Global Fundamentalism: Revival of sophism

Written By : Ashiq Raki

The dictionary meaning of fundamentalism is the opinion or conviction that one’s faith or belief is true as compared to other alien faiths which according to fundamentalist are absolutely wrong”. However, the principal characteristics of fundamentalism are rejection of pluralism, subjugation of women and it is a process which amalgamates politics with religion to achieve its goals and ambitions by using false but clever arguments to mislead their respective camp followers as sophist used to do. Fundamentalism is a replica of sophism in the sense that, (like sophists who were titled by Plato as phrase mongering disputants) they also use various wrong testimonies and arguments to reach their aim. It has been obvious that every fundamentalist considers himself true, chosen, sacred and civilized and declares others as infidels, wrong, barbarians and uncivilized. When someone comes across the word “fundamentalism”, he usually makes a sense that the word “fundamentalism” is entirely associated with Islam and it is Islamic fundamentalism only, which is absolutely wrong. Though Islamic fundamentalism is the banner man of fundamentalism but it is not the shogun of global fundamentalism. There is hardly any corner of this world, which is without any sort of fundamentalism, i.e. Shiv Sena in India, Christine collation in America and various parts of Europe, Gush in Israel and monks in Burma etc. In a nutshell, however, Islamic fundamentalism is only one form of fundamentalism, which is mostly cited as the example of fundamentalism. Usually a fundamentalist finds a sort of fanatic zeal in the name of fundamentalism. In fact, the mission or justification of fundamentalism is to make pure and civilized this mother earth by injecting their own code of faith by using hook and crook and by use of force, the only options available for the alien is neck or nothing. Most of the fundamentalist mentors use various false notions and propagandas to train their pupils. By projecting and spreading certain sort of fundamentalism, they are actually civilizing the pariah and backward races which is a yeomen service to the suffering humankind. When fundamentalists are questioned that they are proliferating fundamentalism, they normally deny these charges and they answer that they are emancipating the mislead humanity or protecting their own faith against others. In short, all that which fundamentalists do is in the name of civilization and deterrence. Every faction and facet of fundamentalism has its own selfconsciousness which makes its followers bitter rivals of others. They construct their own identity and discriminate themselves from others who don’t belong to them, like, they are superior to others or they are chosen and others un-chosen, they are born to correct the wrong, they are destined to kill other, just like that of European fundamentalism, who classify themselves Europeans, Christens, White and civilized.Generally, fundamentalism is an intolerable phenomenon which is in a condition of perpetual war with other rival camps and which preaches rebellion and anarchy in the world, in fact, fundamentalism is the harbinger of anarchism and sophism.

This sense of self-consciousness embodied by fundamentalist thoughts automatically gives rise to another version of fundamentalism. Hence, it can be safely said that fundamentalism of any kind in any corner of the world can affect the rest of the world politically, socially, culturally, economically or theologically. Presently, fundamentalism has shaken every corner of the earth and it has created a global law and order situation, no one feels safe and every one is a victim of fundamentalism in one or other way. However, the shock of fundamentalism is felt everywhere but its intensity in developing world is more than that in the developed countries. Most of the developing world including countries like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iraq and Nigeria etc are under the throes of fundamentalism of either kind.

As it has already been mentioned that fundamentalism is nothing but an illusion for those who preach and practice fundamentalism and sophistry by deceiving themselves and others simultaneously, because every great religion of the world preaches tolerance and forbearance, in fact, all followers portray their Gods just, kind and merciful then why not we the human being followers of various Gods should be tolerant, kind and merciful. Last but not the least; fundamentalism is like an epidemic disease on our mother earth which can be treated with the medicines of tolerance, cooperation, forbearance and reason. In a nutshell, faith and belief should be dealt in the context of divinity and the worldly affairs of development and progress should be treated as worldly subjects in the purview of human knowledge. In other words, Heaven and Earth should be dealt separately with open hearts and minds in order to overcome clashes of different kinds.