'Islam and Islamic Fundamentalism Essay\r'

'the lingering fear of terrorist attacks and threats to US native land security. Indeed, the prejudice against Muslims and Islam adherents has become more distri preciselyive in a post-9/11 America, where the racial stereotyping of Muslims as terrorists or suicide bombers frustrate not only those who are flip in such a disconfirming light but also those whose paranoia renders them unresponsive and unable to fully grasp the root of the conflicts based on credence. In his depth psychology of the roots of Moslem fundamentalism, Hashemi (2004) asserts that there is zip fastener particularly Islamic about Islamic fundamentalism.\r\nInstead, Islamic or any opposite form of ghostlike fundamentalism for that matter should be examined not from the context of the religious political theory per se but from the sociable, political, and economic factors that create and continue to excise the history and flow rate eventidents in Muslim societies. Indeed, Hashemi points to the ongoi ng brotherly transformation and transition of Islamic societies from the traditionalistic to modern that have been characterized by festering restlessness among the lower ranks of society specially with the connivance between the elite and alien interests.\r\nTo be able to understand how and why Islamic fundamentalism thrives and flourishes in a field that is supposedly dominantly democratic therefore requires an tryout not only of the inherent characteristics of Islam as a religion and the entire heathenish and economic spheres of Muslim life but also the influence of orthogonal policies of fibrous nations on the development of these countries.\r\nIt also entails an query of the role of gender and class in the creation of socially acceptable standards for religious adherence and how attitudes and preconceived notions of religiosity affect the individual and collective decision to secure in hostile and baseless religious activities. Thus, while religious fundamentalism may superficially appear to be the product of Islam’s teaching, Hashemi argues that it is the general tendency of extremists to take things literally; referring to the latter’s justification of violent actions as the â€Å"holy war” or jihad.\r\nLikewise, the rapid urbanization and modernization of these societies owe to the intervention of super-industrialized economies and the subsequent imposition of foreign development paradigms on their own close and way of life promotes the feeling of world threatened by the West’s tendency to homogenize cultures, ideologies, and economies, which give ride to the perceived need to defend Islam and the Muslim world in general.\r\nIt could be, as Hashemi posits, that umpteen individuals in the Muslim countries are attracted to the highly messianic premise of fundamentalist beliefs particularly at a time when most of these countries are under attack from neo-liberal interests and the genuine world is keen on its prosecution of strategic business interests in these regions.\r\nIn the end, the motivations and driving force of Islamic Fundamentalism, as Hashemi says, may be likened to the very very(prenominal) social forces that have sparked the conflicts, upheavals, and revolutions at the eve of the birth of every new social order. Only this time, these forces happen to be bonded by their common allegiance to the Islamic faith and their pursuit for self-determination.\r\n'