LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Taylor, Corey (SAPOL) <corey.taylor@police.sa.gov.au>
  To  : <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 13:13:03 +1030

RE: Extremism vs Fundamentalism

If all fundamentalism was only about was sticking to the 10 commandments
'religiously' (for example), well everyone's a fundamentalist.
Fundamentalism encompasses factors such as behaviour and let's face it, some
precepts that fundamentalists use are their own interpretations of their
dogma rather than being as clear-cut as the aforementioned commandments. A
lot of the time, it comes down to interpretation. Example:
 
"Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy."
 
Non-extremist interpretation = Go to church on Sunday and encourage others
to do so.
 
Extremist interpretation = Go to church Sunday, lambast those who don't,
lobby government to make it illegal to to avoid going to church/if in power,
make it illegal.
 
I guess what I'm saying is that most religions don't have a set-in-stone 10
commandments to follow so a lot of what people follow today is derived from
interpretations previously done. Some of those interpretations are extreme
and/or oppressive and some aren't. What follows is the problem; the
enforcement of extremist principles. I mean, if you have extremist views
derived from a fundamentalist interpretation of the
bible/qu'ran/Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, why would you not want to
enforce them? What if your faith requires you to do so?
 
No, extremism and fundamentalism are two different things but I don't think
they are mutually exclusive; history shows that fundamentalist beliefs
translate into extremist actions more often than not. It's a generalisation
for sure but it's rare that it doesn't go that way.
 
 -----Original Message-----
From: David WOLVERTON [mailto:david.wolverton@internode.on.net]
Sent: Tuesday, 16 December 2003 12:04
To: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
Subject: Extremism vs Fundamentalism



> >> In my view, fundamentalism in any faith is bad
> > news, particularly so if you don't share their views.

 
Bah...  When are people going to get the difference between fundamentalism
and extremism?

I KNOW there are better definitions than mine (so don't be upset if mine
sn't as good as yours) but I'd just like to say that if it helps anyone to
understand the difference, my personal illustration is that: Fundametalism
is a person basing their lives on the foundation of whatever precept/belief
and/or sect they follow.  (Eg: Love, Peace and Charity based Christianity,
Budhism and Muslimism are all things that could be argued to be
fundamentalist as these are key tenets of each 'religion')

Whereas I define extremism as a person basing their lives on the distortion
of the original precept/belief and/or sect that came up with the original
belief. (Eg: Nazism, Al Quiada, The IRA, Facsim and hinese/Russian ommunism
are all good examples of fundamentalist ideas that were distorted nto being
extremist.)

I'm actualy enjoying my day off reading this thread - but for goodness sake
et's not use fundamentalist when we mean extremist (or vica-versa)  :-)

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