FUNDAMENTALISM
AND VIOLENCE
Dr. Khalid Sohail
INTRODUCTION
When we study human history we become aware that all the religious,
spiritual and secular traditions of the world, in spite of their
ideological and philosophical differences, had one thing in common.
They all had a dream of creating caring and compassionate human
beings as well as just and peaceful communities. Unfortunately in
many cases that dream turned into a nightmare. When we meet their
followers today we find that some of them have become angry and
developed a fundamentalist attitude. They easily get involved in
bitter debates with followers of other sects, religions and
ideologies and try to impose their values on others. When these
people with fundamentalist personalities become leaders of political
organizations and religious institutions they use violence to create
theocratic states and declare holy wars, whether crusades or jihads
to support their holy cause. Whether they are Muslim fundamentalists
or Christian fundamentalists, Jewish fundamentalists or Hindu
fundamentalists, they have become a great concern for peace loving
people of the world and have been threatening the future of
humanity. If these fundamentalists are able to gain access to
nuclear weapons they might start a cycle of violence that might end
in collective suicide or homicide. Those of us who care for the
future of humanity have gathered here today to have an
intellectually stimulating dialogue and put our heads together to
understand the psychology and politics of fundamentalism so that we
can be prepared to accept the challenges of today and prepare the
grounds for a secular and humanistic world.
Have you
heard the story of that 90-year-old Indian grandfather who was
planting a mango tree. His young neighbor asked him why was he
planting a mango tree knowing very well that it would likely bear
fruit in seven years and he might not be alive by then. The old man
smiled radiating love from his wrinkles and said, “This tree is a
gift for my grandchildren.”
So we
are having this seminar not only for us but also for our children
and grandchildren so that they can live in harmony with other
communities and cultures and be able to resolve their conflicts
peacefully.
When I
tried to understand those factors that contribute towards
fundamentalism and the violence generated by it, I became aware that
there are four schools of thought that attempt to explore these
concepts seriously.
1.
RELIGIOUS FACTORS
The first group
focuses on religious factors. They believe that there is something
inherent in the religious ideology that motivates people to be
self-righteous and impose their values on others and if these
religious people cannot impose their values on others in a peaceful
way then they do not hesitate to resort to violence, even war,
whether it is called a crusade or jihad. These people blame religion
for creating suicide bombers and believe that it is the promise of
heaven that is a major contributing factor. Such people believe that
if there were no religions there would be no holy wars.
These people blame faith-based schools that indoctrinate children to feel
superior to those people who have other religions or no religion.
They believe such schools play a dominant role in creating
fundamentalist adults who later on take part in holy wars and become
suicide bombers.
2.
POLITICAL FACTORS
The second group highlights the political factors. They share with us
that in the twentieth century many wars were fought on the basis of
nationalism. Nationalism is also an ideology but it is not a
religious ideology and people can have fundamentalist attitudes
towards their nations with no connection to religion. Such
nationalistic ideology can even generate suicide bombers. We all
know that the Tamil Tigers Movement in Sri Lanka has produced the
biggest number of suicide bombers in the last few decades. Tamil
Tigers are motivated by their nationalistic ideology and commitment
that is non-religious. Some scholars feel that the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan are primarily political wars where political leaders use
religion as a motivating factor to achieve their political goals.
Some political analysts consider such wars as wars of liberation from
local dictators or foreign imperialistic and colonial powers. They
highlight that only those countries that have been invaded by
foreign Western powers are producing suicide bombers. They state
that many countries in the world are deeply religious but only those
that are involved in political conflicts are becoming violent. So
they see a stronger relationship between violence and politics
rather than violence and religious fundamentalism. It is also
important to note that freedom fighters of one nation are perceived
as terrorists by another nation and liberators of one country are
perceived as invaders by another country.
3.
SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS
The third group believes that religious and political wars are primarily
the socio-economic wars. These wars are fought in those countries
that have natural resources especially holy oil that the
Western powers want to have control. They believe that in the 21st
century there is a war against imperialistic and colonial powers
because small countries want to be politically and economically
independent. These countries do not want a foreign army in their
backyard. They also feel that because of the imperialist powers
exploitation of their resources, local people have remained poor,
uneducated, frustrated and angry. Such people resort to religious
and political ideologies to express and rationalize their anger.
Their hold on fundamentalist ideologies is a desperate attempt to
deal with their crises. They become suicidal and think of life after
death because their present lives are so miserable and desperate.
They believe that until we make sure that wealth is equally
distributed all over the world and the gap between the haves and
have-nots is decreased we will continue to see the fundamentalist
wave all over the world spilling over to violence from time to time.
4.
PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS
The fourth group brings to our attention that violence is part of human
nature. For thousands of years human beings have survived against
all odds by becoming part of a tribe and develop tribal thinking.
For a tribe to survive they had to fight wars with other tribes.
They considered them their enemies to get hold of their crops, land
and women. They had developed a Us / Them mentality. Unfortunately
such a tribal mentality still exists. The only difference is that
the tribal mentality now includes religion, nationality, gender,
race and many other factors. Religious fundamentalism reflects the
same tribal mentality. Whether Christians fighting with Jews or
Muslims having a war with Hindus or Shiites killing Sunnis, it is
the same tribal thinking that has become part of human nature.
When we study different parts of the globe we realize that all these
factors, whether religious or political, social or psychological,
are significant and depending upon the special social and political
circumstances, play the dominant role. In some areas religion is
more important than politics and in other areas socioeconomic
factors dominate the political factors. Human beings are conditioned
by their families and communities and violent cultures produce
violent people.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
I believe that humanity is at a crossroads. We all have choices. We can
maintain our tribal mentality and commit collective homicide or rise
above it and embrace our fellow human beings from different cultures
and faiths. The time has come for all human beings to realize that
for our collective survival we have to believe that the whole of
humanity is one tribe and one human family. We have to work together
to solve our collective problems whether religious or political,
social or economic. We need to base our communities on science and
reason, caring and compassion. We can all do that by promoting
humanism, a philosophy in which all human beings are equally
respected. It is the core philosophy all religious, spiritual and
secular traditions have been trying to teach. They all wanted us to
become better human beings. I believe humanism is the essence of all
traditions. Over the centuries followers of those traditions became
dogmatic and institutionalized and lost touch with the essence. For
the future survival and growth of humanity, we need to discover
common goals to decrease human suffering and improve the quality of
life rather than getting into angry and bitter debates about our
ideological differences. Such a philosophy will help us fight
fundamentalism and help people find peace within themselves and
social harmony in the communities, harmony based on peace and
justice.
Note…This essay is prepared for the seminar titled Understanding
Fundamentalism held in Toronto Canada Dec 1st, 2007
