Religious Extremism
Recently, as reported in a short news segment on National Public Radio, several scholars of religion put their heads together and came up with six characteristics of religious extremism. While not all of them may be equally present in every movement of this sort, in light of the world's present problems where so often religion plays an important role, it might be well-worth our effort to seriously consider their list.
First -- almost all such movements are addicted to scriptural fundamentalism or more, exactly, to a literal interpretation of their holy book. This is true not just of some Christians (and Jews) with the Bible, but perhaps even more so for Muslims when it come to the Qur'an or Koran.
Second -- apocalypticism: many religious extremists pay special attention to prophecies and predictions of catastrophes leading to the "end times". With Christians, this tendency shows itself in a fixation on the New Testament book of "Revelation", almost to the exclusion of all other books.
Third -- a siege mentality: the extremists see themselves as an embattled or persecuted minority. This condition is certainly evident in the thinking of many in the "third world", who see their civilization as being swallowed up and destroyed by western culture, with its strong emphasis on individual freedoms and material success.
Fourth -- a single identity: extremists seem to suffer a loss of a sense of the multiple aspects of life and the varied roles they must play in regard to them. Instead they seem obsessed by a single thought or idea. They tend to have what we might call a "one-track mind".
Fifth -- the influence of a strong-willed or charismatic leader. Without such a leader, the tendency towards extremism generally remains only an individual quirk.
Sixth -- the temptation of wealth or power, or at least the fear of losing whatever economic advantages one might already have.
While these scholars admitted that something like these same six tendencies can also be found in non-religious forms of extremism, (think for example the way dedicated Communists hung onto every word that Marx or Lenin ever wrote) the big difference is that, in religious extremism, all these factors are combined into the conviction that "God wills it" -- which was the battle cry of the both of Muslim warriors in their "Jihads" and of their Christian counterparts in the Crusades.
Which of these six characteristics is most important? I suspect that it depends on what religious movement one is talking about. The third item (the "siege mentality") would seem to me to be a much larger factor in the Muslim world's conflict with the rest of us than is the second ("apocalypticism") -- although Muslims also believe that there will be a "Last Judgement" at the end of the world. However, as far as I know, Hindu extremists in India have no such visions of a final showdown, but instead see themselves as economically threatened by Christians, a factor, I've been told, that has played a similar role in Protestant vs. Catholic tensions and violence in Northern Ireland.
Still, over all, despite regional variations, I suspect these experts are very much correct -- enough that I think we should make an effort to examine each of these factors more closely. Often, behind what we take to be religious extremism, there is a great deal more than what at first meets the eye.
R W Kropf
10/15/2001
Return to Index of Articles
File:sixsigns.htm 11/21/2001