Religious Radicalism and Politics in the Middle East

Abstract

The editors of this book seek to explain to the reader the complex reasons for the undeniable phenomenon of religious radicalism in the contemporary Middle East. According to Sivan, the starting point of such an undertaking is the recognition that religious radicalism encompasses both thought and action and that it entails the "rejection" of all other nonindigenous values and cultures. Faced with the challenges of modernity, the religious radicals' response has been "excessive or "extremist" (terms which are used interchangeably throughout the book with "radical"). The editors have employed a comparative method, a six other (also Israeli) scholars were asked to join them in studying specific Islamic and Jewish movements which featured some form of radicalism. They chose these two religion because, in their opinion, they both share a basic affinity (i.e., the desire to shape human behavior) and, less convincingly, because they wanted to preserve the 'unity of space," meaning the Middle East. One should not forget, however, that there are al o radical Christian group in the area. The major Islamic groups studied are the pro-Iranian Gaza-based Jihad the Shi'i opposition in Iraq and Iranian pilgrims, whom they call "Khomeini' Me enger ." The Jewish groups studied are Gush Emunim, Neturei Karta, and the late Meir Kahane's Kach party. While the editors acknowledge the difficulty of proposing a comparative framework for the analysis of religious extremism, they do suggest some outlines. The main thesis is that the esential impulse shared by all movements described here might be termed, following aid A. Arjomand, 'revolutionary traditionalism'; that is, a political radicalism born out of a religious tradition, which transcends that tradition in an attempt to preserve its authenticity in the face of contemporary challenges." Every extremist movement has revived a "myth' from its tradition which ha then served as a guiding principl for its struggle of preservation against the forces of modernity. For example, the attitude of the Neturei Karta and the Gush Emunim toward the state of Israel come from their interpretation of the tradition concerning redemption ...