Muslim Fundamentalism: Psychological Orientations and Counter-Narratives

The current study attempted to formulate a conceptualization of Muslim fundamentalism as well as its counter-narratives as grounded in religious experience of Pakistani Muslims. Open ended interviews were conducted with 133 Pakistani Muslim men and women of prominent local religious affiliations. Analysis revealed a grounded theory model of Muslim fundamentalism highlighting cognitive, and social psychological processes involved. Participants saw their religion as a complete code of conduct and inferred various meanings from completeness of Islam as finalized, closed to inquiry as well as rejecting of other cultures and religious traditions. The major inter-related themes of the model were totalitarianism, closed mindedness, binary thinking, hyper-exotericism, ambiguity intolerance, authoritarianism, punitive approach, violent tendencies, labelling, diversity intolerance and paranoia or threat perceiving attitude. The interplay of these factors is discussed in the light of earlier research on fundamentalism. The research also revealed strong counter narratives to fundamentalist stance which formulated the major themes of esoteric religiosity, open mindedness, pluralism, and Islam and civil society. The study carries implications for religious education of Muslims and their socialization with believers of other religious traditions.