At the outset, we have to recognize that the term "fundamentalism" especially if it's use in religious parlance is equivocal. Very often, as we usually find the word used in the newspaper, it's a general purpose "snarl" -- or a way to denigrade a person or a group hinting about intolerance or tendency to commit violence. More precisely, though, in academe, the word is used. For example, according to Karen Armstrong, fundamentalism is an embattled spirituality that has emerged as a response to a perceived crisis. Precisely, out of a concern that one's belief system is under sieged by modernity, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Sikhs -- even political ideologists -- adopt a fundamentalist stance understood as the unrealistic intention to keep one's beliefs as purely as possible. But, of course, even within the circles of different (religious and political) groups, the fundamentalists are those (extremely) conservatives.
Is the preceding helpful to understand fundamentalism? Well, if it's not, blame its equivocation. But despite its lexical problematic, fundamentalism is very much real. We have the Shi'ites Muslims in Iran, and most Sunni Muslims elsewhere. The ultra-conservatives within Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox are often labelled fundamentalists. We have the Hassidic Jews, some Mormons (remember the break away group that was raided by Utah police just this year)-- and we also count among them Marxists and secular humanists, together with the overly fervent atheists.
As such, fundamentalism then is not monopolized by the religious. It is found too -- and equally as powerfully and significantly influential -- among social, political, and economic groups.
I've got to think of this topic as I tried to find sense out of a prohibition by a senior Muslim cleric that Islamic believers should not practice yoga. Yoga is an ancient Indian aid for meditation dating back thousands of years, and is said to be a popular stress-reliever in Kuala Lumpur. The reason that was given is that yoga-- having elements of Hinduism -- can make one deviate from Islamic faith.
I received the news without much surprise since Catholicism, my religion, is known to have similar behavior especially when the present pope was still the cardinal for orthodoxy of faith. While the "anathema sit" was no longer pronounced -- at least, publicly, against specific persons or groups -- we knew of notable believers who suffered "martyrdom" because they were perceived as "dangerous to the faith." Who would forget Hans Kueng, Lavinia Byrne, Charles Curran, Jeannine Gramick, Robert Nugent, Tissa Balasuriya, and Paul Collins?
By the way, more specifically, Catholicism has always been warning its believers against the negative effects to their faith that subscription to New Age practices can give.
