A recent impressive moment of international solidarity followed the Paris murders of cartoonists at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hedbo and workers and shoppers at a kosher grocery store in a Jewish neighborhood – all killed by Muslim extremists. Linking arms, dozens of world leaders marched in a Paris street to show unity and common cause. The community of nations was not about to cower at the horror of religious fanatics turned brutal killers.
For a few days, photos and video footage of the event were everywhere, including on the front page of the ultra-orthodox Israeli newspaper The Announcer. Well, the picture in the Israeli paper wasn’t exactly the same as others published and broadcasted around the world. Under the guise of modesty, ultra-orthodox Jews object to picturing women; therefore, the female world leaders in the Paris march were Photoshopped out of the picture – as if they did not exist.
(Oh, my. From dastardly killers to ditzy Photoshoppers, fundamentalists are nuts.)
Religious fundamentalism is an intractable problem for our world. Yes, some world strife arises from ethnic differences and some as a result of power grabs by one nation-state or another. Yet, the greatest predictor in the ongoing idiocy of war after war, civilian rape, murder and genocide is religious fundamentalism run amok.
Whether the believer is Muslim, Jew, Christian, Buddhist or Sikh, the primary motivator for fundamentalists is fear that the modern world is out to annihilate them. They see themselves as God’s chosen under constant attack from “others” and “otherness.” In fact, their sense of constant assault and persecution becomes the excuse both for warring against those “others” and for imposing their narrow beliefs on whole societies.
For fundamentalists, there is evil and there is good, but there is nothing in between. Motivated more by fear than by piety, fundamentalists lay down strict and elaborate rules and regulations for believers. Dissension is not allowed. To question leadership in fundamentalist groups is to question the will of God. Not always entailing militancy and violence, God’s will invariably is expressed in patriarchy.
Women are denied positions of authority, expected to be submissive to their husbands, given greater moral restrictions than men, discouraged from or refused education, and deprived of reproductive rights. Because fundamentalists base their moral principles on reinventing an idealized – mostly fanciful – past, controlling women is central to prohibiting the social change they equate with their own annihilation.
Although strong in claiming their own rights to special treatment because of their religious beliefs, fundamentalists have no patience for the rights of others. The truth is, fundamentalists find democracy to be hostile. Democracy demands tolerance, or as writer Leon Wieseltier put it in an essay for “The Atlantic” online magazine, “the harsh realities of tolerance must be faced.” He went on to say, “Blasphemy is freedom’s tax” and “a tolerant society is a society in which feelings are regularly bruised and faiths are regularly outraged.”
Put another way, to value freedom and democracy, we must value open discourse and stand solidly against censorship; tolerance is mandatory, not as wishy-washy feel-good stuff but as the muscular mainstay of a free and diverse society. However, the open-mindedness necessary for a democracy is diametrically opposed to the absolutist thinking required by fundamentalism.
We’re often told that religion is not to blame for its perversion by fundamentalists. But that’s a cop-out. The freedom to practice religion comes with the responsibility to counter and repudiate its distortion. Hatred is never sacred, nor is “God” – however perceived – the source for intolerant, politicized spirituality.
Ahlin writes a Sunday column for The Forum. Email janeahlin@yahoo.com
