h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: fundamentist Islam a misnomer - A929432
Author: Muzaakboy - Better than the right thing is one who does it. - U208494

I have edited this of spelling mistakes (though my Grammer is rubbish)

I also changed the title to actually suit what is being said in the article.

Any questions or comments?

Adib

I remember having read the prototype of this Entry the first time it was up for PR. It is now indeed a lot better. The beginning and the last part are quite good. But IMO there are some bits that are still confusing to read, also the text is not quite free of bias.

The first part of the Entry essentially affirms that the picture we have of 'Muslim fundamentalists' is influenced by media and what misinformed people say in the media. These people often equate 'fundamentalism' with 'extremism' and promote a wrong notion of what Islam, and fundamentalism is all about. Fine.

Then the Entry goes on to define 'fundamentalism' and the origins of this word used in religious context. Now, this is one point where I think, the Entry starts to get confusing: According to the Entry, the word 'fundamentalism' had been used to describe Christians who took the bible literally inspite of (often) contrary scientific evidence. A long-ish section explaining the different approach of Islam towards science follows.

As I understood, this facet of Islam is used to prove that the term 'fundamentalism' should not be used in the context of Islam. I don't see why not. The rhetorical question "How can a Muslim following Islam and reading the Qur’an be called a Fundamentalist when the elemental truth of the Qur’an is in the study of science?" Well, the answer would be, IMO: Exactly for that reason. The definition of a Christian fundamentalist also holds for a Muslim fundamentalist in this point. The difference between the Christian fundamentalist and the Muslim fundamentalist is that latter - following his belief literally - is more open towards science.

The text shifts to different levels and definitions of fundamentalism e.g. "Why are they [Muslims] called Fundamentalists? Fundamentalist means the core of all what an ideology believe and are expected to practice." So, in that logic, any Muslim is a fundamentalist Muslim, in the same sense that any Christian would be a fundamentalist Christian. I understood that this passage suggests that a 'fundamentalist Whatever' is a redundancy and for that reason the 'fundamentalist' bit could be dropped. I think that there is a difference between a 'Muslim' and a 'fundamentalist Muslim', not all Muslims follow the Islamic laws strictly (or else there wouldn't be Muslim terrorists and models). But then again, maybe I didn't understand that passage well.

In the following there are some parts that IMO are in there just to be a bit provoking. "whenever and wherever a Muslim group is fighting for its survival or its constitutional and basic human rights, whether in Algeria[...] or in Mindanao" I am not sure if the extremists in Algeria or Mindanao are fighting for their survival. In the same section are many important open questions, that IMO, however, do not explain better why 'fundamentalist Islam is a misnomer'.

Then why move on to treat terrorism. Wouldn't "Islam and Terrorism" be enough subject for a separate Entry?

The section "Islam misunderstood" is a compilation of some parts of the Quran and also(?) from the AHadith "to see what Muslims believe in." I am not sure if the Entry needs that extensive amount of quotes, but hey...

The last part is OK again and sums up what the Entry is really about:

"These are the real fundamentals of Islam [the given quotes] and show how much terrorists have twisted the ideals behind Islam to suite there own deeds. It is a shame that Islamic fundamentalism is being linked with aeroplane high-jacking and the bombing of the world trade centre etc as these are all things that are not allowed in Islam. Islam its self literally means a religion of peace through submission to God."

So, in the end we have a good start and a good summary, but IMO a confusing middle part. Maybe that's just me, maybe the text just isn't flowing well. Dunno. Also, I don't think that some of the stuff in the middle part (open questions and some opinions) are OK for the Edited Guide.

Hmmm...

HELL

I'll see what I can do.

Adib

Any progress on this one?

Yeah I have altered a few things, but I have kept hte Terrorism link, as I don't go in to detail about it, I define what it means, after explaning that Fundamentalist has become synoymous to Terrorist.

Adib

Sorry to nag, but I have pointed out a series of, IMO, shortcommings of your Entry in my posting above. I have not seen the points adressed in this thread or in the Entry itself...

OK, OK... I agree that I could be more patient.

See you around,

HELL

*Nudge*

Researcher PSG

sorry please be a little patient. There has been a surge in work, and a few family memebers have passed away so I'm a little rushed of my feet at the moment.

I will try and sort things out when I am able to.

adib

Sorry adib, didn't mean to hurry you. I was just bringing a few entries I thought were good to the top of peer review.

Sounds like your having a bit of a time of it, so just get back to this when you have time. No rush

Researcher PSG

If it's going to be awhile before you can get to this, the best thing for you to do is to pull it out of Peer Review until you will have time for it. Otherwise, you will have comments here periodically asking when things will be accomplished -- after all, Peer Review is only for entries that are being actively worked on, and out of the ten entries that have been in Peer Review for the longest, five are yours.


Mikey

Whoops, actaully I have been concentrating on those other ones and forgot about this one, I will pull it form peer reveiw for now.

thanks for reminding me

Salaam,

Hell, sorry about not gettingto the points you raised earlier, this thread had dropped of the bottem of my page and I forgot about thisentry while doing the others. I will try and sort this one out to as I go along.

"Then the Entry goes on to define 'fundamentalism' and the origins of this word used in religious context. Now, this is one point where I think, the Entry starts to get confusing: According to the Entry, the word 'fundamentalism' had been used to describe Christians who took the bible literally inspite of (often) contrary scientific evidence. A long-ish section explaining the different approach of Islam towards science follows."

The point I was trying to make was that the original usage of the word fundamentalist with in the context of religion was that the word fundamentalist means a strict following of a religious book in which people believe that the religious book is right and that science is wrong.

An so using the word fundamentalist within the above context can not fit Islam as so far the Qur'an has not contradicted science and so the whole issue of ignoring scientific advances because of the difference between the Qur'an and science is not their. nor does the issue of saying that science is wrong and the qur'an is right as at the moment both agree with one another.

An so the meaning that goes with the term Christian fundamentalist does not fit that for an Islamic fundamentalist, and so the usage of the word does not accuratly portray the Islamic view point regarding qur'an and science.
I think I understand the point you make and if I am wrong then just correct me.

Inshaallah I will be back tomorrow to sort out the rest of thisstuff.

Adib

Salaam,

Thanks for every ones patience with me on this, I know I have not been very good at keeping the commitments for doing this.

I have been running some brain storming in my head and I have decided to completely scrap the middle section, though whats been said is accurate its not the right message to pass over I feel. I have decided to have the middle to deal with rether or not Islamic terrorists and the war action between two sides (Isreal and Palestine being a perfect example) being religious fueled or not. And then want to move on to to ways of combating the image if Muslim = Terrorist/Fundamentalist which is on the incline and to also make a few suggestions to effectivily combat terrorism through dealing with its causes.

I hope you can be patient with me while I do this, and I will remove this from Perr review till I have done my changes.

Thanks for all the input every one has given and the great advice.

Adib