Musing: Some more about -ism's---
Dec 28 '05 (Updated Apr 17 '06)
The Bottom Line Religious fanatics are not unique to one religion---
A while ago I wrote a musing about political/economic -isms. Here's a continuation with some musings about another class of -ism's:
A lot of people, including myself, are perhaps guilty of a semantic error in talking about things like 9/11, its aftermath, and the "war on terror." We all talk about the principle threat as "radical Islamic fundamentalism," or by similar words to describe the evil intentions of Usama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. But an important semantic distinction needs to be made, as I have only recently learned, and would like to share.
A distinction needs to be made between Islam, Islamicism. Islamist, and radical Islamist.
Islam, of course is one of the world's great religions, founded by the prophet Mohammed, and his revelations recorded in the Koran---or Qur'an, expanded upon in voluminous other writings called the Hadith. It has created numerous variations of the Islam religious faith, analogous, perhaps, to Christian denominations and the divide between fundamentalism and modernity---for lack of a better word for the more moderate variations of Christian beliefs.
But when Islam is combined with political goals it becomes Islamicism, and its practitioners are called Islamicists or Islamists. Their goal is the establishment of a government based on Islamic religious and moral principles found in the Koran and the Habith---the antithesis of the separation of church and state! In short, Islamicists are striving for an Islamic theocracy.
Taken to a radical extreme, Islamicism may have the world as a goal, and be striving to establish a global Islamic theocracy. Many would say that Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are radical Islamacists with a goal of establishing such a global theocracy. Whether that's quite true or not, it IS obviously true that Al Qaeda operates on a global scale with terrorism as their tactic all around the globe, apparently with the primary goal of weakening the power of the United States and the other democracies.
It's interesting to note that some have begun using this same set of terms as a way of talking about the various "flavors" of Christianity when combined with political goals. Christianity is the religion founded by Christ and his apostles, but when combined with politics it becomes Christianism, and its adherents are referred to as Christianists. Some have taken to referring to the Christian Right as Christianists, and accuse them of wanting to establish a Christian theocracy in the United States.
Most moderate Christians would deny that any such movement exists---including me---except that there are some groups like one called "Christian Identity" and another called the "Army of God," who characterize themselves as Christian, but who draw on extreme and literal interpretations of passages in the Old Testament to justify virulent opposition to abortion and homosexuality. They produce the individuals who appear at demonstrations bearing signs that say things like "God hates Fags," and abortion clinic bombers like Eric Rudolph---who was affiliated with the "Army of God."
Some of the actions of these "radical Christianists" can and should be characterized as terrorism. But as far as I know they are a VERY small minority among Christians; they operate only locally, not globally like Al Qaeda; and they are loudly, clearly, and publicly denounced by the mainstream Christian organizations---including the evangelical fundamentalists usually referred to as the Christian Right.
Based on the above semantics and definitions there are some on the Left who attempt to equate the actions of radical Islamicists like Bin Laden with the actions of the small minority of Christianist whackos that bomb abortion clinics and federal buildings. But it seems to me that they differ greatly in scale, power and in their ultimate intentions. But there is no doubt that they BOTH need to be feared and guarded against!
I've found the Arab Encyclopedia and Wikipedia to be very useful Internet sources for information on things of this kind. I hope all will excuse the superficiality of my scholarship in either Islam or Christianity, and take this writing for what it's worth!
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Member: Gavia Immer
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