There it surges forth as an armed phalanx, spraying bullets. Here it takes the form of a populist party, asking for ballots. On the other hand, it appears as a militant ideology, demanding political action now. On the one hand, it manifests itself as a new religiosity, reaffirming faith in a transcendent God. What is fundamentalist Islam? Its contradictions seem to abound. Within Islam, there are Muslims who have created an "-ism" out of Islam - a coherent ideology, a broad strategy, and a set of political preferences. But this debate is largely a self-indulgent exercise of analysts. The nature of fundamentalist Islam, and even the use of the term, is hotly debated. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English now defines fundamentalism as the "strict maintenance of ancient or fundamental doctrines of any religion, especially Islam." However problematic this formula, it does acknowledge that fundamentalism in Islam is today the most visible and influential of all fundamentalisms. Copyright c Transaction Publishers.Īs the century closes, two words, Islam and fundamentalism, have become intimately linked in English usage. This article is a version of chapter nine of Arab Awakening and Islamic Revival by Martin Kramer (Transaction Publishers, 1996), and is reprinted with permission of the publisher. Martin Kramer is director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University.
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