Fundamentalism is a new challenge, and various manifestations of fundamentalism haunt the world. It has taken almost all countries in its fold, it is a war without any ceasefire. It does not know any boundary, any rules and regulations. It is undeclared against democracy, freedom, civilization, and the whole humanity. It, directly or indirectly, is a war against the fellow human beings waged by a few bigoted and criminal-minded people. They killed innocents and had a self-made ideology for justification of their violent acts.
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Meaning of Fundamentalism
There are various ways to define fundamentalism. Haywood defined it as “a belief in the original or most basic principles of a creed, often associated with fierce commitment and sometimes reflected in fanatical zeal.” Violence or threat of violence is the main weapon of fundamentalism and it is associated with terrorism. However, not all violence can be termed as terrorism. Terrorism is a systemic use of the violence or the threat of violence for achieving specific political goals.
They are not open to any rational and reasonable thinking, and they did not believe in any negotiated and peaceful resolution. It poses a law and order with a difference and poses a direct challenge to the state and the government. It is an organised challenge to the authority of the government. It uses the violence and threat of violence to force the government to succumb to its legitimate and unreasonable demands.
It is a total negation of the democracy and its principles of peaceful resolution of the conflicts. It believes in the power of bullet against the bullet.
Ideology and Fundamentalism
It creates its ideology and hallowed cause. Their ideology and cause have nothing to do with rationalism and cause and effect. Nevertheless, they develop missionary zeal for their goal. For it, they are ready to resort to any method of violence such as threat of violence, psychological warfare, and genocide of the innocent people. They believe that one day the whole world would surrender to their cause. Only violence is their cult and killing of innocent people is their only weapon.
It has ideological and religious underpinning, which is almost the same as religion, so far, in terms of its fanaticism and passionate zeal are concerned. Ideology in the context of fundamentalism is a belief system like religion, which negates all other ideologies and upholds its position regardless of any rationale and persuasion. Ideological fundamentalism is as reactionary, unscientific, and closed system as is the religious fundamentalism. Hitler, Mussolini and other dictators are some cases in point when it can swoop down to genocide and annihilation of the dissenting voices.
Whether it is religious or the ideological fundamentalist, both are not open to any criticism and dissent. The dissent, opposition and narrow perspective are the very characteristics of ideological or religious fundamentalism. However, revivalism should not be mistaken for fundamentalism. Revivalism in a religion or philosophy is meant for the bringing forth some changes and modifications. So, that it could better adapt to the changing social realities.
Thus, fundamentalism poses the biggest challenge to the modern-day world.