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Religious Fundamentalism and Religious Conflict
Shoba R. Gosa |
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| Introduction - Some Statistics |
Accounting for over 77 percent of the South Asia’s population, India has adhered for more than fifty years to a secular constitution that promises democracy, federalism, and equality. In theory at any rate and at times in practice, a woman, an atheist, a Muslim, a Christian, a Sikh, or an untouchable can rise to a high state office in India. So of course can one of India’s Hindus, who constitute about 83 percent of the population of more than 1 billion. The remainder include Muslims, at around 12 percent, and Christians and Sikhs, between 2 and 3 percent each. The former untouchables are about 15 percent. Most of these are counted as Hindus, but sections have embraced Buddhism or Christianity. India’s “tribal” or indigenous” groups scattered across the land and amounting to about 7 percent of the total, are also generally seen, as Hindus, while some of them, especially in the Northeast of India, are Christians.
How do we define the term “Religious Fundamentalism”? What is the Genesis of Fundamentalism? What factors should be associated with Fundamentalism?
“Fundamentalist” is a term, with a range of meanings used to refer to anyone who is intolerant of other’s beliefs. Fundamentalism is “not so much an ideology as it is an attitude, an attitude of intolerance, incivility and narrowness” says Walter Shurden. It is an attitude that says, “We have the truth, the whole truth and nothing but truth, and we are going to impose it on you and control the system so that you will have to knuckle under to it”. As anyone who has ever attended a meeting of two or more activists can attest, that attitude can be found at all points on the political and religious spectrum.
Fundamentalism is a word, which became prominent all over the world during the 20th Century. The word Fundamentalism developed in the Western Christian context and was originally coined in 1920 by the Baptist Curtis L. Laws and referred to a set of 12 booklets of essays entitled “the fundamentals” between 1908-1915. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines fundamentalism as follows: “Religious beliefs based on a literal interpretation of everything in the Bible and regarded as a fundamental to Christian faith and morals; a 20th Century movement among some American Protestants based on these beliefs.”
The different meanings of Fundamentalism come into play in different situations. However, there is something common to these ascribed meanings, something that holds them together. This is the common concern about the ‘misuse’ of religion in public life, in the name of return to the basic or original core of a religion. The threatened return could be historical; it could be textual. In the first case, the fear is of absolutisation and closure of a faith through historicism; in the second, through literality. In both incarnations, fundamentalism has come to mean something terribly dangerous, unmanageable, intolerant and narrow-minded.
Fundamentalism is a deep and total commitment to religious belief, involving a return to supposed fundamentals, away from doctrinal compromises with modern social and political life. The term is used to describe a wide range of political and religious phenomena, including Protestants denominations, Jewish groups, Buddhist movements, Hindu political parties and Islamic governments. |
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| What is the effect of Fundamentalism? |
| Religious Fundamentalism is inclined to suppress the rights of other religions or secular forces in society and even to organize violence against them. In India, Hindu fundamentalist movements have attacked Muslims and burned mosques. In Israel, Jewish fundamentalists have demanded religious-based laws and practices (closing down all public transportation on the Sabbath, for example) and some have violently attacked Palestinians. In the United States, fundamentalists have demanded religious prayers in public schools and some have been involved in killing doctors practicing abortions. |
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| Does Fundamentalism lead to conflict? |
One opinion is that Fundamentalism thrives as a distinctively extreme reaction to threats to communal identity. It is a militant form of religious separatism.
If we look closely, however, we will find that the much-touted revival is less one of religiosity than one of cultural identities based on religious affiliation. There is a great ferment that is taking place in the world of religious ideas, beliefs and rituals, or any marked increase in the sum of the human spirituality. What we are witnessing today is less the resurgence of religion than of communalism, where a community of believers has not only a religious affiliation but also social economic and political interests in common.
How non-Muslims think of Islam conditions the manner in which they deal with Muslims, which in turn conditions how Muslims think of and deal with non-Muslims. There is also the matter of cultivating opposite practices in different religions. The Hindu faces the east to the rising sun to pray; the Muslim form is to turn from right to left. The Hindu worships the cow; the Muslim eats the cow (beef). The Hindu can keep a moustache; the Muslim man will shave his upper lip. To do the opposite of another religion becomes a characteristic of one’s own religion. |
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| Is Fundamentalism a form of Religious Violence? |
Religious violence has taken many forms throughout history. Some examples include: the practice of animal or human sacrifice, the often excruciatingly cruel punishment envisaged for sinners, some practices in the exorcism of spirits and demons, the killing of witches or
apostates, ascetic violence against the self (self-flagellation). We see to in history the Holy Wars (Crusades) of the Christians, the just war of the Jews, and the jihad of the Muslims.
As India’s religious traditions developed, imagess of warfare persisted. The great epics (the Mahabharata and the Ramayana) contain grand accounts of wars and baffles, and the enduring sermon of Lord Krishna, the Bhagawad Gita, was recorded in the Mahabharata as being delivered on the battlefield.
The Gita gave several reasons why killing in warfare is permissible, among them the argument that the soul can never be killed: “He ho slays, slays not; he who is slain is not slain.” Another reason is based in Dharma (moral obligation): the duties of a member of the Kshatriya (warrior) caste by definition involve killing, so violence has been justified in the very maintenance of social order.
Islam is ambiguous about violence. Like all religions, Islam occasionally allows for force, while stressing that the main spiritual goal is one of non-violence and peace. The Koran contains a proscription very much like the Biblical injunction. “Thou shall not kill.” The Koran commands the faithful, “Slay not the life that God has made sacred.” The very name Islam is cognate to Salaam, the word of peace, and like the Hebrew word Shalom, it implies a vision of social harmony and spiritual response. |
| From My Heart |
I was born and brought up in a very traditional Christian family. I enjoyed my childhood in the Church - being in Sunday School and learning little jumping and dancing songs. I never knew that Christianity is a Religion (and a minority). I am still called a grand daughter of a Reverend. I feel good about that, because Grandpa gave his services to the church (CSI) up to his death at the age of 75 years. Today I recollect one incident, which happened when I was in seventh standard at school. One of my friends invited some of our classmates to her birthday party. We all went to her home in the evening. There a very strange thing happened to us. Christian friends were taken to the back door and other Hindu friends taken to the front door. In the party they gave us sweets in a paper & water in a plastic glass. For my young brain I could not understand what was happening. When I came back home I told my Grandpa all about the party.
He felt so sad. He started explaining that they treated us like that, because we are Christian (Backward caste) and they are Brahmins (Higher or Open Caste). Next morning in the class my friend started saying sorry to all her Christian friends. This small incident has remained in my memory. When I finished college the same friend invited me to her marriage. Immediately I remembered the party incident. I asked her if there was any change on her side. She laughed and told me that “a big change, it is a big shock to all - I am going to marry a SC (Scheduled Caste) boy!” It was really a shock to me too. This time when I visited her I went through front door, because the family had lost their Brahmin values by taking a SC boy in to their family. This personal experience illustrates the social and religious realities in most of the rural parts of Andhra Pradesh. The Caste System is the major issue for the people which leads to religious conflict’
I share this story because today as South Asian young people looking out to a world of globalisation we still in our whole life journey today or tomorrow will have to face the major role of Caste and Religious identity that leads to conflicts with one another or within us. |
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| Different Religious Conflicts: |
Conflicts pitting people of different religious against one another have caused untold pain and bloodshed in South Asia. The Hindu-Muslim conflict in India, the various sectarian conflicts in Pakistan, the ongoing conflicts between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region, various other sectarian conflicts in India (Sikh-Hindu, and especially in the Northeast: Hindu-Christian or Muslim-Christian), conflict between Muslims and Hindus in Bangladesh, and the devastating wars between Hindu Tamils and Buddhist Sinhalese in Sri Lanka are all religious conflicts in the sense that the opposing sides are adherents of differing religious beliefs. But they can only be fully understood when the ethnic, national, social and political dimensions are taken into consideration.
Conflicts bearing religious labels have long been common in South Asia, a region where society is deeply religious. Given these realities, some Western scholars have drawn the conclusion that a natural connection exists between religion and South Asian violence.
It is a link that some Indians too have stressed, including the well-known author and sometime activist Arundhati Roy. After India conducted a series of nuclear tests in 1998, Roy linked India’s atomic bomb, and the violence generally witnessed in post independence India, to the mixing of religion with India’s recent politics, and also to the role that religion played in India’s freedom movement. “Ram and Rahim” Roy who wrote using Hindu and Muslim names for God, were invited to take part in “human politics and India’s war of independence against the British and the result was “freedom” the carnage of partition and the Hindu nuclear bomb”
Two illustrations of how different religious identities and practices can lead to conflict.
One of the most puzzling theological questions of our age is how to account for the great number and diversity of world religions and at the same time to acknowledge their similarities. It is also one of the most challenging social issues confronting humanity.
Let me tell of my own experience while I was working as a software programmer in a software company in Hyderabad, South India. A Muslim from Canada established the company. The company’s strengths were its global nature and the technology that we used developed certain programmes that were very advanced. As a Christian with good programming knowledge I never had a problem with the management. However at the time of Ramadan, all the Muslim staffs were allowed to do their ‘namaj’ whenever they wanted and they had flexible working hours. At the time of Lent, I wanted to maintain my own faith by prayer and fasting, but knowing this, my manager assigned me extra modules to complete. Finally there was a conflict between team members and with the management and as a result I left the company.
I worked with another software company where the manager was the Hindu and he preferred to work with clients in America and Australia and especially Christians. His perception about Christians in business was very positive – and he felt that they are trustworthy. But that was in external dealings with business people. When it came to internal company processes it was a different story. The manager wanted to show his religiosity by doing a pooja for each computer in the company. I did not want it that a pooja was done for my computer, but since it was the company’s property they were able to do it. Some of my Christian and Muslim colleagues were very much against this, and it led to a big religious issue between all of us. The result was that slowly all of us left that company. |
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| Differences within Religions |
When I was a Sunday School leader in our church we also used to conduct a summer Vacation Bible School (VBS) for the children. For this we used to give an invitation to every denomination in our area. We wanted to see good relationships between all children and also provide a space for them to learn from each other. However this was not acceptable to other denominations as they saw our church (the CSI) as somehow different. Rather they encouraged children to go only to their VBS. There was an element of intra-religious conflict around this issue. Intra-religious conflicts are the conflicts that happen between various groups of the same religion. Sometimes the issues are not so much doctrinal as a concern by leaders to establish and improve their own position and that of their group. We see too intra-religious conflicts among Hindus. These are usually in three major areas: (i) Discrimination by Profession, (ii) Discrimination by Affluence and (iii) Discrimination by Caste. It would initially seem that that the first two kinds of discrimination have no relation to caste or religion. Yet for the Hindu are three types are regarded in terms of religion.
Disputes and disagreements over religious beliefs have been and continue to be one of the sources of conflict, civil war, terrorism and even genocide in the modern world. As the noted theologian Hans Kung has said: “There will be no peace among the peoples of the world without peace among the world religions.”
Udo Schaefer offers this conceptualisation, “Religions are in many similar, and yet they are so different. There is much that unites them, but also much which divides them. This is indeed irritating. All the world religions teach that there is only one ultimate reality, which we call God. If that is so, there can logically only one truth: But if there is only one truth, why are there so many religions?”
He goes on to write, “That religion is always associated with a claim to truth is self-evident. Something that is untrue is unworthy of faith. All of the world religions…make absolute claims to truth. Each is convinced that it possesses a divine message brought by its founder.” |
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| Can Religious Conflicts be Resolved? |
There are many ways to resolve conflicts generally and conflict resolution tools such as Negotiation and Mediation can be very effective.
There are many efforts all around the world to find ways to resolve religious conflicts and to build communal harmony and peace. I would like to outline some of my own observations from the Henry Martin Institute, where I work as a Facilitator in the ‘Conflict Resolution Programme’. HMI’s objective is to resolve conflict, interfaith relations and Reconciliation to build Peace. |
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| Interfaith Dialogue |
| The development of modern religious dialogue and studies has opened the door to new understanding. “Religions that in the past were condemned without anything being known about them are now known”, through dialogue. HMI has its own vast experience of bringing different religious people into one platform and to conduct dialogue. |
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| Community Centre |
| Communal riots in Hyderabad since 1990 have left a climate of mistrust and fear between Hindus and Muslims, especially in those places where Communities reside together. After HMI intervention in Sultan Shahi, (HMI’s main community peace-building project) people from both the Hindu and Muslim communities try to manage communal conflicts every year by organizing peace meetings within the community and forming human chains. Men, women and youth take active parts in maintaining peace in the locality on different occasions. |
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| Workshops |
| Conflicts Resolution workshops with people from different regions and countries as participants. They are enabled to experience and view conflict and peace building from a broader perspective outside of their situations of unrest and social-communal conflict. |
“Without the Church and religious institutions, I would never be here today” said President Mandela, explaining that it was Christian, Muslim, Hindi and Jewish religious groups that were instrumental in providing him and other young blacks with an education - and later in giving comfort to political prisoners and their families. “I appreciate the importance of religion,” he said on 5th December 1999. “You have to have been in South Africa during apartheid to see the cruelty of human beings to each other in naked form. Again, religious institutions and their leaders gave us hope that one day we could return.” President Mandela went on to say that “religion has a crucial role to play in guiding and inspiring humanity to meet the enormous challenges we face” in the next century.
Peace (Shanti in the Indian sacred writings) is fundamental to the Hindu way and view of life. In Islam, beneficence and mercy. (Rahman and Rahim in Koran) are main attributes of God. With such common values in mind, all Indians, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Parsees and non-believers, need to re-examine their past to find such resources on how to realize a more peaceful and cooperative future. |
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| Conclusion |
However I am unwilling to conclude that religion has directly caused the conflicts taking place around us. Political parties or political activities cause most of the cases we see in South Asia of “religious conflicts”. Sometimes an external source, a near or distant neighbour, is held responsible. There are many incidents in our history that reveal how different political parties misused religion as a tool for their benefit and that caused disputes, disturbances, mistrust and bloodshed.
As a Christian youth leader it is my priority and responsibility to work to build peace and harmony in my country and in the world.
In the words of the song based on the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to be understand; to be loved as to love with all my soul.”
“Happy are those who strive for peace- they shall be called the sons of God” Matthew 5:9 |
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| Bibliography |
Martin E. Marty, ed., The Fundamentalisms Project. 5 volumes. (Chicago, 1991-1995)
Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi and Michael Argyle, The Psychology of Religious Experience, Belief and Behaviours (London, 1997)
Lawrence Davidson, Islamic Fundamentalism (Westport, CT: 1998) |
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