Fundamentalism and Religious Fundamentalism: A Study of the Contemporary Middle East

Abstract

It is generally believed that there is no difference between fundamentalism and religious fundamentalism. The present study examined similarities and dissimilarities between the terms fundamentalism and religious fundamentalism, and then examined roots of religious fundamentalism in the Middle East. The findings of this study showed that fundamentalism and religious fundamentalism are not the same and religious fundamentalism has a wider meaning than fundamentalism. Religious fundamentalism is rooted in the nature of religion itself and other factors such as modernism are only intensifier factors of religious fundamentalism. In the case of the Middle East the main root of the religious fundamentalism is religion itself, especially two religions of Islam and Judaism, which are more prone to violence than other religions in the region. Beside religion as the main root of religious fundamentalism in the Middle East there are three levels of factors, including internal, regional and international factors which intensify religious fundamentalism in the region.