What is “Islamic Fundamentalism”?
Historically, the term “fundamentalist” was originally applied to those Christians who took the Bible as literal scripture, as opposed to allegorical truth, among other implications. Muslims, on the other hand, have always considered the Qur’an to be the literal Speech of God. Moreover, there are no degrees of belief regarding the basic doctrines of faith. Nowadays, the term “fundamentalist” is used to describe any adherent of the major world religions who holds that faith is a model for modern life and plays a role in political, economic or social matters. Furthermore, in terms of Islam, it is often applied to those Muslims, better termed “extremists” who use unjustified means to achieve particular political goals. A further problem is that the term is often wantonly and pejoratively used in the media to describe Muslims who base their views and actions on a particularly religious worldview. In such cases, sincere, practicing Muslims who perform the daily worship, avoid alcohol, or we
