FUNDAMENTAL ISTS
“Watch out for those Christian Fundamentalists on the flight!”, popped up the warning message on my screen hour before I was to embark on my winter break to Dubai. “Don’t worry, I can spot them a mile off” I tapped, “they’re the ones with the pink clean-shaven faces, muttering lines from the Bible”, I japed – quietly concerned at the potential damage the corner of a bible could do.
My break from Iran has coincided with a short break from adding words here. Although nothing seems to have changed since I last wrote about my political exercise, I’ve noticed many changes outside of these borders – one less important change being an arbitrary alteration in a calendar. More interestingly though the British government have decided to abandoned the use of the the term ‘War On Terror’, yet more interesting still I’ve noticed a near universal adoption of the term ‘Islamist’ from the media corporations. This term I’ve rarely heard before yet by some remarkable coincidence the sources I click through seemed to have employed the usage near simultaneously. I spent my Christmas day spotting Islamists and was surprised to even find a couple in the car radio – in some way I guess they are destroying our way of life.
‘Islamic Fundamentalist’ without the fundamental part I gathered, meaning maybe all muslims are fundamental or a new art movement is sweeping the world. As I am currently a citizen in an Islamic Republic I guess they also mean me, and as the country I’ve arrived from will soon have Islam as the dominant religion I guess they also mean a certain majority of their future selves.
Another change was noticed in my absence, for the first time a Quo’ran was used to swear-in a Democratist – a successfully imbedded Islamists maybe? I’d managed to embed myself also, I’d evaded the racial profiling as I walked down the alter on Christmas day joining the Christianist side of my family for what turned out to be a torturous couple of hours. Their leader seemed a little unstable, imbibed I assumed from what I’d witnessed during the recruitment procedure they called “Christening”. 7-new members of an average age of around 3-years had enlisted before my eyes, surely they know not what they are doing I pondered in concern.
My prior concern for the damage one might afflict from the corner of a book, I guess, is shared by few, yet for varying reasons an increasing amount of us seem more concerned with other parts of these books altogether. Although I’ve browsed through a few of them I’m not too happy about an imminent suffix that is sure to misrepresent me.
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Very interesting article,
I can’t really remember the last time I heard the term Christian Fundamentalists. The word ‘fundamentalist’ has always been very closely associated with Islam to the point where others can easily deny that other religious extremists aren’t half as bad as ‘Islamists.’
I wonder what will happen if news sources adopt the word Christianists, and start blaming such people for some of the world’s ills the way the word Islamists has been employed for the past couple of years.
I wonder how many people in the States are frowning upon this. Considering the hateful fear-mongering that many of their sources thrive on, many Americans are probably paranoid beyond belief that ‘Muslims are taking over.’ Here’s a relevant example of apparent hypocracy in the States.
From that article I’ll quote some stuff
What ever happened to secularism and freedum?
Since when did American values were based on any holy book? Last time I checked Jesus said don’t kill but the government execute criminals. So killing is a Christian value?
Why the double standards?
There are many in the U.S. who use the term ‘fundamentalist’ to describe Christians who subscribe to literalist and absolutist interpretations of Christian scripture. These fundamentalists are increasingly being compared with Islamic fundamentalists, although the similarities are still lost on far too many Americans.
Iranian President and U.S. Christian Fundamentalists: More in Common than Meets the Eye
I think one of the most intrigueing parts of this, is that the Qur’an he was sworn in on once belonged to President Thomas Jefferson. Take that you fundamentalist Christianists! Biatch!
Fundamentalists exist in all societies, simple as that. People just need to realize that and stop demonizing just one fundamentalist groups.
A note of seriousness: “Islamism” is supposed to mean something other than “fundamentalist” or “Islamic”: it is used to describe people who use Islam politically. Bassam Tibi argues that Islamists have almost no use for the actual religion and have done very little, if any, theological readings.
Many people use the term Christianist to describe the same political proclivity when it has a Christian bias. Jina gives us an example of this when he sites Christians who support executions. This is not Christian, it is Christianist.
I find the term useful since a fundamentalist is different from a political religionist.
(I wonder what you would say about Jews and Muslims who oppose the death penalty despite their holy books?)
And what am I? Am I secularish or a secularist?