Islamic Fundamentalism

Essay by vybzdanielleCollege, UndergraduateB+, March 2007

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Islamic Fundamentalism is a religious ideology which advocates literalistic interpretations of the sacred Islamic text, the Quran. This ideology is founded on the conviction that Islamic law, the sharia, is the only valid system for regulating human life; and the conviction that an ideal Muslim society can only be achieved through an Islamic state. Often glorified as martyrs, Islamic Fundamentalists are 'jihadists', holy warriors who believe that violence is imperative to the global superiority of Islam. They fight for Allah, or God. This Muslim minority promotes dehumanization and justifies terrorism.

Islamic fundamentalists reject both secularization and democracy. In accordance with the Quran, many reject the equality of men and women in society. Throughout the Muslim world, fundamentalists continually aim to keep women out of the job market, to force women to remain fully veiled in pubic, and to keep wives in strict submission and virtual bondage, to their husbands.

Such efforts take the form of seeking to enforce strict implementation of Islamic law in terms of marriage, divorce, inheritance, and succession. Islamic fundamentalists view the strict suppression of women's rights as vital to the revitalization and purification of Islamic society.

Islamic Fundamentalists believe in acts of "purifying" violence against sinful institutions, including nightclubs and movie theatres. These are often manifested by deadly suicide bombings, which kill innocent people daily, or even civil wars as in Iraq. Anti-Semitism is particularly deep-felt. Children are indoctrinated to become martyrs, sometimes by clerics, and it is not uncommon for terrorism to be glorified through cartoons. Islamic Fundamentalists continually recruit child soldiers, as young as 5, to camps in which they are isolated from family and instructed to be suicide bombers. This clear violation of children's rights. In the Muslim world, Fundamentalists such as the Saudi Arabian Royal Family dominate the media and education...