CRS 3319: Religious Fundamentalism and Asian Culture

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
• 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, Christs
  bodily resurrection, and the historicity of the
  miracles (second coming was added later)
• The Fundamentals A Testimony to the Truth (1915)
• 1910-15, 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

• Modernizationa 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 societys 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

• 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