RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS

Effect of Radical Religious Movement on the Whole World

The Effect of Radical Religious Movement on the Whole World

The Controversial Concept of Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism is a word, primarily sourced from United States in the early 20th century to address the phenomenon of movements related to religion which made the followers of Christianity review the basic elements of Christianity. In the Muslim countries, the word fundamentalism has two meanings. For some people, it means reviewing the basic element and spirit of Islam that do not essentially take up its proper and institutional element, and that does not contradicts with present civilization. For some people its means the extremism. Many people taka the fundamentalism as the rise of religion based political movements. They take these movements as political activities in lieu of religious fundamentalism due to two main causes;

The word “fundamentalism” is a matter of controversies amongst the activists of religion based movements and scholars.

Fundamentalism is only a part of a larger concept that is the emergence of political and social activities on the basis of religions.

On the other hand, a large number of speakers, most of them are non-academic have been using the term fundamentalism in their writings. Muslims countries use the term as “religious fundamentalism” devoid of any conflict of ideas, since this fact and its negative consequences are present in the everyday life of people living in Muslim countries (Khudori & Duquesne, 2008, pp. 4).

Religious Extremism

The globe is becoming a hub of bigotry based on religion, terrorism, intolerance, killings, crimes and war tragedies. The permission of burning holy books of different religions has resulted in world-wide uproar. The intervention of United States of America in Afghanistan and other Muslim countries in the name of War on terror was disastrous. The cause behind all these interferences has been prevention of democratic social change, and sustaining the superpower at the cost of the lives of many innocents (Khudori & Duquesne, 2008, pp. 5).

The continuation of war on terror since 2001, along with extremism based on religion and militancy are serious threats to peace and security of the world. The war on terror is spreading hatred, fear and terror instead of love and harmony. Political parties are taking religious extremism as a political tool to achieve the power in the world (Khudori & Duquesne, 2008, pp. 6).

Analysis of the phenomenon

Role of the Media

The major media sources play a vital role in provoke of extremism of religion. Dictatorship of media has tended to make stereotype of Muslim societies; on the other hand, the actual matter is related to political facts (Khudori & Duquesne, 2008, pp. 6).

Positive Roles of Religion-based Movements in Society

In recent history, many religion based movement have been highly visible, but not all of the religious movements are harmful to the societies. There were some religion based movements in Europe that helped the Eastern Europe in the promotion of democracy and human rights in the era of 1990s. The movements based on religion, played four major roles:

The provider of social ...