Fundamentalism

From our "Pearls of Wisdom" series....

The important thing to remember about fundamentalists is that fundamentalism is a personality type that transcends culture, statehood or ethnicity. All fundamentalists are (fundamentally!) the same, and the particular religion or sect or principles that they adopt—or more precisely, "twist"—for their own purposes is simply an accident of birth, location, and background. The differences between a fundamentalist Muslim, Christian, Jew, Hindu or other do not have to do with the specifics of the particular faith involved, but rather have to do with the culture in which the fundamentalist operates.

A modern American/European fundamentalist, regardless of her faith or orientation, is not likely to be of the "blow 'em up / suicide bomber" flavor. And that is because culturally, we Westerners have—to a significant degree, at least—gotten past  the idea that killing and violence are acceptable means of dealing with one's political/social enemies.

In India and the Middle East, the "blow 'em up / suicide bomber" attitude is still very much a part of the common culture. Consequently, fundamentalists is that region of the world, operating in a religious and/or personality mode that is identical to their Western counterparts, blow themselves and others up to make their points. Here in the US/Euope/First World, nobody blows themselves up.

But just because there are a preponderance of Jews and Christians in the West, and Muslims and Hindus in the Third World, one should not be deceived into thinking that the religious aspect of the fundamentalists is any different from one country/area/region/religion to another; it's not.

It is amusing and ironic, of course, that fundamentalists so hate their kindred spirits from other religions. They actually have more in common with other fundamentalists than they do with the calm, sensible and rational members of their own religion.