Islamic Fundamentalism
Islamic Fundamentalism: Myth and Reality Confronted?
Dr Zaniah Marshallsay
School of International Studies University of South Australia
Refereed paper presented to the Australasian Political Studies Association Conference University of Adelaide 29 September – 1 October 2004
Zaniah Marshallsay: Islamic Fundamentalism
Introduction Language is power, and terms consistently used take on a reality that truth belies. Thus with the term Islamic fundamentalism, which has been bandied about and used lightly and interchangeably with Islamism, Political Islam, Radical Islam, and even Islamic terrorism. But, do they mean the same thing? In much of the literature (including media reports) on Islam and the political activities of certain Muslims, the tendency is to depict the phenomenon of fundamentalism as the spectre of religious fanaticism which gives rise to terrorism, and in the process induces fear of Islam, the religion. However, as many writers have pointed out, not only is the term used as a blanket description of the militant ideology of contemporary Islamic movements, but subsuming the various Islamic movements (political, social, cultural, economic and local) under the general rubric of Islamic fundamentalist movements blinds us to the divergencies, internal divisions and evolutionary nature of the various groups. It also prevents us from engaging in a dispassionate analysis of the subject.
This paper argues for the need to make specific distinctions in the usage of terms/words such as Islamic fundamentalism, Islamism, political Islam among others so that their meanings, connotations and limitations are made clear. The starting point of this paper is that the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism is part of the world-wide religious phenomenon encompassing militant piety, and to understand it, we need to see it as part of the contemporary Islamic resurgent movements of which the militant and fanatical is but one of its diverse forms. While there is
Dr Zaniah Marshallsay
School of International Studies University of South Australia
Refereed paper presented to the Australasian Political Studies Association Conference University of Adelaide 29 September – 1 October 2004
Zaniah Marshallsay: Islamic Fundamentalism
Introduction Language is power, and terms consistently used take on a reality that truth belies. Thus with the term Islamic fundamentalism, which has been bandied about and used lightly and interchangeably with Islamism, Political Islam, Radical Islam, and even Islamic terrorism. But, do they mean the same thing? In much of the literature (including media reports) on Islam and the political activities of certain Muslims, the tendency is to depict the phenomenon of fundamentalism as the spectre of religious fanaticism which gives rise to terrorism, and in the process induces fear of Islam, the religion. However, as many writers have pointed out, not only is the term used as a blanket description of the militant ideology of contemporary Islamic movements, but subsuming the various Islamic movements (political, social, cultural, economic and local) under the general rubric of Islamic fundamentalist movements blinds us to the divergencies, internal divisions and evolutionary nature of the various groups. It also prevents us from engaging in a dispassionate analysis of the subject.
This paper argues for the need to make specific distinctions in the usage of terms/words such as Islamic fundamentalism, Islamism, political Islam among others so that their meanings, connotations and limitations are made clear. The starting point of this paper is that the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism is part of the world-wide religious phenomenon encompassing militant piety, and to understand it, we need to see it as part of the contemporary Islamic resurgent movements of which the militant and fanatical is but one of its diverse forms. While there is
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