Islamic Fundamentalism
Islamic Fundamentalism
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absolutely fundamental doctrines of Christianity.
The core of these doctrines was the literal inerrancy
of every word of the Bible. Those who supported
these beliefs during the debate of the 1920s came to
be called fundamentalists.
The term “fundamentalism” began to be applied to
Islamic resurgence by the final quarter of the
twentieth century. However this term was not used
for Muslims in exactly the same sense as it was
applied to Christians. There is also some difference
of opinion on this point among scholars. However,
without going into the details of this, I would like to
say that the term Islamic fundamentalism is applied
to two different kinds of movements. One is the
type, which advocates a return to the pristine
fundamentals of the faith, for instance, those
defined by Ibn Taimiya in the fourteenth century.
The other is like that of the Muslim Brotherhood
(
Ikhwanul Muslimun
), which rose to bring about a
political revolution. The former is still the aim and
driving force behind the Salafia and Wahabiya
movements.