Religious fundamentalism refers to any religious movement that tries to escape or rectify moral decline (caused by modernity) and wants to establish an ethical system based on the sacred principles. The most famous, influential, and researched are protestant religious fundamentalism in the US and Islamic fundamentalism.  

Religious fundamentalism in American Protestantism arose at the beginning of the 20th century, as a reaction to liberal protestant teachings. The first wave of protestant fundamentalism fought against communism and the teaching of the theory of evolution, and strongly promoted the temperance movement. Fundamentalists succeeded in banning the teaching of the theory of evolution in some US states and prohibiting the sale of alcoholic drinks with the introduction of the Eighteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. This first wave of fundamentalism ended in the 1920s with the Scopes trial.

The second wave of protestant fundamentalism in the US started with the formation of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in 1942. The evangelical movement in the USA consists of a grouping of numerus Protestant churches that share a specific theology and ideology. The most important and influential part of the evangelical movement in the US is white conservative evangelicals, who almost exclusively vote for Republican politicians and have very conservative political and social views. This population of evangelicals makes up about 20 percent of the US population, and nearly half of the Republican Party voters.

Half of the Protestants in America (Protestants make up about 43% of the total American population) belong to the evangelical (conservative and fundamental wing), while the other half are those who belong to ideologically liberal churches. Today's evangelists are a historical product of religious and political conservatism (fundamentalism) in the USA, which has set itself up as a clear counterweight to liberalism and secularism. Although evangelicals today constantly refer to the American Constitution and the Founding Fathers, it is very clear that most of the creators of the American Constitution wanted to build a state based on the individual freedom of each individual and the separation of the state from religion. In contrast, religious fundamentalists wanted America to become a "Christian nation," and to impose severe restrictions on individual freedoms. In the 1960s and 1970s, American conservative preachers, most notably Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell Sr., created a network of churches, theological universities, media, and political organizations to spread evangelical theology and conservative ideology.

The theological basis of the evangelical movement is based on four key beliefs: 1) doctrine of “born again” - evangelists should experience rebirth by actively accepting biblical teaching and Christian salvation; 2) the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible - the entire Old and New Testament should be understood literally, as the infallible word of God; 3) salvation in repentance and the New Coming of Jesus Christ to earth; 4) evangelism – actively spreading and preaching the word of God. The main ideological and political goals of evangelists are: banning abortion; limitation of sexual freedoms only to heterosexual relationships, exclusively in marriage; absolute support for free-market capitalism and strong opposition to any form of social assistance, labor unionism and workers' rights, or any form of government intervention in the economy; support for family values ​​- prohibition of divorce, prohibition of prostitution, prohibition of pornography, opposition to feminism and gender equality, etc.; absolute support for the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, which (as they interpret) guarantees the unlimited right of every American citizen to own a firearm; opposition to environmental initiatives and support for the unlimited exploitation of fossil fuels. Apart from these ideological goals, which they publicly and openly advocate, the vast majority of evangelicals (especially whites) also exhibit racist, Islamophobic, and xenophobic attitudes and behavior.

With Ronald Reagan becoming the President of the USA, a permanent fusion of the ideas and goals of evangelists and the Republican Party followed. The political influence that evangelicals have in the Republican Party is enormous, and it goes beyond demographic representation in its voting body, and is evident in almost every decision and legislation that Republican politicians pass.

Political Islam or Islamism as it is called often is best defined as „a form of instrumentalization of Islam by individuals, groups and organizations that pursue political objectives ....by imagining a future, the foundations for which rest on reappropriated, reinvented concepts borrowed from the Islamic tradition,, (Ayoob, 2011: 2). In the essence this is non-historical vision of ironclad, united and never changing Islam. The decline of the Islamic world was caused, in the eyes of Islamists, by divergence from this traditional form of Islam, so the answer is a call for a return to this pure Islam, by political means.

The second type of response was provided in the 18th and 19th centuries by traditionalists in the territory of present-day Saudi Arabia. That response is now known as Wahhabi and Salafist tradition. The creators of these two related traditions, which are now widespread and very influential in Saudi Arabia and some other countries, were Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792), Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-1898), Muhamad Abudh (1849-1905), and Rashid Rida (1865-1935). They rejected the customary laws and maraboutizam (belief in the power of intervention of people blessed with divine charisma), as well as the cooperation with members of other religions. They also rejected the traditional schools of fiqh and their canons – taqlid. They were supporters of ijtihad - the right of individual interpretation of the Koran and the sunna. Regardless of previous comments, they opposed the philosophical and mystical teachings of Sufis, and the dominance of the Ulamā. They championed reform by the total return of the traditional order that existed during the Prophet Muhammad. This tradition had its roots in the Ulamā. They believed that the role of government should not be limited only to the implementation of sharia, and that political action had to focus on the unification of the community of believers under the guidance of a true Caliph - the Ottoman sultan was seen as the false caliph.

Two other branches of political Islam appeared simultaneously in Egypt and Pakistan. In Egypt, Hasan al-Banna (1906-1949) and Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) created the Muslim Brotherhood movement in 1928, which then spread across North Africa and the Levant; while in Pakistan, Abul Ala Maududi (1914-1999) and Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (1914-1999) created Jamaat-e-Islami movement in 1941. While both movements were created independently from each other, they share many similarities. This branch of Islamism accepts Salafist theology: „they preach a return to the Koran, the Sunna, and sharia” and rejects the religious tradition of the four legal schools of Taqlid and Sufism and are advocating for the right of ijtihad. But what separates them from Salafi fundamentalism is their relationship to the political revolution, sharia, and the status of women. They are critical of the rulers and the Ulamā, and reject the bureaucratic clergy and the clerical state. This branch of Islamism puts political and social problems into focus. They want to apply Islamic ideals to modern society. For them, Islam represents more than a simple application of the sharia - it is a comprehensive ideology that must first transform the society through the implementation of social and economic justice. The Islamic nature of the state is more important than implementing a strict Sharia. Islamists also advocate the right of women to be educated and to participate in social and political life. Although women are allowed more freedom, they are still expected to adhere to strict rules of dress code and behavior, which are determined by the Koran. The Islamists are totally opposed to any segmentation within Islam by social, ethnic or national lines. Political leadership should be left to the amir - charismatic individual who is characterized by truth, justice, purity, and wisdom. When this individual appears, he is to become a religious and political leader, as well as the leader of the revolution, and to take the lead of the country after the revolution. This leader should be supported by an advisory body - shura. While Mawdudi preached for gradual overtaking of the political arena and military by the Islamist movement, Qutb, in his 1964 book Milestones, called for open jihad on what he called Jahiliyyah – country of unbelievers –  meaning war against all half Muslims and unbelievers until the whole world would come under the rule of true Islam. Popular quote of Hassan al Banna is: „Allah is our Lord, Mohammed is our Leader, The Koran is our constitution, Jihad is our way, martyrdom is our desire”.

Similar political and religious views were represented by the Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran, but they preached in the Shiite Islamic tradition. Shiites are waiting for the return of the Imam (the true successor of Muhammad) as a Messianic figure Mahdi. Until then, the supreme religious and political authority should reside with Ayatollah Uzma - Supreme Ayatollah. Khomeini, who was a mujtahid - an expert in Islamic law- advocated a theocratic form of government in which the religious leaders hold supreme power. He advocated for a strict implementation of sharia, and shared with the Islamists a commitment to the implementation of economic justice and the position that women shouldn’t be prevented from engaging in public matters.

Ḥizb at-Taḥrīr (Party of Liberation) is the most prominent organization of the new wave of fundamentalism, sometimes called Salafi jihadism. It is an international pan-Islamic political organization founded by Taqiuddin al-Nabhani in 1953 in Jerusalem. Today, Hizb ut-Tahrir is present in more than 50 countries and has about one million members. They are commonly associated with the goal of unification of all Muslim countries in an Islamic state or caliphate ruled by the Islamic law (sharia) and with a caliph head of state elected by Muslims. The party promotes a reinstatement of a caliphate that would establish sharia and destroy enemies of Islam. Hizb ut-Tahrir calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.

Most notorious and dangerous Islamist organizations other than aforementioned ones are: Jemaah Islamiah, founded in 1993 in Malaysia, and fighting for establishment of regional Islamic caliphate in Southeast Asia; Abu Sayyaf, founded in 1991 in Philippines and struggling for independent Islamic province in Philippines; Islamic Salvation Front was an Islamist political party in Algeria with the primary goal of establishing an Islamic state ruled by sharia law; Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) is a Salafi jihadi military group whose leader proclaimed himself for a caliph, and which was controlling parts of Iraq and Syria in mid 2015; Al-Qaeda is a big terrorist network that calls for global jihad.

References:

Ammerman.Bible Believers: Fundamentalists in the Modern World (1987);

     -     Baptist Battles: Social Change and Religious Conflict in the Southern Baptist Convention (1990);

Beck. World at Risk (2009);