attempts to reinscribe and reinforce “essential” male/female differences and
privilege male authority.^41 Fundamentalist religion provides clear-cut rules of
moral conduct, fixed narratives of identity and clear-cut gender roles. This
not only gives a sense of certainty and stability in face of rapid social change
and cultural contestations, but a transcendentally based system of meaning.
Adherents believe that if people pursued strict moral codes based on abso-
lute adherence to scriptural doctrines and lives of purity, while rigid gender
hierarchies are sustained, a glorious future will befall the community of virtue,
notwithstanding existing conditions. For Christians, after the Rapture and
the return of Christ, the Kingdom of God will be restored. For Jews, the
Messiah will return and the Temple rebuilt. For Muslims, the Caliphate will
be re-established.
Fundamentalisms take at least two forms, retreatist and transformative.
Retreatists seek to isolate themselves from the larger, secular and indeed pro-
fane community. Thus various rural Christian sects or communities seek to
withdraw from the larger world and remove themselves from its influences.
Similarly, various ultra Orthodox Jews seek “autonomous” communities, but
insofar as some are likely to work outside their communities and engage in
the political process, their isolation is only partial. Transformative funda-
mentalists would seek to overthrow existing societies and/or governments
and establish theocracies such as Iran, or for awhile, the Taliban rulers of
Afghanistan. In countries with open electoral systems, fundamentalists typ-
ically seek political power to advance their moral positions. This has been
clear in alliances of the Republican Party and the Christian Evangelicals as
well as the BJP in India. Fundamentalism has become a major factor in
American, Israeli, Indian and Islamic politics.
Understanding Islamic Fundamentalism
Throughout the Muslim world we have witnessed growing fundamentalist
movements seeking political rule in accordance with strict adherence to Islam.
Islamisms generally assume an anti-Western form rejecting Western moder-
nity in terms of democratic rule, freedom, equality and progress. In recent
years, the diffusion of Western popular culture and consumerism through-
out the Muslim world has been experienced as a major affront to Islamic
From the Caliphate to the Shaheedim• 321(^41) This is clear in the resistance to attempts to stop FGM, shariahjustice for female
infidelity and the use of rape as punishment.