BOB ABERNETHY: The power of the Taliban in Afghanistan is one sign of the growing influence of ultra-orthodox religious movements in the world. In elections in India this week, Hindu nationalists won, not a majority, but the largest block of votes. In Israel, the ultra-orthodox parties are vital to the government's coalition, and Islamic fundamentalist are in opposition to the governments, not only in Afghanistan but also in Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, and Algeria. Scott Appleby, a professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, is one of this country's leading experts on fundamentalism.Dr. Appleby, what's the common denominator? What is fundamentalist?
Professor R. SCOTT APPLEBY (University of Notre Dame): A fundamentalist is someone who is very familiar with the modern world, with technology, with engineering, but who is angry at the way it's developed, leaving God out of the picture. Religious law, traditional values, has been the mistake, in their minds, and so they're fighting back in various ways to create new alternative ways of organizing society around traditional religious values.
ABERNETHY: Why is fundamentalism on the rise in so many countries?
Prof. APPLEBY: Well, because so many different kinds of beliefs and philosophies, like nationalism or communism or forms of capitalism, have failed. They haven't delivered the goods. People are still mired in poverty. There's inequality, gross injustice, human rights violations. So the reasoning is, if we return to what is ours, our Islamic values, our Jewish values, our Hindu traditions, the door to progress and justice will be open.ABERNETHY: But it's also used, isn't it, by people who want to get or keep power, and primarily for that reason, and used as a way to buttress the political side.
Prof. APPLEBY: Sure. Many of the leaders of these movements are concerned primarily with political power. And so they stand between the true believers, the rank and file, who have different motivations and who in a sense are closer to the actual religious practices. The leaders look at the interest of those people, but they also have their eye on the larger political situation and their own aggrandizement.
ABERNETHY: And in some places, they take a very narrow interpretation of the religious tradition, don't they?
Prof. APPLEBY: Yes, they do. That's the case certainly in Afghanistan, where the Taliban are trying to impose a very strict, rigid, and narrow version of the Islamic law.
ABERNETHY: Why are people so concerned about the possibility that the Hindu nationalists in India will form a government?
Prof. APPLEBY: Well, this notion of separating the religious from public concerns and not institutionalizing it by the law or through the Constitution has led to corruption, decadence, high rates of divorce, abortion -- a whole list of moral ills that various fundamentalists around the world will claim are due to America's secularism.
ABERNETHY: Yes. Back to this cultural thing, you used a phrase in a conversation that we had some time ago, west -- what was it? "Westoxication"?
