I read the Koran a while back and found the Muslim fundamentalist movement very confusing because they explicitly break a lot of the rules in the Koran, at the same time as claiming to be following the Koran to the letter.

It wasn't until I read, A short history of Islam by Karen Armstrong that all the bits fell into place.

Just a few things that are strange. Suicide bombers is explicitly forbidden in Islam. Anybody committing suicide for any reason goes to hell. Taking non-military hostages is also a one way ticket to hell. Not to mention executing them.

There's other funnyiness. Like the Sharia. Mohammed saw Judaism, Christianity and Islam as the same religion, only tailored to different cultures. So Muslims who follow Mohammed's words has to be super tolerant of other religious traditions, as long as they follow the commandments. This brings us to the Sharia. Mohammed said that each city/tribe should develop its own Sharia, since we all need common laws. As long as it was in accordance with the Koran all was good. This thing about a common Sharia for all Muslims is an invention of the Abbasids who had the first cohesive Muslim empire in the 750'ies and onwards. They basically threw out most of the Koran and based the Sharia on the old Persian laws, which had just been conquered, and just paid lip service to the Koran. There's still plenty in the Sharia today which are remanents of this. Not to mention all the bits added by the Ottoman pashas to make their rule easier.

Another thing which amuses me infinitely is that the use of Burqa/chador is an import from Christianity and only started when the Ottomans started conquering the christian Byzantinian empire ca 900 onward.

So back to fundamentalism. Karen Armstrong claims that the values held by the muslim fundamentalists, and all fundamentalists of all creeds are all very modern inventions. She claims that they are simply a reaction to the advent of the rise of secularism in the 20'th century. Since secularism and modernity has been linked, fundamentalism was created to combat this. It's not simply that they are Luddites but reacted to the often very brutal forced modernisations of middle-eastern dictators in the beginning and middle of the 20'th century.

The values that Islamic fundamentalists and all fundamentalists hold are just the values that where prevalent during the pre-modern agrarian culture. Complete with agrarian age gender roles and the whole kit. And they're seeing the pre-modern age through rose tinted glasses.

Why religious fundamentalism is so strong in the middle-east is because they've historically had a very elitist attitude toward the west. Up until the 18'th century western Europe was seen as a backward backwater without the ability to do anything impressive, which at the time was true. The east had been the centre of research and the arts for 8000 years. The idea that the west had anything to come up with was quite a shock to them when in the 18'th century western modern production techniques completely dominated their markets, and later when colonialism swept over their lands after the fall of the Ottoman empire in 1914. The Ottomans had tried to reform Turkey but where hopelessly behind and didn't realise that they also had to reform it politically. Anyhoo, now comes fundamentalism which takes pride in being backward, and suddenly being backward is seen as a virtue and not a problem. Since everybody wants to be proud fundamentalism became a major political force.

But Karen Armstrong aptly points out that fundamentalism is already on the way out and was mostly a 50'ies to 80'ies phenomena. Today fundamentalists are a fringe movement in all parts of the world including the middle-east. As with all strong actions, we'll get a re-action and a backlash. Fundamentalism is the backlash to the forced modernisations. Now when they're gone the middle-east is back on track again and as a whole probably quite a lot closer to democracy in the whole middle east.

She also points out that just because fundamentalists get all the press, doesn't mean they're the biggest force out there. In USA Nation of Islam gets all the attention but doesn't even represent a percent of all US Muslims.

I still think people who believe in the supernatural are confused, and who assume that because a person agrees with the ethics from a religion they're somehow intrinsically linked with its obsolete scientific claims on the nature of the universe. But that book put it all in perspective for me. Religion can still be a positive force in the world. And I believe that historically it has. By necessity, or it would have died out a long time ago.

Anybody else read it? Anybody who is a Muslim who can comment? I found it a very fascinating read. Anything that woman writes is frikkin' amazing.