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Be Aware of Political Fundamentalism 

in the East and in the West

 

The wrongdoers

After the attack on 11 September 2001, one has intensively searched the predators and their motives. Immediately everybody thought of terrorists inspired by Islam fundamentalism. However, there was another type of predators than was expected.

"None of the main predators of the attacks of  September 11 came from a radical Islamic family background. They grew up in Western-oriented liberal; families in the Middle East, and afterwrds lived in Europe or the USA. Also their working method differed from other Islamic terror groups. Their social background is more reminiscent of members of the Rote Armee Fraktion. "

"The French sociologist Gilles Keppel, a well known European Islam expert, [..] gives a surprising explanation of the attacks. A well educated elite, frustrated by its own Islamic political leaders, has entered the world of terrorism. This elite does not wait until the common people embrace the one and and only true belief. This elite is even disappointed because the common people in countries as Iran, Algeria or Afghanistan appear to be unhappy with radical Islam." 

"What we up to now know about the new networks seems to remind me more of the Rote Armee Fraktion, the Red Brigades and the super terrorist Carlos", Keppel says in an interview in the German magazine Die Zeit. "Those were also groups which arose when the left-wing ideologies, on which they were based, were at their last breath. Their members were in fact not ordinary laborers, but smug citizens who managed to ascend socially."

 

Sources and other quotes

Of all amazing facts concerning September 11 come to light, maybe the most difficult for the West to digest was that the plane hijackers were no poor, retarded illiterate shepherds from the Kush Mountains, but mostly well-off young Arabic  men from neat families, who had pursued their education in the West, and who even went on holiday to Las Vegas before they crashed themselves."

2002-jan-27 - Vloet, Corrine,  'The face of the enemy', NRC

 
2001-okt-24, Kieskamp, Wilma, Trouw 

 

[Titles are translated; articles are in Dutch] 

"The predators had in particular little in common with the Taliban, whose politico-religious aim they shared", concludes the Dutch historian Dr. Roel Meijer. [...] "Nor Islam, maybe even not islamism, but the hate of well educated intellectual people against their own society and the West, seems to be the cause. In their strive to the pure, the untainted, we already are already familiar with this kind of intellectuals in our own Western history of political extremism. We already know this kind of people in our Western history of political extremism. Indeed, such as the RAF [Rote Armee Fraktion]."

“Intellectuals in the Netherlands think that Muslims are still living in the dark Middle Ages. As soon as they are reshaped to become rational beings, and have put their  Islamic belief aside, the danger of terrorism would be repelled. This, however, is a false belief. The hijackers of September 11 are more like us than we want and suppose them to be. What they have done is caused by hate, not by religion."

 


2001-dec-22 
Otten, Willem Jan, 'Jeanne d'Arc, Ziad and the sea of fire - hate or belief', VN

“The [Dutch] documentary Zembla on 7 December 2001 about the perpetrators of the attacks on September 11 did not tell it explicitely, but the idea came up [...]: isn't it more logically to say that this Ziad [one of the perpetrators] is not so much just a product of religion, but of the Enlightenment as well? His profile fits in that of other terrorists, as well with that of the Baader-Meinhof Group: graduated, no job, with a developed sense of justice, well-off middle-class, bourgeois youth. [...] The Zembla documentary suggested that Zaid was a sensitive, frustrated man, who exactly because of the contact with modernity has been shaped as a terrorist.”

The analyses given above do not lead to a religion, Islam. They lead to a kind of mentality that also exists in the Western world. They lead us to political fundamentalism, which seems to use the more orthodox stream of Islam to promote its ideas. This is referred to as "political Islam".

What we have to be aware of is political fundamentalism in the East and in the West. 

 

The manual of Al-Quaeda  scarcely has an ideological or religious component [...]; proof that the aims of these Muslim fundamentalists are first and foremost about power and wrench, instead of the interest of religion."

2002-mei  Meijer, Martijn,  Filosofie Magazine

The Taliban

Some months after 11 September 2001, much attention was given to Afghanistan. The Taliban  had already earlier attracted our attention due to their radical fundamentalist regime. 

"According to the Afghanistan expert Oliver Roy, the order to the iconoclasm of the Buddha statues is partly explainable with the increasing influence of the Wahabites, the puritans who dominate in Saudi-Arabia" 

 

2001-mrt-09 Straaten, Floris van,  'Statue storm does not fit in with Afghani tradition’; Afghanistan-specialist Olivier Roy on the destruction of Buddha statues, NRC 

"The Taliban see themselves as 'pure' in their ideas about Islam. Their attitude concerning these statues reflects contempt of their ethnic group and of other religions. The Hazaras [who live there] have a different ethnicity as well as a different religion. These factors combined made them the prime public enemy for the Taliban."

 

2001-mrt-09 
Jong, Antoinette de, 'Iconoclasm is not so religious', Trouw

Stuart Worsley, director of Care Afghanistan.

"The writer Salman Rushdie has got himself involved in the debate about the war in Afghanistan. He says: Islam is hijacked by the radical political movements, and strongly needs a reformation. [... It is] the most increasing version of Islam. Poverty is their helper, paranoia their product. This 'Islam' blames the 'apostolates' for all what is wrong in the Muslim world, and promotes the demonisation of  modernity as the remedy."

 

2001-nov-05, 'Islam hijacked by radicals'; Salman Rushdie sees reform as necessary for belief; Trouw

← 

"Rushdie regains hope from the fact that this kind of questions are sometimes  asked now in the Muslim world. Muslims protest against hijacking their belief by obscure people. Other commentators have also spoken about the necessity of a reformation. According to him, these voices ought to be encouraged:  They must swell to a loud cry, if Islam will ever be able to modernize itself. There is talk of another Islam, Rushdie asserts, of a more personal belief. This, the de-politicization of Islam, is the key to modernization.
To be able to defeat against terrorism, the Islamic world has to incorporate the secular principles that are the base of modern society. Without that, freedom of Muslim countries will remain a distant dream."

Political Islam

In the Dutch opinion press, many people have warned against politic Islam. A series of quotes, in chronological order, will give an impression.

“Those who reject Faith, - neither their possessions nor their (numerous) progeny will avail them aught against Allah. They are themselves but fuel for the Fire.” 
(The Qur'an, al-Imran 3:10).  

The Qur'an does preach tolerance vis-à-vis Jews and Christians, but only insofar as them paying taxes and submitting themselves.

 

2001-okt-03 
Frentrop, Paul, 
'There is something wrong with Islam'; HP / De Tijd

2001-okt-26 
Baar, Dirk-Jan van, 'The call of Bin laden' ; HP / De Tijd

 

"Who is your enemy?

"Every flow that is against freedom, nowadays this is political Islam, which is formed in Iran and has subsequently spread all over the Middle East, and to Europe through fundamentalist networks. This enemy is the heir of communists and fascists. Just such as they did, political Islam strives toward total control. If they were able to it, the mullahs would even infiltrate into people's dreams. Something like this never existed before in the Islamic world, and has nothing to do with Islam. Political Islam is a criminal movement."

 

2001-nov-10 
Mesters, Bas, ‘In handcuffs, that El-Moumni’; Iranian Afshin Ellian believes that the West must fight for its values and virtues, NRC

"Islam interprets and has interpreted Allah's will as a political revelation, as if the mystic Allah also contains a political Allah."

 

2002-mrt-30 
Ellian, Afshin, 'Darkened paradise of men; Islam as incidental phenomenon'; VN

"If you read the Qur'an in a mystique-poetic way, you will find a source of beauty and inspiration. If you reads the Qur'an as a constitution, you will find a source of fundamental inequality, fear, initiative to murder, and jihad."

 

2002-apr-27 
Ellian, Afshin, 'Political Islam is enemy of the West'; NRC

"Afshin Ellian (1966, Teheran), poet and university lecturer criminal justice, is of opinion that we no longer may retire ourselves from the fight against political Islam."

 

2002-juni-07 
Boot, Lotte, 'Understand that please, they are Islamic fascists'; HP / De Tijd 

In an interview with the Nobel prize winner about religion, homeland and tradition:
"Saudi-Arabia has determined to convert the world to Islam and to rule the world from Riyadh."

 

2002-aug-24 
Döring, Tobias & Spiegel, Hubert, 'Islam wants world domination'; V.S. Naipaul; VN

"Trying to establish the Western system of values  with war and violence in an Islamic country forms the very breeding ground for the Islamic extremism and the Muslim terrorism. 
Muslim fundamentalism came into existence exactly because the rulers in Egypt [...] and Iran [...] denied and threatened the Islamic way of living of their population."

 

2003-mrt-03
Krabbe, Theo, 'Opinion: George Bush as crusader'; 
WD

It seems to be wise to take these cautions to heart. But note that they are in fact warning against political Islam, which is not the same as Islam. Political fundamentalism can be found everywhere. Under Allah's sun, there is more than what calls itself Islamic. 

Islam

Islam is a highly divided religion. There is no central authority, hierarchic structure with a strong leader,  as the Catholic Church has. In some countries Islam is structurally connected with the state, in other countries this is informally the case, whereas yet in other countries there is a strict separation between religion and state ( e.g. in The Netherlands and in Turkey).  

Wahhabites, already mentioned above, are known as fundamentalists. They only acknowledge the literal texts of the Qur'an and the Sunna, the writings about the prophet. They reject every kind of progress. A problem is that in the course of time more and more differing versions of the ancient texts appear, so which is the correct one?

A well-known distinction is that between Sunnis en Shi'ites. 

Sunnis, who form the majority, strongly adhere the tradition concerning the prophet Mohammed and what is  literally in the Qur'an. They do not prefer a non-separation between religion and state. Imams are usually commissioned by the state - and are therefore not really  independent. Among the Sunnites there are also streams that preach a more or less peaceful teaching. 

Sji'ites also believe in what the successors of the Prophet have said, especially that of his son-in-law Ali. They prefer a separation of religion and state. Imams are not commissioned by the state, but are independent; they have their own income. Therefore they are more free to interpret or re-interpret the Qur'an and consequently in there opinions.

Alevis are a schism from the Sji'ites. They allow themselves more re-interpretation of the Qur'an. They are known for being more modern and peaceful, but exactly because of this they are sometimes persecuted. 

The neo-mu'tazilites, together with the mystical streams to compromise an estimated 15 million Islamites, form the most modern group. They see the Qur'an as a text written by humans in the context of their time, and thus to be interpreted in that context.
They form a counter balance against the fundamentalists, which they also despise. They employ a rational, critical, objective and historical way of research, the same kind that  gave Bible research a new d here in the 19th century. They base on the Muslim scientists who already around a thousand years ago researched the Qur'an in that way, the Mu'tazilites.

A crucial issue in Islam 

This issue is whether one must strictly take the Qur'an literally, or may one interpret or re-interpret the text according to the spirit of the time? If one does the former, then one remains standing still; if one does the latter, then development is possible and there is the chance in something like the  Enlightenment in the West taking place. In the first case, especially if a regime believes this, result in the problem that education, and thereby the entire process of development, remains standing still. 

In the Islamic world, a critical attitude is usually not wished. One quickly says that someone 'offends the prophet', or 'has abandoned the belief'. This does not stimulate a critical discussion. Muslim scientists who have studied ancient manuscripts, translations and comments, had often to fly to the West.

Characteristic of fundamentalists is that they take the ancient texts, regardless of what belief, literally. That those texts are often written a long time after the great predecessor does not deter them. Neither does the fact that there are numerous manuscripts full of differences, copying mistakes and contradictions.

Nevertheless, there are pleas for 'a modern Islam'. Others are of opinion that this will come automatically, because there is no other choice in the modern world, in which one  uses a lot of modern technology already. 

Just as crucial is the means by which one wants to spread the belief: with the sword? Or with words only? Or will Allah take care of it? 

20 September 2001, ‘Attack on America fits in with Islamic doomsday-thinking’, Trouw

29 September 2001, Yoeri Albrecht and Harm Ede Botje, ‘Why many Muslims hate America’, VN

6 October 2001, ‘Islam, what you must know’, Elsevier (theme edition)

19 October 2001, Hans Jansen, ‘Frightened Muslims’, HP / De Tijd

28 October 2001, J Brugman, ‘The drawn sword’, HP / De Tijd (also: idem 26 May 1995)

1 November 2001, ‘Islam—theme edition’, NRC Magazine

17 October 2001, Dirk van Delft, ‘Qur’an critic: Muslims also work together on encyclopedia of Qur’an’, NRC

December 2001, Joris Luyendijk, ‘Islam is the problem’; Antoine Maqdessi, winner of the Prince Claus Prize, NRC

3 July 2002, ‘Most unfreedom in Arabic countries’, WD

12 September 2002, James McGonigal, ‘Oriana Fallaci settles the score with Islam’; about Oriana Fallici, ‘the anger and pride, Bakker, WD

17 September 2002, Kees Bakhuyzen, ‘Muslims thought more openly about sex once’, Trouw

28 September 2002, Polderpeil [Polder poll], Trouw:

“Do you think Islam is a backward religion?”
Yes: 55%; No: 45%. 2064 participants. 

29 November 2002, Theme Islam, NRC 

19 December 2002, Koert van der Velde, ‘Qur’an—God’s bliss or a sinful gap?’  Trouw 

27 January 2003, Theo Haerkens, ‘Indonesia has its own Rushdie’; Ulil Abshar Abdalla believes that the Qur’an must be seen in historical perspective, WD 

3 February 2003, Patrick Chatelion Counet, ‘Fundamentalism: wretched duplicates do not touch the fundamentalist’, Trouw 


Islam and women

This is the weakest point of Islam and of Arabic culture. One has not been able to come to terms with sexuality. It is difficult to pinpoint to what extend this is the result of  religion or culture. Many say the Qur'an is not woman-unfriendly; but in any case the culture is. 

The Arabic culture views everything from the viewpoint of the man, so it has a difficulty coming to terms with women - who are half of the population. When sexuality is viewed from a man's perspective — if it is possible for a man to do so — then ‘love for woman’ is not the focal point, such is the case in western thinking, or at least is claimed to be the case. Instead, the ‘lust of man’ is the focal point. Because this lust is great, it is necessary to confine it through various prohibitions ... for the women, resulting in a total obsession as far as the men are concerned. 

"[...] It is [...] a fact that, what the imams preach as 'corrective beating of women', is translated at home as flogging and kicking them black and blue. Only a small privileged minority of women [...] is free from this. As long as such backward morals are preached in the mosques, there will be no end to the misery of Muslim women will continue. 
Let us be hones [...]. Such ancient morals have been and still are preached in mosques. By accident, these imams are now publicly known [after recent taping and publication of such sermons in the Dutch media], but all imams have always preached the same all over the world."
(2002-juli-06  Selim, Nahed, 'and be friendly toward her'; NRC)

"Even if there are only girls present [at school], they must not take of their headscarves", says mother Gowhar Huseinpour [from Iran]. "If they take off their headscarves, it will go from bad to worse and it will end at nudity."
In order to prevent men looking into the school, schools had to make the walls around higher. Lessons are given with the curtains closed.
(2002-nov-25 – 'Iranian girls take veil off' - WD)

"Kaduna, a city 180 km north of Abuja, Africa, is these days again in the grasp of violence [...]. In an article in the newspaper This Day was suggested that the Prophet Mohammed would have proposed to one of the participants of the Miss-election, if he were alive now. This has busted the flames. A blind fury came over the Muslim community. [...] 
A group of prominent Muslim scientists has called president Olusegun to cancel the beauty contest and to punish This Day. Because of the "indescribable pain caused to Muslims. [...] We cannot foreseer what will happen if the beauty contest takes place. The miss-election is a sickening exhibition of the de-humanizing of women", the group declared.
2002-nov-22  Linden, Eelco van der, ‘Muslim anger about ‘inhumane’ Miss-pageant’; Dutch Miss Elise Boulogne undeterred by terror: ‘Staying here is a good cause’, WD

This is the same country in which Lawal, a young woman, has been condemned to death by an Islamic sharia'a court because of adultery.

There is an obsession with the virginity of the woman. This is based on false ideas about a woman's physiology: as such, a hymen does not exist at all. There is also an obsession with women's circumcision, with harmful consequences. Just as harmful is the resistance against education of girls and against the participation of women in social and political life.

In the meantime, the question remains whether the very western Bush administration is women-friendly at all, given  the fundamentalist actions against any informative campaigns on abortion, wherever it takes place in the world. 

Regarding the endeavor at worldwide dominance also raises the question whether this is so typically and exclusively Islamic. 

There are similar doubts for crime [in the Netherlands]. If rates of crime increase, can this be attributed to the Arabs who already reside here? No. It can be attributed to Europeans, mainly from East Europe and Europeans from the Balkans. And do these people possess an oriental tint? No, but in fact these people are mostly Western-orientated. 

 

In her book about Gaza, Ludeman writes that the veil is meant to ban sexuality from public life, but, according to her, it is the opposite that happens: people think only about sex.
2002-juli-07 Luyendijk, Joris, NRC

In Pakistan, a woman or girl has no more status than a live stock. Five-years-old Iqra Bibi and her two-years-old sister Ifra were given in marriage when their tribe that way could be set free four members who were convicted for murder. Together with six other girls, they were given to men of around eighty years old.
2002-aug-03 - WD

Karachi – A Pakistani has murdered his two daughters of two and four years old with a stick because his third daughter went to school. This girl is seriously injured admitted to the hospital. The mother of the girls said that her spouse got furious when he heard that his daughter against his wish went to school.
2002-sep-28 - WD.

My daughter is Muslima. [...] Norms and values remarkably change by Islam and its religious groups in which she is participating. [...] If her husband had such power, contact with us would be minimal, because we are said to poison their children with our Western ideas. 
This is the dark world in which my daughter, thanks to Islam, has been landed. [...] For the time being, I  experience Islam as a ashen veil that works suffocating on spontaneous contact with each other. I fear that veil.
2002-okt – Delhoofen, Piet,  GroenLinks Magazine

At Indian weddings, surely two-third of the brides is still a child, say statistics of UNICEF.
2002-nov-02, Amelsvoort, Herman van, WD.

Three young women from the Indian federal state Kashmir are murdered, one day after a militant Muslim group had called to a veil-plight for women. [...] Followers of Jashkar Jakbar poured acid over two women in Srinagar because they would have broken the clothing rules.
2002-dec-21, WD

Virgins or grapes in Paradise? 

An unique aspect of Islam is the believe in Paradise. Not only are numerous virgins who are, and remain readily available for the man, he would also be served by astonishingly beautiful young boys. 

One could scoff at such a mythology, were it not for the ‘martyrs’ committing suicide attacks who perceive this as a reality. These people would be able to enter Paradise directly without having to wait, and this has amazing lure for the young man. 

Perhaps it will be a shame for them to know, but it does appear that a translation error that was not taken into account had and still has a role to play. The Qu’ran was not really written in pure Arabic, but in a mixture of languages with a lot Armenian in it. According to the latest insights of a number of translation it is not really about women, but round-breasted grapes with white skin, crunchy coating and juicy contents. The thin young boys who serve them may very well be the twigs.

“With the Arabic and Armenian dictionaries in hand, the transformation from virgins to the branch of vines is but of trifling difference.” →

 

"The language of the Qu’ran can be interpreted differently. It is full of influences of a foreign language, Armenian. That sets many certainties about the content of the Qur’an on loose ground."
7 June 2002, Eildert Mulder, ‘No virgins, but devils in paradise’, Trouw 

Islamic suicide murders know it well: after their heroic death they will be rewarded in paradise—with seventy beautiful virgins. It says so in the Qu’ran. But scholars doubt the correctness of that promise. Is it a matter of translation error?
21 February 2003, Hans Jansen, ‘Sour grapes’, HP/De Tijd 

 

“A traditional verdict about the houris [the virgins in the Paradise] goes like this: “The marrow of the legs of houris, underneath seventy garments and through the flesh and bone, [are] visible like a threat through a piece of sapphire”. 

This is a striking image, because the women are not so much portrayed demonic beings, but as a fruit: the marrow glows through the transparent skin. That is reminiscent of the visible seeds in white grapes. That is precisely what is happening, according to Christoph Luxenberg, the author of Die Syro-Aramaische Lesart des Koran. Ein Beitrag zur Entschliisselung der Koransprache. In it he argues that the common meaning of the words ‘hoer al-'ayn’
are based on a misunderstanding. With the influences of Syro-Armenian on Arabic in mind, they would mean ‘white grapes’ here. […] This is no less than a revolution in our understanding of the Qu’ran.
7 September 2002, Hafid Bouazza, ‘Devine Playgirls: the kidnapped Islamic paradise’, VN 


Who wrote Qur’an?

Modern research of ancient legends throws the entire Qur’an into some doubt: who exactly wrote this book? The Arabist Barbara Roggema of the University of Groningen has researched ancient manuscripts in archives in the whole world regarding this question. 

An persistent story says that the text is written by the Christian monk Sergius Bahira and sent to the young Mohammed on the horns of a cow. The second Sura of the Qur’an is for that reason called Al-Bakara: the cow. 

Bahira has adopted the texts to the ways of thinking and living of the Arabs in that period. Because the monk had thereby deviated from the traditional teaching, he was seen as a heretic. For example, because the Arabs did not want to accept the teaching of the Holy Trinity, one God was created with the three titles with which the Qur’an begins: “In the name of God (Allah), the Benificent, the Merciful”, which to us would be more familiarly referred to as the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. 

 

“You come across that theme in hundreds of Middle Age texts”, says […] Roggema […]. Roggema has spent the past years studying dozens of Syrian and Arabic manuscripts in order to place the Syrian-Christian version of the legend in order. […]
“All Muslims know the story of the monk”, says Roggema. “It is written in the most famous biography of Mohammed, that of Ibn Isaq. 
8 June 2002, Berthold van Maris, ‘The list of the monk: Syrian legend gives own version to stories about Mohammed', NRC

Islam and other religions and cultures

Imam Hamza Zaïd Kailani:

Kailanu was concerned and is still concerned about the one-sidedness of [journalistic] reporting.
“All those programmes offer the possibility for people who are anti-Islamic to spill their guts. The image has all this time remained the same: Islam is not tolerant and is equal to fundamentalism”. […] “We have the mission of God to found peace on earth. Christianity and Islam are united in this regard. […] But in practice Christians are more violent than Muslims have appeared to be. Think simply about the Crusades and the Holocaust.”

Reverend Jan Slomp, doctorate in Islamology and long since working in Pakistan: 

“The fact is that Islam in its beginnings has for centuries been more tolerant toward Jews and Christians than Christians have been toward Muslims”. […] “Violence appears in both religions. Christian churches have developed the theory of the ‘just war’ in defense of Christianity and the Church. Muslims have the jihad. But an individual jihad, like the one Osama Bin Laden has called for, does not exist in Islamic law.”

Islam may have myths — Christianity has this as well. Islam may have problems with (homo)sexuality and women — Christianity does not have any less. Islam may refer to itself as ‘the one true belief’ — all religions do this. In all religions people want to convert and dominate. 

The Qur’an was written various years after Mohammed’s death — the Gospel was written numerous decennia after Christ’s death. The Qur’an contains passages that are difficult to explain — the Bible contains many of these as well. The Qur’an may have come into being in the midst desert peoples, the Bedouin, — the Bible just as well. When talking about modern literature, can it be seen separately from the environment in which we live, and the way we live?

Islam is being used or abused by Arabic politician who want to achieve world domination — do we not know a country at the other end of the Atlantic Ocean that wants precisely the same? Arabis may use a sword or bomb once in a while — that country uses the mightiest army in the world for this aim. 

Are there heroes and enemies in the Arabic world? In the West it is not different. 

“It is very simple: what your enemies do, that is called terrorism. What your friends do, that is called self-defense, heroism, courage. The watergeuzen were our heroes, but for Spain they were terrorists. De watergeuzen [the rebels who freed Holland from the Spanish dominance in 1572] were our heroes,  but for Spain they were terrorists. 
29 September 2001, Piet Grijs, VN

“[…] Bush: […] ‘Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.’. This sentence can be explained as a form of fundamentalism that leaves no room for any kind of nuance or relativism whatsoever. A sentence that makes debate impossible and labels moderation as treachery and compliance. ”
29 September 2001, Elsbeth Etty, ‘False hope’, NRC 

“In Islam there are militant branches, but that applies for Christianity as well. It does not have anything to do with the idea that Islam has not undergone a civilization process, as was the case with Christianity through the Enlightenment. The conclusion is then that the sharp edges of Christianity has lost its momentum. 
Nonsense, Fernhout believes, and he solemnly concludes that the great tragedies of the First World War and the Second World War took place in a Christian culture after the Enlightenment. 
Fernhout: ‘It is distasteful to hate Muslims or to see every Muslim as a Bin Laden. The Serbs were, sanctioned by the Church, involved as well, and I would not take the Serbs as an example of Christians. In addition most victims of fanatic fundamentalists were not westerners, but actually Muslim compatriots. In the first place it is an intra-Islamic difference.’”
17 December 2001, Joost Sijtsma, ‘Fernhout sees gap between Islam and Christinity: Qur’an literal word of Allah’, WD

Is Islam trailing behind? 

Possibly, but then not by centuries, but most by a number of decennia. The elderly among us still have clear memories of the churches in our youth: men on one side, women on the other; all men with shaven heads, all women with a hat or headscarf. Separate schools for boys and for girls. It was not really that long ago. 

Is the woman being suppressed following a certain pattern?

“Culturally the Islamic headscarf is not any different from — also forced upon western women — the veil of cosmetics and dyed hair.”
Nawal el Saadwi in July 1998, and October 1998, Opzij

 

“Has the dialogue between Christianity and Islam reached a dead end after September 11 or do the attacks in the US offer new opportunities? An imam and a preacher are hopeful, even though the differences between both religions should not be ignored.” 
Taco van der Mark & Paul van Velthoven, ‘Approach after September 11’, [Date and source unknown]



“Nowadays the term fundamentalism is mainly used for Muslims, but the phenomenon appears in almost all religions. It is a warlike reaction of fear against the modern world, a struggle for the preservation of traditional values.” 
1 May 2001, Jan Meulemeesters, Karin Armstrong, ‘Fundamentalism is due to fear’, WD



“[…] a religious thinking that absolutises its own. Logically from such a world view flows [the idea] that whoever doubts this righteousness is an atrocity that must be eliminated. This sort of fundamentalism is in no way a reserve of Muslims. Throughout the centuries, religious fanatics have threatened the lives of heretics, from the Crusaders and the Inquisition to the American Pro-Life movement […]”
3 October 2001, Ed Lof, ‘The gods request’, HP / De Tijd.



“After the attacks on America, Islam’s image as the enemy gained new life. A panic reaction, professor of Religious Sciences Peter van de Veer believes.

 ‘There is no contradiction between democracy and Islam. Take Indonesia, a majority Islamic and democratic country.
In America a strict separation of Church and State applies, but the backbone of the democracy consists of civically, religiously-inspired organisations.” 
13 October 2001, Dirk van Delft, ‘I do like a heated debate’, Religion-sociologist Peter van der Veer looks beyond the nation-state, NRC 



“Islam is really not more intolerant than Christianity (in the Middle Ages the Arabs tolerated all Christian sects, while the Crusaders said: kill them, the muzelmen, where thou hit them). For the most part you can say that Islam is being abused as a source of inspiration for terrorists, and that the fear of Islam is being abused by arrogant chauvinists who believe in Western superiority.”
10 November 2001, Elsbeth Etty, ‘Maintain moderation’, NRC

 

 

Where do we find fundamentalism and why is it there?

“The seeds of evil shelters in social exclusion. It is a fact, that our boys there, for whatever reason, have to struggle with that to a more or less extent. I have had to experience it myself, given my skin color, but coincidentally and fortunately I met the right people, through whom I did not become derailed. But I realize how easy it is to reach out to isolated, uprooted, ignorant and socially free youths. Through their vulnerability they are susceptible to hate dogmas. […]
We were uprooted in the spiritual sense, cut off from our culture and history. That is dangerous. It creates spiritual and religion isolation. In precisely that vacuum, my brother lost his way.” 
13 October 2001, Pieter Kottman, ‘Disco-goer changes into an extremist: Isolated, uprooted youths can be vulnerable for hate dogmas’, NRC 

“The world is becoming smaller, made in the West. Globalization in effect conjures up its own counter-forces. […] 
There are not only tensions between the Western and Non-Western world, but also within Western society. [There are] layers of the autochtonal [population] who see immigrants, including the asylum seeker and the mosque-goer, but the anonymous multinational and the Brussels bureaucrat as well, as dangers that threaten uniqueness. 
It is more than a clash of civilizations: it is a clash of world views, of value systems. The proponents of an open society are pitted against the supporters of the closed society, and the latter could just as well be Muslim fundamentalists of European populists. […]
The smaller the world is, the greater the idea of the welfare gap will be, even if it was only because the poor are knocking on the gates of the rich countries en masse. If the West does not meet the world, the world will come to the West, as an immigration or as a terrorist. 
Poverty and backwardness form the vulnerable places of globalization. They form the fertile ground for counter-forces. Those are cultivated in Qur’an schools in Islamic countries like Malaysia, Somalia, the Yemen and Algeria. The recruits are slobs who have no money for regular education or for a western education. They learn to overthrow the modernity of the immoral West. […]
The presence of Islamic immigrants forces the Western society to a reflection of its identity and Christian roots, [regardless of] it has already become. […]

The spindle in that struggle are the Americans. For Arurldhati Roy, the Indian authoress, they are the wrong-doers in this world. She views Osama bin Laden as the dark doppelganger of the American president. ‘Created from … the rib of a world that is destroyed by America’s foreign policy: with her cool indifference for non-American lives, her merciless economic agenda that has eaten through the economies of poor countries like a swarm of locusts, and her plundering multinationals who rob us of the air we breath, the ground on which we stand, the water that we drink, the thoughts we develop.’ ”

Ardent fundamentalism can be found in the United States, in that wonderful mix of conservatife Christianity and capitalism, as well. Mark Hertsgaard:

“You cannot meaningfully talk about religion in the United States without talking about money” 
And:
“That Colin Powell is seen as a moderating influence illustrates how extreme the Bush administration is.” […]
“The left does not exist in the United States. The most left senator in [North] America is Ted Kennedy, who could very comfortably work with Christian-Democrats in Germany. America has two right [wing] parties.”
Autumn 2002, Mark Chavannes, ‘Hunt for money make us so religious’: Author Mark Hertsgaard about misunderstandings between the US and the world, NRC 

The United States has a law, the USA Patriot Act, which obliges librarians to inform the police about what people read, without informing these people. That is reminiscent of the Soviets, the DDR and of Iraq.

Religion is a key to the understanding of the United States. 

“Because we are so after money we are so religious.”

Religious extremism, as it appears from many speeches of Bush, is according to Hertsgaard:

“one of the most unsettling factors in the world after September 11.”

Farid Esack, South African progressive Muslim theologian:

“If you look at the language of your president, his notion of absolute evil and complete abhorrence, as well as Osama's language of complete abhorrence, neither recognizes the possibility of any grace on the other side. Both espouse very hardened kinds of fundamentalisms. I don't think that Bush is the problem, but neither is Osama solely the problem. It's these fundamentalisms and what gives rise to them that are the crucial issue.”
2003, web, Farid Esack, ‘Is the Face of Islam Changing? The Editors Interview’,
uscatholic.org

 

“Futureless youths, bad education, a corrupt regime, shameless power politics of the great wealthy [people]. Fundamentalism blossoms on this.”
6 October 2001, Thijs Berman, ‘Happy is different’ , Elsevier 



“Mernissi concludes that the Western woman is not much better off than her veiled sister from the East. […] 
The compulsion of the Western harem is barely visible, because that is put forward as an ethical choice. […] 
We, female Muslims, fast one month per year. The Western women fast twelve months per year, What an astonishment, I thought to myself, while I looked around me to all those American women who look as if they were barely sexually ripe girls.” 
June 2002, Fatema Mernissi, ‘Size 38: the harem of the Western woman’, Ode



“Islam is not a ‘backward’ culture, but it is a stern one. Stern, like our culture was for a long time, and the Catholic Church and a number of reformed variations or anthropological sects sometimes still are.”
17 September 2002, Ico Kloppenbrug, Reader Reaction, Trouw.



“Taking the bus to Solo means [going] back to the Islamic heart of Indonesia. Frustrated by poverty and corruption, more people are seeking their refuge in the mosque. And in religious schools, where the holy war is being preached. [...] 
Sympathy for fanatic the Muslim brother grows. Also moderate Muslims are gradually becoming stricter in the teaching. […] 
Obvious is that here strict Muslims are being shaped, youngsters with hardened faces and cold eyes, who take the laws of the Qur’an more literally and who — seeing the scribbles on the wall [of the school]—are ready to die for their belief.”
24 December 2002, Michel Maas, ‘Solo’s walls speak of jihad’, De Volkskrant 



“It is the fundamentalists. Christian fundamentalists. […] 
George Bush and the people around him see the world, certainly since September 11, as divided in Good and Evil. With that they are going back to the politics of Reagan. ” Boutros Ghali
15 March 2003, Francesca de Châtel, ‘The UN is not an à la carte menu’


Is the Face of Islam Changing? The Editors Interview Farid Esack,
uscatholic.org

The West must look at itself

We find fundamentalism in the East and West. It is more a political phenomenon than a religious one.

In the West it appears that it is in order to preserve what exists. The Christian tradition of thought? No, welfare, oil and the political, cultural and military power.

It appears in the East because the majority do not share in the welfare, thanks to the politics of the West. The East may deliver oil and in this way maintain an extremely rich and powerful elite, but the people can forget it. The benefits go to the imam, who are often employed by the state 

The politics of the powerful in the West are complicit in stimulating and offering fundamentalism in the East and West a chance. The West must look at itself. 

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