Books, Arts & Manners: Islamic Fundamentalism Revisited

THE largest collection of Moslems in the world is in Indonesia, 155.7 million. The second largest is in Pakistan, 110.6 million. The third is in India, 92.8 million. The fourth is in Bangladesh, 77.9 million. The fifth is in Turkey, 55.9 million. Though Islamic fundamentalism has appeared as far afield as Sumatra and Jersey City, the phenomenon the phrase denotes is a political movement centered in the Middle East, and hence among a minority of the world’s Moslems.

You wouldn’t guess this, to read recent conservative polemics. As if to justify the slanders of our enemies that we wouldn’t know what todoifwe didn’t have Lenin to kick around any more, some conservatives—William F. Buckley Jr., Eric Breindel—have been warning of the menace of Islamic fundamentalism. There is a menace, and we can call it “Islamic fundamentalism” if we like, so long as we use the term in a precise and limited way. But the world of Islam, and of the fundamentalist forces within it, is big. This struck me most recently when I visited Konya, the center of piety in Turkey.

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

THE largest collection of Moslems in the world is in Indonesia, 155.7 million. The second largest is in Pakistan, 110.6 million. The third is in India, 92.8 million. The fourth is in Bangladesh, 77.9 million. The fifth is in Turkey, 55.9 million. Though Islamic fundamentalism has appeared as far afield as Sumatra and Jersey City, the phenomenon the phrase denotes is a political movement centered in the Middle East, and hence among a minority of the world’s Moslems.

You wouldn’t guess this, to read recent conservative polemics. As if to justify the slanders of our enemies that we wouldn’t know what todoifwe didn’t have Lenin to kick around any more, some conservatives—William F. Buckley Jr., Eric Breindel—have been warning of the menace of Islamic fundamentalism. There is a menace, and we can call it “Islamic fundamentalism” if we like, so long as we use the term in a precise and limited way. But the world of Islam, and of the fundamentalist forces within it, is big. This struck me most recently when I visited Konya, the center of piety in Turkey.