Religion and Extremism: Rejecting Diversity

Description

Focusing on the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Douglas Pratt argues that despite a popular focus on Islam, extremist Jews and Christians can also enact terror and destruction. Religion and Extremism stresses that the ideological rejection of diversity underlies religious extremism resulting in violent behaviours and, increasingly, in hardening social and religious attitudes and responses. An analysis of religiously-driven terrorism reveals the presence of a distinctive and rigid form of exclusivity found in these religions. In this regard, the contemporary resurgence in totalising claims of fundamentalist ideologues is cause for particular concern. Pratt reasons that however expressed, the motif of the ‘Absolute’ is central to all, but how that absolute is and has been received, interpreted and responded to, is a matter of great diversity. The author asserts that theological ‘Absolutism’ displays an underlying dynamic whereby these three religions may be led into extremism. Religion and Extremism also explores contemporary issues of Islamophobia and mutual extremism, identified as ‘reactive co-radicalization’, and concludes by reflecting on how extremism today might be countered. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Accommodating Diversity: Paradigms and Patterns Postmodernity: The contemporary context of religious diversity Diversity: Plurality versus pluralism Pluralism: Paradigms of diversity affirmation Standard pluralism Radical pluralism Interdependent pluralism Ethical pluralism Comprehensive integrated pluralism Inclusivism: Paradigms of incorporation Triumphal inclusivism Gatekeeper inclusivism Imperialist inclusivism Mutual co-inherence inclusivism Conclusion Chapter 3 Diversity Resisted: Exclusion and Fundamentalism Exclusivism: Patterns of diversity rejection Open exclusivism Closed exclusivism Extreme exclusivism Religion and fundamentalism The origin and nature of ‘fundamentalism’ The phenomenon of fundamentalism: Phase, feature and factors Phase I: Passive Fundamentalism Feature 1 – Principal presuppositions Feature 2 – Authority derivation Feature 3 – Implicit verification Phase II: Assertive (hard-line) fundamentalism Feature 4 – Epistemological construction Feature 5 – Identity structure Feature 6 – Contextual scope Feature 7 – Condemnatory stance Phase III: Impositional fundamentalism Feature 8 – Value application Feature 9 – Explicit justification Feature 10 – Enacted extremism Conclusion Chapter 4 Texts of Terror: Scriptural Motifs for Extremism Extremism and the Hebrew Bible The Ban: Ethno-religious purity extremism Zealotry: The model of the priest Phineas Extremism in the New Testament and the Qur’an Conclusion Chapter 5 The Jewish Experience of Extremism The Phineas model of zealotry Post-biblical violence Motifs of messianism: martyrdom and mysticism Contemporary Jewish violent extremism Zealotry and Zionism Conclusion Chapter 6 Forms of Christian Extremism Christian extremism: An historical review Christian extremism: A theological rationale Contemporary Christian extremism The Christian Identity movement The Church of Jesus Christ Christian/Aryan Nations (CJCC/AN) The Phineas Priesthood Christian extremism: A five-point profile Point 1 – contextual scope Point 2 – condemnatory stance Point 3 – negative value application Point 4 – explicit action justified Point 5 – enacted violent extremism Conclusion Chapter 7 Trajectories of Islamic Extremism Islam: Perception and reality Islamism: An extremist ideology Islamic extremism: Fundamentalism and terrorism Conclusion Chapter 8 Mutual Extremism: Reactive Co-Radicalization Switzerland: No minarets Norway: Reactionary terrorism Reactive co-radicalization Conclusion Chapter 9 Extremism and Islamophobia The phenomenon of Islamophobia: Meaning and reactions Anti-Islamic prejudice and action Ignorance and Islamophobia Perceptions of Islam: Image and imagination Media and political discourse Conclusion Chapter 10 Conclusion Notes Introduction Accommodating Diversity: Paradigms and Patterns Diversity Resisted: Exclusion and Fundamentalism Texts of Terror: Scriptural Motifs For Extremism The Jewish Experience of Extremism Forms of Christian Extremism Trajectories of Islamic Extremism Mutual Extremism: Reactive Co- Radicalization Extremism and Islamophobia Conclusion Bibliography Newspaper reports and sundry other references Website references Index