Religious and Islamic Fundamentalism (click here for downloadable pdf)
Islam is obviously an open-minded and inclusive faith, and is not an intolerant political ideology nor is a religion which forces people to embrace. The Qur’an is very clear that “there is no force in religion” (QS al-Baqarah/2:256).
However, the fundamentalists have exposed a face of the religion which is terrorizing global human security. Islamic fundamentalism has displayed a terrifying face of Islam because of its characters, mainly in exerting an aggressive agenda for the politicization of the religion to achieve certain objectives. Religious symbols have been used to pursue political agenda. It is, therefore, important to distinguish Islam as a belief and cultural system and Islam as a tool to build political legitimacy by political authorities, oppositions and other fundamentalist movements....
The strain of Islamic faith considered to be valid by extremists is actually a lie. The majority of Muslims, with Indonesia being the largest population of Muslims in the world, do not practice this fundamentalist extremism.
In the case of a book in Indonesia introduced to turn children into extremists is worrisome. It could literally undermine benevolent societies into war machines through elections.
It appears there is a charismatic movement within the Muslim faith characterized by extremism practiced in violence. This type of charismatic movement could survive past the end of regimes such as Daesh.
