What is islamic fundamentalism?

Answer 1

Islamic Fundamentalism is difficult to discuss as a general historical phenomenon because it is a heterodox philosophy. This means that there are numerous different beliefs that are only tangentially related to each other, but are all grouped under the same header. For example "flying animals" would be a group like this since bugs, birds, and bats are only tangentially related to one another. There are National Salafists, National Islamists, Transnational Salafists, International Islamists, there are apolitical Salafists, etc. All of these groups have different goals, aspirations, and intentions. The issue is not with the fundamentals of Islam but with the use of Islam as a roadmap to achieve certain political goals that are problematic. All of this variety comes out of the tragedy of the colonial experience in which the Medieval Islamic Society, which never progressed naturally into the Modern Era, was shattered and each group (including non-fundamentalist groups as well) is trying to pick up the shards and create something new that could work.

Probably, the most famous and important group of Islamic Fundamentalists are the International Islamists. Groups like Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood are International Islamist organizations because their ideal is to create a unified international government based exclusively on Islamic Principles read in their way. The first modern Islamist was Sayyid Qutb (Oct. 9, 1906-August 29, 1966) who actively advocated for Islamic values to permeate government institutions. In his view Western values were corrupt and any government based on those values should be destroyed, especially in the Islamic World. He was executed for attempting to assassinate Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser after being a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and 1960s.