1. CRS 3319: Religious Fundamentalism and Asian Culture
Prof. WONG Wai Ching Angela

2. Religious fundamentalism?
A wide range of phenomenon, some violent, others peaceful:
The Shia regime in Iran
The Taliban regime recently ousted from Afghanistan
The Hindutva movement of India
The Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat-e-Ulema-Islam of Pakistan
Iran election 2009: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei

3. Religious fundamentalism?
some violent, others peaceful:
The Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt;
The conservative Baptist movement in the US
The pancasila in Indonesia
James Dobson and his Love Won Out conferences

4. Religious/Political “disturbance”:
Upsurge of religious extremism
Rise of massive violence
→ Is it waning Enlightenment?
→ Is it product of modernization?
→ Is it merely Islamic fundamentalism?
→ Is it a religious movement or a social movement?

5. Common features:
A conscious effort to return to the core beliefs or values of a given religion or culture;
Texts taken to be authoritative are used to justify the return
An attitude of ambivalence is exhibited toward modernity or secularism
Rejected some aspects while endorsed others
Normally the presence of a self-appointed elite that assumes the leadership role
For transformation of society, capture of state power

6. Related features:
A return to traditional values and an accompanying sense of restoration for the building of alternative structures;
The search for a new identity, often at the expense of minority groups;
A preoccupation with moral concerns that tends to have an adverse effect on the position of women;
A spirit of militancy with which these objectives are pursued
No necessary tie between violence and religious zeal until recent association

7. R. Scott Appleby: A working definition
Religious fundamentalism is
An identifiable pattern of religious militancy in which self-styled true believers attempt to
arrest the erosion of religious identity by outsiders,
fortify the borders of the religious community,
And create viable alternatives to secular structures and processes

8. A short history Origin of concept: Recent attention: By 2000
American Protestants in early 20th Century
Recent attention:
1979 Iranian Revolution
The success of an Islamic and anti-western political movement
The first theocracy in the 20th Century
By 2000
Religious ideology is back on world political agenda
2001, 9/11: The global Al Qaeda and the US-led War on Terror

9. “The Fundamentals”
Freely chosen self-description of the American Protestants in 1920s
Strict adherence to “five fundamentals”:
the inerrancy of Scripture, the Virgin Birth, the Substitutionary Atonement of Christ, Christ’s bodily resurrection, and the historicity of the miracles (second coming was added later)
The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth (1915)
, a series of 12 pamphlets
a manifesto published by the conservative magazine The Presbyterian entitled "Back to Fundamentals”

10. The Fundamentalists Description of “others” in late 20th century
With negative connotations
Almost exclusively referred to Islam
Anti-Western cultural and political values
E.g. Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979
British Observer (1981): “the dangerous fundamentalism revived by the ayatollahs and their admirers as a device, indistinguishable from a weapon, for running a modern state.”
An imposed label by outsiders, journalists and academics

11. Belief versus means
The use of violence often not implied in the original concept
Militancy in fundamentalism ≠ violence
Militancy: built on religious exclusivity of specific groups at the expense of other groups
Aims at revitalization of traditional religions

12. Characteristics: Modernization—a disruption of tradition
Urbanization and technological innovation
Ethnic and religious pluralism
Creation of the nation-state, etc.
Resulted in change of worldviews or relationship to the divine
Social and religious identity at stake
Look to the past for solutions
Return to the religious utopia
Use of violence as an unfortunate resort by some

13. A Project of Restoration
A process of selective retrieval
often found on a sacred history as recorded in sacred texts
Sacred history vs worldly history
A moral opposition btw tradition and modernity
Tradition: divine centers in human society and acts as the source of good
Modernity: deviation from original tradition and therefore epitomizes all society’s ills and moral decay

14. Glorious Past as Vision for Future
Whether historical or mythical
A deep sense of commitment, generated and sustained thru’ religious ideology
With religious imagery accounting for the possibility of another world
A moral foundation for such an alternative society
Projected onto the future through the present

15. Exceptionalists: → A militant interpretation of jihad
These are special times
Departure from normal standards and procedures are allowed
Tradition of tolerance and peace could give way to intolerance and violence
Old social norms no longer apply
→ A militant interpretation of jihad

16. Project of empowerment
Effective organizational structure:
including the congregational groups and the independent “cells”
E.g. Al Qaeda network of Osama Bin Laden
Development of practical strategies
“Pro-family”: for anti-abortion, anti-gay and lesbian, and anti-feminists
Intervention in law, education policy etc.
E.g. American Christian Right

17. A fundamentalist program:
A project of restoration
A project for “back to future”
A project of exceptionalist
A project of empowerment