World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 407

undue focus on non-western cultures in general and Islamic religion in particular. It is noted that there is an inherent attempt in this campaign to equate the Islam and the religious fundamentalism in unqualified terms. Thus the worldwide war against Islamic terrorism is projected to be a 'war for world peace'. Asian countries are specifically being portrayed as the breeding ground for fundamentalist groups. Instead of targeting particular faith, it would serve a great purpose if this instance is taken to debate, on the various aspects of religion as such being a generating force of human action, in a greater depth and wide.
Despite the derogatory sense of the terms like fundamentalism, revivalism, terrorism, it has become an admitted fact that there is an unprecedented increase in religious/spiritual phenomena world over since the third quarter of twentieth century, especially when it is compared to the postenlightenment experience of the west. It may be a fact that the recent spate of political violence has an ambit of religious cause. The growing influence of the so-called religious fundamentalism and terrorism in the contemporary world affairs is posited to be the single most threat that humanity faces. Here it may be pertinent to ask whether the political violence perpetrated at the behest of religion has got any theological ground or it is being used for carrying out some non-theological goals. Does religion really need to become political? Violence being a political means for the acquisition of power, why there should be a theological/spiritual justification for coalescing of religion and politics? Does it amount to say that the questions of religion are inherently political and social in nature? Whatever it is, the unprecedented violence carried out in the name of religious freedom or justice is worthy of getting serious attention to ponder about how religious-fact becomes an influential force of action in the life of people and their societal affairs.
In opposition to the case of the contemporary wave of Islamic resurgence, there are divergent ways of explanation from within the Muslim community or religion itself. The interpretation of Islam as essentially a political religion has been challenged on political as well as theological grounds. It is shunned as being instrumentalising religion for the perpetuation of power motivation which has nothing to do with the divine logic of religious spirituality. As the argument goes, if the militancy is done in the name of religion, it is nothing but a case of making religion as an ideological coverage for the pursuit of mundane causes. Nevertheless it is being a case of aberration of Islam or religion per se, it is nothing but the scripture and its ideals that are invoked by the so-called terrorists to justify their actions. And it is by going back to the scriptural sources themselves that the opponents within the religion want to defend it against the extremism. The dispute on the justification of resurgence of Islamic militancy is not the focus of present concern. Instead, it wants to raise a question that whether it is possible to construe the sense of the perceived phenomenon of 'return of religion' only in view of
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