This is serious......READ!!!!!!!

[jcright]

Not yet...I shouldn't be reading any links nor this thread since i"m at work...but I can't resist!!! I'm hoping things will calm down later today and I'll look then.

 

[seebs]

I have an issue with using the word fundamentalists in a negative way, it's been taught to us by the world. It fails logic. If the fundamentals of Islam are peaceful. then fundamentalists Muslims would be peaceful. That passes logic.

The word "fundamentalist" doesn't really refer to the "fundamentals" of the faith, though; it's a word that was coined by a group of people who wanted to recenter the faith on things they thought were more important, and move it away from other things. As is so often the case, the etymology changes the meaning of the word.

 

[eldermike]

The word "fundamentalist" doesn't really refer to the "fundamentals" of the faith, though; it's a word that was coined by a group of people who wanted to recenter the faith on things they thought were more important, and move it away from other things. As is so often the case, the etymology changes the meaning of the word.

Do you have a reference for this?

 

[Gold Dragon]

Do you have a reference for this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist

Fundamentalism is a movement to return to more strict adherence to founding principles, usually in religion. In comparative religion, fundamentalism can refer to anti-modernist movements in various religions.
In many ways religious fundamentalism is a modern phenomenon, characterized by a sense of embattled alienation in the midst of the surrounding culture, even where the culture may be nominally influenced by the adherents' religion. The term can also refer specifically to the belief that one's religious texts are infallible and historically accurate, despite contradiction of these claims by modern scholarship.
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Fundamentalism and politics
"Fundamentalism" is a morally charged, emotive term, often used as a term of opprobrium, particularly in combination with other epithets (as in the phrase "Muslim fundamentalists" and "right-wing fundamentalists").
Very often religious fundamentalists, in all religions, are politically aware. They feel that legal and government processes must recognise the way of life they see as prescribed by God and set forth in Scripture. The state must be subservient to God, in their eyes: this, however is a basic belief of most religions.

Most 'Christian' countries went, or are also going through a similar stage in their development. The governments of many Muslim countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, are Islamic, and include people with fundamentalist beliefs. More secular politicians are often to be found working in opposition movements in these countries.

 

[eldermike]

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Fundamentalism

This one is worth reading also.

 

[Gold Dragon]

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Fundamentalism

This one is worth reading also.

FYI, that page is actually a copy of an older version of the page that I referenced on Wikipedia. Thanks.

 

[eldermike]

(from the link I posted in 105) Although the term fundamentalism in popular usage sometimes refers derogatorily to any fringe religious group, or to extremist ethnic movements with only nominally religious motivations, the term does have a more precise denotation. "Fundamentalist" describes a movement to return to what is considered the defining or founding principles of the religion.

If this is true, and I think it is, and Islam is fundamentally a peaceful relegion, then why call the murders fundamentalists? Unless, it's peaceful only because it's not actually praticed by most Muslims? Which is it?

 

[InnerPhyre]

Yeesh. I wonder how all the local Muslims would feel if I asked my priest to buy a huge loudspeaker and chant the Divine Mercy Chaplet every day at 3 PM. Anyone wanna bet they'd have the cops there in 5 minutes?

 

[Gold Dragon]

If this is true, and I think it is, and Islam is fundamentally a peaceful relegion, then why call the murders fundamentalists? Unless, it's peaceful only because it's not actually praticed by most Muslims? Which is it?

Islamic fundamentalist is a term used by westerners and western media because of percieved similarities to western fundamentalists. It is not a term that those who we refer to as Islamic fundamentalists use to refer to themselves, as opposed to Christian fundamentalists, who do refer to themselves as fundamentalists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_fundamentalism

The phrase Islamic fundamentalism is used in the West to describe Islamist groups many of which are opposed to liberal movements within Islam.

• It describes the beliefs of traditional Muslims that they should restrict themselves to literal and traditional interpretations of their sacred texts, the Qur'an and Hadith.

• It describes a variety of religious movements and groups in Muslim communities which may be entirely apolitical. An example is the Tablighi Jamaat, a missionary-like organization whose main goal is to increase the personal piety of its members. In this sense, Islamic fundamentalism is just a term for religious conservatism which forms part of the spectrum of Muslim society.

• It describes Muslim groups which advocate Islam as a political movement, especially Islamism, which advocate the replacement of state secular laws with Islamic law.

 

[seebs]

Do you have a reference for this?

The word "fundamentalism" appears to have been coined in 1920 or so, in reference to a series of pamphlets from 1910-1915. The entire thing doesn't appear to date back before about 1880. It's a purely reactionary thing in its origins, although fundamentalist churches are now reasonably mainstream.

However, the "fundamentals" of fundamentalism are not necessarily the things that theologians of the early church would have thought of as "fundamentals" of the faith.

 

[eightfoot514]

Yes. The English language can be very ambiguous...

 

[eldermike]

Extremist is a better word. The current pressure exerted on our Christian faith doesn't need our help. We should be calling people that have extreme views, extremist, not fundamentalists.

 

[GreenEyedLady]

Amen my brotheR!!!!