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:

Conflicts with the secular, democratic state

Islamic fundamentalism and especially Islamism is becoming more and more in conflict with the secular, democratic state, based upon the widely supported Universal Rights (as in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This conflict centers on following issues:

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• acceptance (as prescribed by the UDHR), or rejection of the priority of universal rights and civil law upon religious group rights and religious law (as defended by islamism), and more specifically
• acceptance (UDHR), or rejection of the equality of men and women;
• separation of state and church (UDHR), fiercely rejected by islamism;
• acceptance of religious rights, including the right for someone, Muslim or not, to leave the religion in which he was born.

As a result of this sharp conflict, many doubt whether Islam is compatible with modern secular and democratic state. E.g. the European Court of Human Rights explicitly stated that Islam and Shariah is incompatible with democracy. This, however, is a narrow, legalistic statement. It does indeed only apply to the literal interpretations of the Qur'an and the Hadiths.

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