Fundamentalism Still

Leonardo Boff

30/07/2011

Opinión

^-A ⁺A

The calculated act of terror perpetrated in Norway by a 32 year old Norwegian extremist has brought up once again the question of fundamentalism. Western governments and the mass media have led world public opinion to associate fundamentalism and terrorism almost exclusively with radical sectors of Islam. Barack Obama, of the United States, and David Cameron, of the United Kingdom, promptly expressed solidarity with the government of Norway and reinforced the idea of dealing a mortal blow to terrorism, assuming that it was an act of Al Qaeda. Pre-judgement. This time it was a native, White, blue eyed, of a high standard of living, and a Christian, even though The New York Times portrayed him as a man «without qualities and easy to be forgotten.»

Besides strongly rejecting terrorism and fundamentalism, we must try to understand the reasons for this phenomenon. I have already dealt with the topic several times in this column, and published it as a book, Fundamentalism, Terrorism, Religion and Peace: challenge of the XXI century, (Fundamentalismo, Terrorismo, Religión y Paz: desafío del siglo XXI, Vozes, 2009.) There I mention, among other causes, the type of globalization that has prevailed from the beginning, a globalization that is fundamentally one of the economy, of the markets and of finance. Edgar Morin calls the present «the iron age of globalization.» It was not followed, as reality demanded, by an ethical and educational globalization - a political globalization, (a global government of the peoples,) . Let me explain: with globalization we inaugurated a new phase of the living Planet's history, and of humanity itself. We are leaving behind the narrow limits of regional cultures, with their identities and the figure of the nation-state, to go deeper into the process of a collective history of the human species, with a common destiny, linked to the destiny of life and, somehow, to the destiny of the Earth herself. Peoples were put in motion, communications put everything into contact with everything else, and, for various reasons, the multitudes began to circulate around the world.

This was not a prepared transition, because a confrontation prevailed between two forms of organizing society: state socialism of the Soviet Union and Western liberal capitalism. Everyone had to be aligned with one of these alternatives. When the Soviet Union was dismantled, no multipolar world appeared. Rather, the United States predominated as the major economic-military world power, that began to exert an imperial force, obligating everyone to align with its global interests. More than globalization in a wider sense, a sort of Westernization of the world came about. It functioned as a compressor that rolled over respectable cultural traditions. This was aggravated by the typical Western arrogance of thinking that they were the carriers of the best in culture, the best science, the best religion, the best forms of producing and of governing.

This global uniformity generated strong resistance, bitterness and anger in many peoples, who saw their identities and customs erode. In this type of situation, forces of identity normally appear. They allign themselves with the conservative sectors of their religions, which are the natural guardians of tradition. From there a fundamentalism originates that is characterized by the absolute value it affords its point of view. Those who affirm their identity as absolute are condemned to be intolerant with those who are different, to despise them and, at the outer limits, to eliminate them.

This phenomenon occurs all over the world. In the West, significant conservative groups feel their identity threatened by the penetration of non-European cultures, especially by Islamism. They reject multiculturalism and cultivate xenophobia. The Norwegian terrorist was convinced that the democratic struggle against the threat of foreigners in Europe was lost. So he undertook a desperate solution: a symbolic gesture of eliminating the multicultural «traitors.»

The response of the government and of the Norwegian people has been a wise one: they responded with flowers and with the affirmation of more democracy, this is to say, of more good fellowship, with its differences, more tolerance, more hospitality and more solidarity. This is the path that guarantees human globalization, where it will be more difficult for such tragedy to happen again.

- Leonardo Boff, Theologian and Earthcharter Commission

07-29-2011

Free translation from the Spanish by Servicios Koinonia, done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/151625