Religious Radicalism and Politics in the Middle East By Emmanuel Sivan and Menachem Friedman (eds.). Albany: State University of New York, 1990, 244 pp.

Abstract

The editors of this book seek to explain to the reader the complex reasons
for the undeniable phenomenon of religious radicalism in the contemporary
Middle East. According to Sivan, the starting point of such an undertaking
is the recognition that religious radicalism encompasses both thought and
action and that it entails the "rejection" of all other nonindigenous values
and cultures. Faced with the challenges of modernity, the religious radicals'
response has been "excessive or "extremist" (terms which are used
interchangeably throughout the book with "radical").
The editors have employed a comparative method, a six other (also
Israeli) scholars were asked to join them in studying specific Islamic and
Jewish movements which featured some form of radicalism. They chose these
two religion because, in their opinion, they both share a basic affinity (i.e.,
the desire to shape human behavior) and, less convincingly, because they
wanted to preserve the 'unity of space," meaning the Middle East. One should
not forget, however, that there are al o radical Christian group in the area.
The major Islamic groups studied are the pro-Iranian Gaza-based Jihad the
Shi'i opposition in Iraq and Iranian pilgrims, whom they call "Khomeini'
Me enger ." The Jewish groups studied are Gush Emunim, Neturei Karta,
and the late Meir Kahane's Kach party.
While the editors acknowledge the difficulty of proposing a comparative
framework for the analysis of religious extremism, they do suggest some
outlines. The main thesis is that the esential impulse shared by all movements
described here might be termed, following aid A. Arjomand, 'revolutionary
traditionalism'; that is, a political radicalism born out of a religious tradition,
which transcends that tradition in an attempt to preserve its authenticity in
the face of contemporary challenges." Every extremist movement has revived
a "myth' from its tradition which ha then served as a guiding principl for
its struggle of preservation against the forces of modernity. For example,
the attitude of the Neturei Karta and the Gush Emunim toward the state
of Israel come from their interpretation of the tradition concerning redemption ...