This is evidenced in the Zionist fundamentalism that came to the fore after the Yom Kippur War of 1973, when Israelis felt acutely vulnerable. Again, a fear of annihilation led to a religious riposte. Zionism had for the most part been a defiantly secular movement, but after the shock of the war, many young religious Zionists felt that the old ideology had failed. They developed a strongly messianic ideology, which looked forward to an imminent messianic redemption, provided that Jews retained their promised land. Those who inhabit settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip believe that they are fulfilling the ancient prophecies and will hasten the redemption of the whole world. They must not, therefore, heed UN declarations or proposals to cede land in return for peace. A few Zionists have resorted to extremism. In 1979, some plotted to blow up the Dome of the Rock, which is believed to occupy the site of Solomon’s temple, in order to halt the Camp David talks and to hasten the advent of the Messiah. Yigal Amir, who assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, emerged from these circles.

Fundamentalism as Modernity

Fundamentalism is frequently regarded with disdain, and its methods are indeed often nihilistic and abhorrent. However, fundamentalism is inextricably tied to the modern world, and, rather than being merely a temporary aberration, it is here to stay. Fundamentalist movements may hearken back to a Golden Age, but they are essentially modern and could have taken root in no time other than the present. Christian fundamentalists may claim to be reading the Bible in a traditional way, but their literalist approach is essentially the product of the scientific age. In the premodern world, Jews, Christians, and Muslims all relished highly allegorical readings of Scripture, which, as the Word of God, was infinite and capable of multiple interpretations. Until the invention of printing made it possible for every Christian to have his or her own Bible and until universal literacy made it possible for them to read it, nobody could subject the Bible to the close and detailed reading employed by fundamentalists today.

Indeed, all fundamentalisms grow in a symbiotic relationship with the secularism against which they react. For example, the secularist and socialist forebears of ultra-Orthodox Jews, such as David Ben Gurion, have profoundly shaped the ideology of the religious Zionists. In the same way, Sayyid Qutb was in many ways a man of the 1960s—his fundamentalism amounted to a Muslim liberation theology— while Ayatollah Khomeini was a typical 1970s Third World politician. These are not conventional movements, but highly innovative ones. Khomeini’s revolutionary exegesis overturned centuries of the most sacred Shi’a traditions, and was as shocking for Muslims as the prospect of the Pope abolishing the Mass would be for Catholics.

Since the emancipation of women has been one of the most prominent hallmarks of modernity, fundamentalists in all traditions tend to overemphasize women’s traditional, secondary role. But in doing so, they sometimes reveal the darker sides of modernity. Some Muslim women have used the custom of veiling as a way of critiquing Western sexual mores; the woman who covers herself challenges the curious Western tendency to “reveal all” in sexual matters. In the West, people often fl aunt their tanned, well-exercised, and expensively fed bodies as a mark of privilege; they choose their clothes to express their individuality. Veiled women, who dress alike, stress the values of equality and community instead. The adoption of the veil does not always mean that women have conservative views on gender roles, but it is often a tacit assertion that one does not have to look Western in order to be modern. Islamic dress helps some women in successfully making the rite of passage to the modern world. In Egypt, for example, many of the women who attend university are the first members of their family to advance beyond basic literacy and come from villages that are still feudal in character. Traditional dress can provide them with much-needed continuity while they make their adjustment to modern urban living.

People have always used religion as a means of adapting to the modern ethos. Very few of the American colonists who fought against Britain could understand John Locke, nor could they endorse the Enlightenment ideology of the Founding Fathers of the United States, which many regarded as blasphemous. Most were Calvinists, and they developed a Calvinist revolutionary rhetoric that enabled them to fight alongside the followers of Thomas Paine. Religion enabled them to contemplate some of the alien ideas of modernity in a familiar setting. Today some fundamentalist movements are also modernizing in this way. In Iran, for example, an ideal of Shi’a democracy has emerged that is more congenial than its Western secular form, which was badly tarnished by US support of the Shah who had denied his people basic human rights. There is still a fundamentalist backlash, but while most Iranians do not want Western-style secularism, they have experienced and moved beyond fundamentalism and are ready for the next stage.

Others have moved beyond fundamentalism in a less productive way. A form of post-fundamentalism is emerging, fuelled less by fear than by rage. In the United States, some groups regard Jerry Falwell’s fundamentalism as feeble. The Reconstructionists have devised a form of Christian fascism, which looks forward to God’s imminent destruction of the US federal government in Washington, DC. The Christian Identity network has also gone beyond Christian fundamentalism. They are also preparing for an apocalypse, and are in training for the battle of the end time. Some venture out of their communities in the wilderness of Montana to undertake raids against the US establishment, especially targeting doctors and nurses who work in abortion clinics. In the Islamic world, bin Laden may be a disciple of Qutb, but he has abandoned Qutb’s cautious, gradualist approach. Muhammad Atta and the other hijackers of September 11, 2001, seem to be in a different league altogether. They drank alcohol and frequented nightclubs, which are hated symbols of modernity to more traditional fundamentalists. It is as though they have gone through religion to the nihilism at the heart of some of the more desperate fundamentalist visions.