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Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism: Spotlight on Strategies and Approaches VOLUME 5 EDITION 9 SPRING 2012 ISSN 1756-7335 TERRORISM AND COUNTER-TERRORISM: SPOTLIGHT ON STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES volume 5 edition 9 spring 2012 arches quarterly 1 Arches Quarterly is published by Westgate House, Level 7, Westgate Road, Ealing, London W5 1YY Tel 020 8991 3372 / Fax 020 8991 3373 [email protected] / www.thecordobafoundation.com Submissions of articles and reports for Arches Quarterly should be made by e-mail, in Word format, to the editors: [email protected] DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in Arches Quarterly are those of the individual authors and should not be taken to represent a corporate view of The Cordoba Foundation. © The Cordoba Foundation UK 2012 THIS ISSUE Volume 5 Edition 9 Spring 2012 ISSN 1756-7335 Available online: thecordobafoundation.com Anas Altikriti Chief Executive Abdullah Faliq Editor Editorial Team: Amjad Mohamed-Saleem Ibrahim Hewitt S. Alam Arzoo Ahmed H.D. Foreman Dr Basia Spalek Kathleen Grant Amina Easat Mehrunisha Suleman A.S. Khan Art Editor 2 arches quarterly volume 5 edition 9 spring 2012 Fundamentalists vs. Moderates: The War Within Judaism RABBI MARK L. WINER he world’s most threatening the possibility of “value-free” behavioural “clash of civilisations” pits science. My analysis of the confl ict Tfundamentalists against moderates between fundamentalists and moderates within every religion. Although political within Judaism should not be considered scientist Samuel Huntington1 coined the non-partisan. I am a congenital and phrase “clash of civilisations” to stimulate unequivocal religious moderate. Indeed, debate about the pernicious divisions I became a rabbi and later a sociologist to among world regions and cultures, my “heal the world” of its interfaith bigotry. experience is that the most destructive Th roughout my life as a Jew, throughout division lies between fundamentalists and my career as a rabbi, I have combated moderates in every religion, and between Jewish fundamentalists and I have always fundamentalists and moderates among rejoiced in my kinship with religious humanity as a whole. Within the half of moderates of all traditions. We have humanity which identifi es with Judaism, studied together, and “exchanged notes”, Christianity and Islam – the Abrahamic in our common cause. religious family – what affl icts one sibling Within every population, roughly often infects the others, just as in a 15-20% display deeply ingrained biological family. fundamentalist, authoritarian attitudes. In accepting the challenge from Arches Behavioural science studies fi nd to write this article, I initially intended fundamentalists exhibiting prejudice and to do a comparative sociological study of articulating stereotypes even for fi ctional fundamentalism and moderate responses groups, like Lilliputians. On the other end to fundamentalism within all three of the of the spectrum, a similar percentage of Abrahamic faiths. As I am a born Jew and every population display moderate, liberal rabbi, I began my research within Judaism. attitudes. Th ose between the poles of I quickly realised that I could not, within fundamentalism and moderation within the reasonable word limitations of this every population, tend to conform to article, accomplish more than provide what they perceive as socially acceptable a review of this confl ict within Judaism positions and mores. Th is tripartite division alone. of every population explains the presence My Muslim and Christian cousins of fundamentalists within each group. within our Abrahamic family will fi nd, It also helps us understand how social I hope, in my analysis of the “clash of change can occur in positive as well as in civilisations” within Judaism instructive negative directions. Moderation triumphs parallels in their own traditions. Th e over fundamentalism, mutual respect over future of humanity may well depend bigotry, when the moderates manage to on the ability of moderates within each persuade the “conformist” middle to give religion to overcome their fundamentalist up their bigoted mores. Examples include co-religionists. Even more, moderates the American South over the last half across the religious boundaries need to join century, the unifi cation of Europe, and in “sacred coalition” against the scourge the transformation of South Africa. So, of fundamentalism which threatens despite widespread fundamentalism and humanity. prejudice, there is reason for hope among As a sociologist, I have never believed in moderates. volume 5 edition 9 spring 2012 arches quarterly 3 Fundamentalists possess an ability to spawns interfaith bigotry and sanctions attract media attention disproportionate violence, war and terrorism. Within the to their numbers or percentage of any Twentieth Century, more people died given population. Because they are so in the name of religion than in all of certain of the correctness of their cause, history before. I fear that the Twenty First they both focus clearly and project an Century may even eclipse the grisly record unequivocal vision. By virtue of their for interfaith bigotry and terrorism of the moderation, progressives see nuance and previous century. So much depends upon our understanding of the eternal confl ict When religious between fundamentalism and moderation, and upon the strategies we religious moderates, across moderates devise together to combat our religious boundaries, common scourge. Th ere are four types of Jewish work together in fundamentalism in our day:4 interfaith coalitions 1. Some secular Zionists turn the against fundamentalists state and people into transcendent objects. Th ey rely mostly on the of all faiths, we labour to Hebrew Bible to justify their claims, save humanity. ignoring rabbinic development.5 2. Extreme national chauvinism, most clearly represented by Meir Kahane are rarely certain of either their goals or and his followers, include racists of their programmes. Fundamentalists, who have the least precedence precisely because they are so single- in Jewish tradition. Israel has minded, easily “hijack” groups, nations, outlawed them, and blocked their or entire populations. Within the Jewish representation in the Knesset, the world, the West Bank settler movement Israeli parliament. Despite their has never attracted more than a minority. illegal status, the racist extreme But their single-mindedness and focus national chauvinist element is a have enabled them to “hijack” Israeli growing element in Israeli society. society into acquiescing or at least 3. Ultra-Orthodoxy projects itself as tolerating their programme. Although a quietist form of fundamentalism cursory reading of popular media suggests that believes it is necessary to do that fundamentalists comprise a major whatever it can to protect its way of segment among Jews, the fundamentalist life. Despite their outward displays fringe is less than 10% of worldwide of piety, Ultra-Orthodox elements Jewish population.2 Every religious and often exhibit extreme violence. ethnic group has experienced similar kinds 4. Mystical messianism is an activist of “hijacking” by tiny fundamentalist form of Zionism in which it is a minorities. sacred mission to bring the messiah Th e future of each of our faith traditions into the world using utopian- depends upon how the confl ict between political action. fundamentalists and moderates resolves. So when we confront our co-religionist What unifi es these diverse groups is a fundamentalists, we do so to preserve what single truth model of the world in which a we view as the integrity of our own faith. transcendent utopian response to modern When religious moderates, across religious circumstances expresses itself in a certainty boundaries, work together in interfaith that translates into intolerant forms of coalitions against fundamentalists of all political action. Th ough they may be able faiths, we labour to save humanity.3 to trace an unbroken line of transmission Fundamentalism, it would appear, that emphasizes a tradition of exclusivity, 4 arches quarterly volume 5 edition 9 spring 2012 FUNDAMENTALISTS VS. MODERATES: THE WAR WITHIN JUDAISM they ignore a counter-tradition that refutes community.10 Hence a tradition of intra- exclusivity and a single truth model of the religious intolerance has developed. world. Within the community, prohibitions In this article, some of the socio- against independent thinking were historical reasons and the textual common in post-talmudic times.11 justifi cations for Jewish fundamentalism Maimonides (1135-1204), one of the will be presented. Th en counter texts and greatest scholars of Judaism, writing in traditions will be considered. However, it Hebrew, provided a clear foundation for should be noted that fundamentalist anti- these prohibitions in his Mishneh Torah.12 rationalism makes it impossible to alter the Writing in Arabic for a more acculturated thinking of these individuals. Th erefore audience, Maimonides in his Guide to the other strategies need to be developed to Perplexed, teaches a much more pluralistic address the problem of fundamentalism. and rationalist philosophy.13 Fundamentalism is defi ned as a response However, the exclusivist trend can be to modern secular society even though it seen as early as the Mishnah (circa 200 may have roots in the past.6 In Judaism, CE), a central text of Judaism used to there are two recent historical events that generate law. Th e classic example appears serve to shape Jewish fundamentalism: in Mishnah Bava Qamma 4:3, in which one is the Holocaust;
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