The Encyclopedia of World Religions

166 S fundamentalism, Islamic

tion, newly independent Islamic governments failed to live up to expectations. In 1948 the United Nations, largely through the efforts of North Amer icans and Europeans, created the state of Israel. Many Muslims saw it as a new Crusader state. When Israeli forces quickly defeated Arab armies in the Six-Day War in 1967, Muslim self-esteem reached a profound low. It was in this context that Islamic fundamen talism emerged and grew. Some Islamic leaders attributed the weakness of Islamic states not to the backwardness of Islamic traditions but to the states’ having abandoned God and his law. One Iranian thinker, Jalal Ali Ahmad (1923–69), called the problem “Westoxification.” Especially since 1967 many have heeded the calls to return to a stricter or more faithful practice of Islam. The result has been a tremendous growth in what people in North America often called Islamic fun damentalism. REVITALIZING ISLAM It is important to stress that not all Muslims today are fundamentalists and not all Muslim fundamen talists are terrorists. Two features above all charac terize Islamic fundamentalism. Muslim fundamen talists reject the values and forms of American and European society. At the same time, they make a self-conscious effort to live their lives according to what they see as God’s dictates. Islam has traditionally presented itself as a total way of life. To Muslims, this makes sense, because God is not confined to a box. As creator, he has ordained the proper way for his creatures to live in all spheres of life. Muslims call God’s law S HARIAH . One consequence of this view is that Western secularism—among other things the separation of church and state, religion and government—pres ents problems for many Muslims. (Many Christians in the United States think in a similar way; they insist that the United States should be a Christian nation.) For fundamentalist Muslims, a just state is one that obeys God’s law. That is, it rules in accor dance with Shariah. When they see the modern, secular West as threatening this rule, they react by

To understand violent as well as nonviolent forms of Islamic fundamentalism, one needs to know the background out of which they emerged.

MODERN CHALLENGES TO TRADITIONAL ISLAM

Islam first arose in Arabia in the seventh century C . E ., and it spread quickly. By the end of the cen tury Muslims ruled territory from Spain in the west through North Africa and the Middle East to Persia (Iran today) and beyond in the east. Muslims saw this tremendous expansion as a sign of G OD ’s plea sure ( see A LLAH ). Then, in the next several centu ries, Islamic civilizations led the world in science, mathematics, and technology and produced won ders of architecture, such as the Alhambra in Spain and the Taj Mahal in India. To be sure, there were challenges. As a result of the C RUSADES Christians managed to carve out Christian states in the region of Israel and Palestine for a century or two. But for the most part, the Islamic Middle East remained dominant. It is also relevant, given the antagonism between Jews and Muslims today, that many Jews fleeing persecution in Europe during the Middle Ages and the INQUISITION found safety in the Islamic world ( see ANTI -S EMITISM ). Today, of course, the status of Islamic coun tries is much different. In time Europe surpassed Muslim powers in scientific development and mili tary technology. From the 18th to the middle of the 20th centuries Muslims found themselves ruled by European colonial powers. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the most gifted Muslims went to Europe—and later the United States—for educa tion. Many of these people brought Western ideals back home. Colonial rule also encouraged many Muslims to abandon their traditions and adopt Western customs. By the middle of the 20th cen tury influential Muslims had come to believe that traditional Islam was outmoded, and they blamed what they viewed as this backwardness for their inability to resist colonial conquest. Many hoped that modernization would make Islamic areas of the world strong and prosperous again. That did not happen. Prosperity did come, but it was largely limited to small groups. In addi