Puritanical Approaches to Islam and Anti-Muslim Sentiments Adis Duderija In recent years, anti-Muslim sentiment has witnessed a worrying rise across various parts of the world. While it is essential to acknowledge that multiple factors contribute to this phenomenon, we cannot overlook the role played by puritanical, socially conservative, and politically reactionary approaches to Islam in this respect. These approaches, often characterized by a narrow and heavily textualist interpretation of religious texts, can lead to the promotion of divisive ideologies and practices that exacerbate anti-Muslim sentiment. Furthermore, the counterproductive nature of essentializing the Other compounds the problem by perpetuating stereotypes and reinforcing divisions between different cultures and religions. In this article I aim to explore the detrimental effects of such approaches by examining specific examples, including the promotion of exclusivism, gender
The Role of Religious Text Interpretation and Passive Fundamentalism in Shaping Worldviews: Exploring the Connection to Religious Violence
The Role of Religious Text Interpretation in Shaping Worldviews: Exploring the Connection to Religious Violence Adis Duderija THIS ESSAY IS BASED ON AN ACADEMIC JOURNAL ARTICLE I PUBLISHED FEW YEARS AGO THAT CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE- https://www.academia.edu/40255445/Mainstream_Sunnism_Islamic_Extremism_and_progressive_Islam The recent Sydney church stabbing has again propelled nation-wide discussions surrounding the relationship between religion/Islam and violence. The relationship between religion and violence has been extensively studied by scholars, who have examined how certain interpretations of sacred texts can lead to worldviews that justify religiously motivated violence. In this essay I want to explore how the work of scholars R.W. Hood Jr., P.C. Hill, and W.P. Williamson on psychology of religious fundamentalism and that of Douglas Pratt ,who has developed a nuanced model of how passive fundamentalism can morph into violent extremism, can help u