Secular Fundamentalism:
A Bibliography
[December 2000]
Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq
Associate Professor of Economics and Finance
Upper Iowa University
Dear Shetubondhon Friends,
Salam and greetings.
As a followup to my earlier post about secular fundamentalism, let me emphasize that (a) there is a BIG and genuine difference between secularism and secular fundamentalism, and (b) that Islam and Secularism have some important and POSITIVE talking points. It is important that our discussion goes in that direction and to that level that recognize the difference and deal with those talking points.. However, there are a good number of pertinent and important inaccuracy and unfounded claims that I have decided to deal with first. I intend to identify and discuss those talking points in another segment.
What I wrote in regard to Secular Fundamentalism as a real phenomena should have been adequate. But if anyone thinks that the homework behind it was inadequate, I took a closer look. From my (re)search - primarily for my own education and due diligence - I have culled relevant and pertinent information in the form of a bibliography, which I have added to my personal homepage. You can access the bibliography at [Link].
The bibliography contains 35+ citations from highly academic and authoritative to journalistic sources that have either discussed, dealt with, or referred to Secular Fundamentalism. NOT IN ONE of those citations Secular Fundamentalism has been treated or characterized as anything similar to an oxymoron. Rather, it has been treated or used as a REAL, VALID, and MEANINGFUL phenomenon. In most cases, this terminology is used in contrast to religious fundamentalism and in a disapproving sense.
The bibliography contains citation from respectable sources as following:
British Journal of Sociology of Education
Columbia Law Review
Journal of Law and Religion
Michigan Law Review
Yale Law Journal
If these citations don't help put the oxymoronic issue in this context to rest, I would have no further comment on this, because I do not believe in "gair jore torko kora". I will mention here a few, selected citations.
1. 'Secular Fundamentalism', Paul Campose, Columbia Law Review 94, 1994, 1825. http://www.stms.f2s.com/footnotes4.htm
2. Dan Conkle, "Secular Fundamentalism", Journal of Law and Religion - Vol. 12, No. 2, at pp. 337-70, (1995-96)
Professor Dan Conkle is a professor of law at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is a recognized expert in constitutional law and theory. I had some personal communication with him to educate myself better. I specifically asked him if in his view Secular Fundamentalism as an expression or terminology can be an oxymoron. He wrote back that he did not think so and graciously offered to send a reprint of his paper published in the Journal of Law and Religion.
3. Peter Kelly; Christopher Hickey; Richard Tinning, "Educational truth telling in a more reflexive modernity", British Journal of Sociology of Education:, Vol. 21 No. 1; p. 111-122, 03/01/2000.
http://library.northernlight.com/AA20000426010004430.html?cb=0&sc=0#doc
4. "The Triumph of Autonomy in American Bioethics: A Sociological View" in Raymond DeVries and Janardan Subedi (eds.), Bioethics and Society: Sociological Investigations of the Enterprise of Bioethics, Prentice Hall, December 1997.The author, Paul Root Wolpe, Ph.D, is at the Center for Bioethics and Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania.
"What we are left with, Jonsen suggests, is a 'SECULAR FUNDAMENTALISM' of deeply held moral principles shorn of religious rationale."
http://health.upenn.edu/~bioethic/library/papers/paul/Triumph.html
5. Want a citation with Harvard connection? How about from the first president of the Harvard International Law Society?
Shaping the Future: Challenges and Responsibilities
Robert Crane
http://www.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/activity/m/mitmsa/www/NewSite/libstuff/crane/cover.htm
The author is founder and coordinator of the Center for Civilization Renewal. After earning a J.D. in comparative legal systems in 1959 from Harvard Law School and founding the Harvard International Law Journal as the first president of the Harvard International Law Society, he worked for a decade in Washington think-tanks. In 1962, he co-founded the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Read chapter 3; Segment 3 "Developing a New World Vision" in which he writes:
"The needed changes in strategy require first a change in informing vision to shape the future. One of the most unfortunate consequences of the growing conflict between the artificial nation-state in the making and the existing nation that may want to become a state, as well as of the rapidly growing conflict between the religious fundamentalism that expresses hostility toward the United States and the SECULAR FUNDAMENTALISM that American policymakers support as the only antidote, is the distortion in our perceptions of communal nationalism and of religious revival throughout much of Asia and Africa." http://www.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/activity/m/mitmsa/www/NewSite/libstuff/crane/chap3.htm
For the rest, please visit my personal homepage and see the entire bibliography. I hope that this homework puts to rest the issue of whether there is anything such as Secular Fundamentalism.WHAT IS SECULAR FUNDAMENTALISM?
From this research and study I have now better understanding of Secular Fundamentalism. Several common things that are identified with Secular Fundamentalism are similar to religious fundamentalism.
a. Secular Fundamentalism: "... deeply held moral principles shorn of religious rationale." (see ref. #4 above. It's just the reciprocal of the religious fundamentalism's attitude and perspective).
b. "Secular fundamentalism" leads to a preference for REPRESSEIVE and AUTHORITARIAN secular regimes over nonsecular and popular ones. (Once again, this is reciprocal, but similar to the cases with religious fundamentalism).
c. "secular fundamentalism," a modern secular perspective which views the mixing of religion and politics as necessarily abnormal, irrational, DANGEROUS, and EXTREMIST."
d. "The secular person, believing primarily in tolerance, has no difficulty dealing with the different belief systems surrounding him. The secular fundamentalist, however, insists on FORCING HIS PARTICULAR DOGMA ON THE REST OF THE SOCIETY."
I have a few additional remarks at the end of this writeup. It saddens me to see that we have so much of blind alleys of both dogmatism and intellectualism. (1) Earlier I mentioned that sometimes what we end up doing is "Gair jore torko kora". Characterizing "Secular Fundamentalism" as oxymoron is a good example of this. (2) I also mentioned that we should do our homework before making important statements, claiming for or against something, especially in a global or definitive sense. In this writeup, I have attempted to put this matter about whether "Secular Fundamentalism" is oxymoron or meaningful to rest. However, in doing so, I have decided not to refer to the original author, whose unfounded, but insistent claim engendered this discussion. Logic, rationality, and knowledge are our vital tool for human existence and quest, but intellectual arrogance and intransigence are not.
Best regards.
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