What You Should Know About Islamic “Fundamentalism”
And how “terrorism” came to be linked with a religion of peace
In the past half century, Islam has faced enormous challenges in upholding its fundamental principles in the face of progressive modernisation. Perhaps more than ever before, the Islamic faith has come under social scrutiny and hurled into the media spotlight with events such as the 2001, September 11, attack on the World Trade Centre in New York and the aftermath of the Iranian revolution of 1979. These and other such “Islamic” movements were quickly employed by policy makers as signs of hostile resistance to the current tide of Western modernisation.
The term “Islamic fundamentalism” came to be applied to an Islam with an agenda for a social reform that seeks to redress Western influences in its culture. This term, however, is meaningless and at best, shows a misguided understanding of Islam and its fundamental principles.
In this article, I briefly trace the origins of the term “fundamentalism” and its current usage in general religious discourse. From there, I present an argument against the Western interpretation of “Islamic fundamentalism” and explain what Islam’s “return to origins” is, why it is and what it is not. In my analysis, I give some examples of this “return to origins” from events in the last fifty years and explore some key…
