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The word 'fundamentalism' is popularly associated with Islam but there are powerful arguments for recognising the phenomenon in other religions, too. Those who are designated as 'fundamentalists' see themselves as devout and true believers: however, the term is rarely applied positively.
A question of power
The pressure group, Women Against Fundamentalism (WAF) defines 'fundamentalism' as referring not to religious observance, which they see as a matter of individual choice, but to modern political movements that use religion to win or consolidate power and extend social control.
Among Christians, the religious right in the United States has opposed the teaching of almost universally accepted scientific theory of evolution as being contrary to the scriptures. And the extremes of religious divides in several countries (including Northern Ireland) have been described as 'fundamentalist' in their mutual intolerance.
Control of women
WAF points out that all fundamentalisms view women as embodying the morals and traditional values of the family and the whole community. Because they are charged with transmitting these cultural and religious values from one generation to the next, their reproductive role and traditional place in the family must be enforced.
Examples of such fundamentalism can be seen in the restrictions on women imposed within the most orthodox sections of the Jewish community, while, in the Republic of Ireland, many feminists see their country's anti-abortion laws, among the toughest in Europe, as rooted in 'fundamentalist' Christianity. (In the United States, extremists have gone so far as to murder staff in abortion clinics.)
Fundamentalism is often challenged from within the faith in which it grows up. Some Muslim women's groups, for example, argue that the Taliban's policies relating to women, found to a lesser degree elsewhere, are a distortion of Islam rooted in pre-Islamic Arab society. And many radical Catholics publicly challenge their church's attempts to undermine women's control of their own reproduction.
Response to threat
Fundamentalism harks back to the 'origins' of a faith but is in many ways a modern phenomenon, often arising where adherents of a religion feel threatened. A return to 'traditional values' can be seen as a protest and a unifying factor in the face of racism and other forms of oppression.
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