamism are invariably responding to complex political and historical situations, usually with deep roots in the local environment. For example, the rise of the conservative Jamaat-e-Islami party in Bangladesh would not have been possible without widespread public reaction against the corruption of the secular Awami League government in that country. Unfortunately, this complex local political history is completely lost in the simplistic reductionism of terms like 'Muslim fundamentalism', which simultaneously explains everything and nothing by blaming Islam for being the religion of the majority.

Related Topics:
Conservative - Jamaat-e-Islami - Bangladesh - Awami League - Government

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Given the existence of undemocratic and corrupt regimes all over the Muslim world, it is not surprising that for much of the 20th century the dominant form of political dissent in these countries has been revolutionary Marxism. However, the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War largely discredited leftist ideologies and Arab Nationalism there by strengthening Islamic parties. Continuing Western support for the Israeli settlement of the West Bank has also increased the anti-American sentiments which Islamism represents.

Related Topics:
20th century - Political dissent - Revolution - Marxism - Soviet Union - Cold War - Leftist - Ideologies - Arab Nationalism - Israeli - West Bank - Islamism

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Many scholars of religion believe that, contrary to their own message, Islamic fundamentalists are not actually traditionalists. Typically, their message is that returning to the original version of the faith requires abandonment of a variety of traditional practices which they contend are medieval innovations, such as the practice of asking favors from "saints" (awliya). However, scholars of Islam hold that the result is that the fundamentalists are creating innovations; they are creating a form of Islam that never existed in the past.

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Some Muslim fundamentalists seek to change the laws of their nation so as to make their laws based on the Qur'an and Hadith. While there have historically been many non-violent Muslim fundamentalists, one Western connotation of the term fundamentalism is the assertion of views through violence or oppression, rather than persuasion.

Related Topics:
Qur'an - Hadith - Non-violent - Connotation - Oppression

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