We live in an upside down world, where the most important messages of scripture seem forgotten, as those who claim to be the most devout and orthodox representatives of faith create political and social strife over peripheral issues.  We ordinary believers, who try to study scripture faithfully, adhere to its precepts, and try not to exceed its bounds, often find ourselves at the margins of our own faith communities. 

Some of us can remember a time when what now is so loudly shouted from the pulpits and newsstands used to be a whisper in the shadows, ignored and maligned. But as time moves forward, society’s collective memory seems to be fading. Increasingly, extremist positions are treated as the norm, bigotry and violence treated as byproducts of religion, and the historical role of faith in the pursuit of justice is forgotten. 

How do we make sense of what is happening to our communities? The stakes are continually increasing, and as extremist groups commit acts of violence against their religious “others,” we find suddenly that all of humanity is carrying our burden alongside us. Theological matters are no longer issues only of personal practice or scholarship. They are now issues of literal life and death. 

Twenty-six years have passed since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, stalling the Oslo peace process (which sought to fulfill the rights of Palestinians) and heightened concerns about “Jewish Fundamentalism.” Since that time, the state of Israel has taken an increasingly violent and belligerent stance against Palestinians, and in turn these actions have been misattributed to Jewish people as a whole, escalating already pervasive antisemitism in the West. (1)

It’s been just over twenty years since September 11, 2001. The terrorist attack of that day intensified assertions in the West that Islam is a religion of violent extremism, (2) with both George W. Bush (3) and Osama Bin Laden (4) invoking an ahistorical vision of the crusades as justification for violence. ISIL was formed out of the ashes of the ensuing imperialist wars in the Middle East. (5) And despite its countless massacres of Muslims, (6) has been repeatedly portrayed in the West as a legitimate representation of Islam. (7)

Ten years ago, Anders Behring Breivik killed seventy-seven people, many of them youths, during two different terrorist attacks. He later declared himself the “savior of Christianity” (8) and was repeatedly described as a “Christian fundamentalist” by authorities, (9) and the press. (10)  These depictions continued despite his lack of religiosity, (11) which later included calling Jesus “pathetic” (12) before he abandoned Christianity altogether (13) when it failed to suit his clearly political (14) and bigoted (15) motives. 

The Taliban, who are routinely accepted at face value as “Islamic fundamentalists,” (16) have again returned to the forefront of the world stage. Saudi Arabia and other authoritarian regimes, which cynically attempt to cloak their tyranny behind the shield of religious belief, continue to export extremism across the world, as their western allies avert their gaze for the sake of political expediency. (17) 

We find ourselves stuck in a perpetual cycle, in which declarations of “fundamentalism” exist as an act of political theater which simultaneously undermines both religion and human rights. Violence is perpetuated by such declarations, which serve to normalize the abhorrent, by falsely situating authoritarian violence as an inherent component at the core of an “othered” religion. This behavior itself is often perpetuated by authoritarian tendencies and religious intolerance.

Religious leaders and communities have resoundingly rejected the actions of these terrorists and tyrants. (18) Even though Abrahamic religions all have clear prohibitions against killing and oppression, this narrative - that at the heart of religion lies an underbelly of intolerance, violence, and corruption - persists despite our objections. (19) Historical evils, which more often than not have political or personal motivations, are increasingly being revised as religious movements. Modern conflicts over land, wealth, or politics, are treated as religious wars. Worse still, extremist positions are now no longer confined to the margins of society - instead they now have insidiously taken root in our secular public discourse, and houses of worship alike. 

“Fundamentalism” has become a specter of religion. Terrorists, dictators, and oppressive regimes of low-to-average religiosity are rebranded as “fundamentalists” in order to center a particular religion, or religion as a whole, as the source of all evil. This simultaneously negates potential resistance to acts of evil by shielding it behind the sacrosanct wall of “personal belief”, while also undermining faith, which itself has been a powerful weapon against oppression. 

Instead, the actual perpetrator of evil is authoritarian politics, which increasingly mediates believers' connections with their own faith communities, as well as with believers of other faiths. At the core of these authoritarian politics is the evangelizing of colonial values, which espouse every form of bigotry which empires have historically relied upon to extend their ideological influence - racism, xenophobia, sexism (20), homophobia (21), transphobia (22), and (of course) religious intolerance. These attitudes are intrinsic to authoritarianism, as many of the great powers of our age are historically rooted in colonialism: as inheritor states which grew out of the empires of old, occupier states which have persisted from earlier european colonies, or as successor states which formed after the withdrawal of physical occupations. As we see growing resistance against the excesses of these states, and increased questioning of the political status quo, the violence of both state and non-state actors who seek to restore “order” escalates. Authoritarianism, colonialism, and corporate capitalism are in crisis - and are fighting back. 

Throughout the world, to varying degrees, both corporate and government control of the media has increased. Correspondingly, the media has been wildly complicit in promoting authoritarian politics across many areas of our lives, most notably the promotion of the war in Iraq, (23) the rise of Trumpism (24), downplaying climate change, (25) and minimizing the continued danger of Covid-19 (26). Increasingly, the media reports the claims of governments, (27) and extremists, (28) at face value, even if these claims contain unverified or unsupportable assertions about a particular religion or the nature of faith itself. This has strongly influenced how we view ourselves and others in the world by creating false narratives in which one faith is under immediate threat from another. The advent of “opinion journalism” has compounded this issue, as viewers struggle to differentiate between facts and opinions (29). 

As media depictions of faith become more misleading, we believers increasingly lose sight of each other. Though some of us repudiate false attributions of violence and oppression made about our own faiths, we may not feel confident enough to extend this to other religions, even other Abrahamic faiths similar to our own. (30) The media, celebrities, and errant faith leaders make seductive arguments for the existence of a religious “boogeyman” - one faith or another that is a natural anthesis to our own. Yet if we step out of our comfort zone, and begin to meaningfully learn about each other, and about the true nature of oppression and extremism, we find that all of these arguments are false. 

So what is causing these acts of extreme violence and oppression throughout the world that are being attributed to religion? Science tells us that support for such acts isn’t aligned to orthodoxy or religiosity, (31) but instead to an extrinsic attitude toward religion - one in which religion isn’t practiced as an end in and of itself, but secondary to some external gain. (32) Other studies dismiss a link to religiosity or intrinsic religious orientation, by demonstrating instead that those who both endorse bigoted attitudes and score high on measures of “fundamentalism” also endorse right-wing authoritarianism and demonstrate cognitive rigidity. (33) This is further supported by the strong positive correlation between frequent social religious event attendance and support for terrorism. (34) Those who identify as being religious, but do not actively seek truth in religion (“non-questers”) are most likely to support extremism, (35) as are those who have unbalanced and uncritical views of religion as a whole (indiscriminate proreligiousness) (36). Leading experts on authoritarianism and “religious fundamentalism” have been unable to demonstrate any significant difference between non-religious authoritarians and those who are labeled as “religious fundamentalists.” (37)  Little ideological difference has been found between “religious fundamentalists'' and other “authoritarian followers” who do not use religion as justification for their beliefs. (38)

This mindset is as evident in the attitudes of the Taliban, (39) ISIL, and other so-called “Islamists” (40) as it is in Anders Behring Breivik. It also speaks to movements like Wahhabism, whose ideals represent both its colonial origin (41) and the political ambitions of its patrons, (42) the Saudi regime. (43) Wahhabism, which is sometimes referred to as Salafism (44) (the name of a movement it subverted in South Asia) (45) has been adapted both by the Taliban (46) and ISIL (47). It’s export worldwide, funded by the oil wealth which blossomed with the Saudi takeover of Aramco, (48)  has produced hundreds of madrassas, reams of state-approved hate literature (49), and an adulterated English translation of the Quran. (50)

New converts to Islam have also been shown to be disproportionately overrepresented in acts of terrorism and participation with groups such as ISIL, and share many attributes with terrorists who are not ascribed a religious motivation, such as social marginalization. (51) Additionally, it was discovered that disappointment with the religion they converted to, and a corresponding lack of religious zeal, likely contribute to the higher rate of terrorism committed by converts. (52) This data, coupled with ISIL’s propensity to recruit irreligious followers, (53) paints a sinister picture of the use of “religious fundamentalism” as a false flag attack in which terrorist organizations engage in bad faith attempts to blame religion for politically motivated actions, in order to increase recruitment through further marginalization of already vulnerable individuals. 

As believers, we must challenge both terrorism and the increasingly normalized misassociation between religion and authoritarianism. We must establish not only that our own religious tradition is antithetical to such acts of evil, but that religion as a whole, when divorced from political agendas, promotes peace, equity, and justice. Further, we must reconnect with the core messages of scripture and actively use faith to achieve these aims. We must repudiate all claims - whether from within our own faith, from those who claim to represent another faith, or those who attack faith from the outside - that faith is a genuine motivator of oppression or terrorism. To do this, we must take responsibility for our religious histories, for the numerous evils of the past that in the modern world are stripped from their geopolitical context and upheld as being good representatives of religious behavior. We must critically examine what we allow to be labeled as tradition, and question whether it is truly part of our faith’s orthodoxy as given to us through scripture, or if it is the innovation of politics and bigotry. We must not allow scripture to be misused for evil purposes. (54) We must utilize tools of both faith and science to heal injured individuals who seek guidance through religion, and unequivocally demonstrate to them that faith is a path of truth, justice, and love. We must set aside our pridefulness, own our own shortcomings, and work to overcome them. We must emphasize forgotten histories of mutual cooperation between faiths, of unity rather than division, and we must bring this to life in our present reality. We must actively work to build a future of peace, equality, and justice together, for everyone. 

This is our duty as believers and stewards over creation – to seek and uphold truth, to preserve life, and to take care of one another.

Dedicated to the late Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar.

1 Jemima McEvoy, “American Jews Still Reeling from Rise IN Anti-Semitism After ISRAEL-HAMAS CONFLICT, Survey Shows,” Forbes (Forbes Magazine, June 14, 2021), https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/06/14/american-jews-still-reeling-from-rise-in-anti-semitism-after-israel-hamas-conflict-survey-shows/?sh=571f4a81d6fa.

2 Adam Gabbatt , “Close to Home: How US Far-Right Terror Flourished in POST-9/11 Focus on Islam,” The Guardian (Guardian News and Media, September 6, 2021), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/06/terrorism-far-right-white-supremacists-911-us.

3 Peter Waldman and Hugh Pope, “'Crusade' Reference Reinforces Fears War on Terrorism Is against Muslims,” The Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones & Company, September 21, 2001), https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1001020294332922160.

4 Usamah Bin Ladin, “World Islamic FRONT Statement Urging Jihad against Jews and Crusaders,” Intelligence Resource Program (Federation of American Scientists, February 23, 1998), https://irp.fas.org/world/para/docs/980223-fatwa.htm.

5 Andrew Thompson and Jeremi Suri, “How America HELPED ISIS,” The New York Times (The New York Times, October 1, 2014), https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/opinion/how-america-helped-isis.html.

6 Hawley, Emily. "ISIS Crimes Against the Shia: The Islamic State's Genocide Against Shia Muslims." Genocide Studies International 11, no. 2 (2017): 160-181.

7 Graeme Wood, “What Isis Really Wants,” The Atlantic (Atlantic Media Company, August 27, 2021), https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/.

8 ““Link Directory: Who Was Norway's Attacker and What Did He Believe in?” Firstpost, July 25, 2011, https://www.firstpost.com/world/link-directory-who-was-norways-attacker-and-what-did-he-believe-in-47740.html.

9 Jemima McEvoy, “American Jews Still Reeling from Rise IN Anti-Semitism After ISRAEL-HAMAS CONFLICT, Survey Shows,” Forbes (Forbes Magazine, June 14, 2021), https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/06/14/american-jews-still-reeling-from-rise-in-anti-semitism-after-israel-hamas-conflict-survey-shows/?sh=571f4a81d6fa.

10 Ujala Sehgal, “The Christian Extremist Suspect in Norway's Massacre,” The Atlantic (The Atlantic Monthly Group, October 30, 2013), https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/353193/.

11 Ben H Stephens, “Is Anders Breivik a European Fundamentalist?,” HuffPost (BuzzFeed, September 25, 2011), https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-kind-of-fundamentali_b_910071.

12 Silje Rognsvåg, “Breivik Mener Jesus Er ‘Patetisk,’” Dagen, 2015, https://www.dagen.no/nyheter/breivik-mener-jesus-er-patetisk.

13 Will Carless, “White Supremacists Are Killing in the Name of an Ancient Nordic Religion,” The World from PRX, May 25, 2017, https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-05-25/white-supremacists-are-killing-name-ancient-nordic-religion.

14 Ryan Lenz, “Christian Crusader,” Intelligence Report (Southern Poverty Law Center, August 24, 2011), https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2015/christian-crusader.

15 Andrew Brown, “Anders Breivik Is Not Christian but Anti-Islam ,” The Guardian (Guardian News and Media, July 24, 2011), https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2011/jul/24/norway-anders-behring-breivik-beliefs.

16 Kleiner, Jürgen. "The Taliban and Islam." Diplomacy and Statecraft 11, no. 1 (2000): 19-32.

17 Frank Gaffney, “Waging the 'War of Ideas',” Center for Security Policy Journal (Center for Security Policy, December 8, 2003), https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/waging-the-war-of-ideas-2/.

18 “Global Condemnations of ISIS/ISIL,” ING (Islamic Networks Group (ING), accessed September 7, 2021, https://ing.org/global-condemnations-of-isis-isil/.

19 Silverman, David. Fighting God: An atheist manifesto for a religious world. Macmillan, 2015.

20 Acosta-Belen, Edna, and Christine E. Bose. "From structural subordination to empowerment: Women and development in third world contexts." Gender & Society 4, no. 3 (1990): 299-320.

21 Leah Buckle, “African Sexuality and the Legacy of Imported Homophobia,” Stonewall, October 8, 2020, https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/african-sexuality-and-legacy-imported-homophobia.

22 Michael Paramo, “Transphobia Is a White Supremacist Legacy of Colonialism,” Medium (Medium, June 4, 2021), https://medium.com/@Michael_Paramo/transphobia-is-a-white-supremacist-legacy-of-colonialism-e50f57240650.

23 Dick Polman, “The Iraq WAR Anniversary: How the Media Failed Us,” WHYY (WHYY, March 20, 2013), https://whyy.org/articles/the-iraq-war-anniversary-how-the-media-failed-us/.

24 Pickard, Victor. "Media failures in the age of Trump." The Political Economy of Communication 4, no. 2 (2017).

25 Stephan Lewandowsky, “Media Failure on Iraq War Repeated in Climate Change Coverage ,” The Guardian (Guardian News and Media, December 6, 2013), https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2013/dec/06/media-failure-iraq-war-climate-change.

26 Pearman, Olivia, Maxwell Boykoff, Jeremiah Osborne-Gowey, Midori Aoyagi, Anne Gammelgaard Ballantyne, Patrick Chandler, Meaghan Daly et al. "COVID-19 media coverage decreasing despite deepening crisis." The Lancet Planetary Health 5, no. 1 (2021): e6-e7.

27 Howard Kurtz, “Media's Failure on Iraq Still Stings,” CNN (Cable News Network, March 11, 2013), https://www.cnn.com/2013/03/11/opinion/kurtz-iraq-media-failure/index.html.

28 Ingram, Haroro J. "“That is what the terrorists want”: Media as amplifier or disrupter of violent extremist propaganda." L’École nationale de la magistrature 16 (2017).

29 “Digital Media Literacy: The Blur between Facts and Opinions in the Media,” GCFGlobal.org, accessed September 7, 2021, https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/digital-media-literacy/the-blur-between-facts-and-opinions-in-the-media/1/.

30 Robert Marquand, “Norway Attacks: Was Breivik a Christian Terrorist?,” The Christian Science Monitor (The Christian Science Monitor, August 1, 2011), https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/amphtml/World/Global-News/2011/0801/Norway-attacks-Was-Breivik-a-Christian-terrorist.

31 Altemeyer, Bob, and Bruce Hunsberger. "Authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, quest, and prejudice." The international journal for the psychology of religion 2, no. 2 (1992): 113-133.

32 Hunsberger, Bruce, and Lynne M. Jackson. "Religion, meaning, and prejudice." Journal of social issues 61, no. 4 (2005): 807-826.

33 Johnson, Megan K., Wade C. Rowatt, Lucy M. Barnard-Brak, Julie A. Patock-Peckham, Jordan P. LaBouff, and Robert D. Carlisle. "A mediational analysis of the role of right-wing authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism in the religiosity–prejudice link." Personality and individual differences 50, no. 6 (2011): 851-856.

34 Ginges, Jeremy, Ian Hansen, and Ara Norenzayan. "Religion and support for suicide attacks." Psychological science 20, no. 2 (2009): 224-230.

35 Batson, Charles Daniel, Patricia Schoenrade, and W. Larry Ventis. Religion and the individual: A social-psychological perspective. Oxford University Press, 1993. 

36 Allport, Gordon W., and J. Michael Ross. "Personal religious orientation and prejudice." Journal of personality and social psychology 5, no. 4 (1967): 432

37 Altemeyer, Bob. The authoritarian specter. Harvard University Press, 1996.

38 Altemeyer, Bob. The authoritarians. Winnipeg: B. Altemeyer, 2007

39 Raqib, Mariam, and Amilcar Antonio Barreto. "The Taliban, religious revival and innovation in Afghan nationalism." National Identities 16, no. 1 (2014): 15-30.

40 Kepel, Gilles. Jihad: The trail of political Islam. Harvard University Press, 2002.

41 Allen, Charles. "The hidden roots of Wahhabism in British India." World Policy Journal 22, no. 2 (2005): 87-93.

42 Melik Kaylan, “Wahhabi Colonialism,” The Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones & Company, September 18, 2006), https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB115853454050965811.

43 Ayoob, Mohammed, and Hasan Kosebalaban, eds. Religion and politics in Saudi Arabia: Wahhabism and the state. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2009.

44 Marc Daou, “How Saudi Petrodollars Fuel Rise of Salafism,” France 24 (France 24, September 29, 2012), https://www.france24.com/en/20120929-how-saudi-arabia-petrodollars-finance-salafist-winter-islamism-wahhabism-egypt.

45 Soniya Agrawal, “We're Indians First, Taliban View of Islam Not ours, say Deoband Islamic Scholars, Locals,” ed. Arun Prashanth, ThePrint, August 22, 2021, https://theprint.in/india/were-indians-first-taliban-view-of-islam-not-ours-say-deoband-islamic-scholars-locals/720283/.

46 Burki, Shireen K. "The Creeping Wahhabization in Pukhtunkhwa: The Road to 9/11." Comparative Strategy 30, no. 2 (2011): 154-176.

47 Alastair Crooke, “You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia,” HuffPost (Buzzfeed, March 30, 2017), https://www.huffpost.com/entry/isis-wahhabism-saudi-arabia_b_5717157. See also:“OIL WEALTH SPREAD WAHHABISM,” Organization for Defending Victims of Violence, June 3, 2017, https://www.odvv.org/blog-1592-OIL-WEALTH-SPREAD-WAHHABISM.

48 Schwartz, Stephen. The two faces of Islam: Saudi fundamentalism and its role in terrorism. Anchor, 2003.

49 Shea, Nina. "Saudi publications on hate ideology invade American mosques." Center for Religious Freedom, Freedom House, Washington DC (2005).

50 Sayed Amjad Hussain, “Tampering with Abdullah Yusuf Ali's Original Work,” The Friday Times - (Naya Daur, June 25, 2021), https://www.thefridaytimes.com/tampering-with-abdullah-yusuf-alis-original-work/.

51 Schuurman, B. W., Peter Grol, and Scott Flower. "Converts and Islamist terrorism: An introduction." International Centre for Counter-Terrorism Policy Brief 7, no. 3 (2016): 1-21.

52 Jones, David A. "Re-Examining the Radicalization of Religious Converts." (2021).

53 Aya Batrawy and Lori Hinnant , “Leaked ISIS Documents Reveal What Muslims Have Been Saying All along About Isis,” The Independent (Independent Digital News and Media, September 26, 2016), http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-documents-leak-recruits-islam-sharia-religion-faith-syria-iraq-a7193086.html.

54Koopmans, Ruud, Eylem Kanol, and Dietlind Stolle. "Scriptural legitimation and the mobilisation of support for religious violence: experimental evidence across three religions and seven countries." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 47, no. 7 (2021): 1498-1516.