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I can definatley understand the mother's concern about her daughter leaving to a Muslim country. My own mother freaked out when I told her I was moving away to Utah. (The Mormon capital of the world, if you're unfamiliar.) She was afraid I'd be converted into a religion that was "weird and wrong." Nevermind the fact that I haven't been Christian for over ten years now, and that religious zealots annoy the hell outta me.

Now, I understand it's quite a different scenario with the case you are talking about. The Islamic worldview is quite different from the Christian worldview. (That's one of the major reasons the majority of each of those faiths dislikes the other, methinks.)

There are two kinds of Fundamentalism. The first kind is people who follow the teachings of the founders of the faith as much as possible. Using Mormonism as an example again, the first two prophets of the LDS Church preached very adamantly in favour of polygamy. In fact, it was said by Brigham Young, second President of the Church, that to get to the highest level of heaven, a man had to be a polygamist. Years later, when these teachings caused conflict with the US government, the LDS Church overturned these teachings and removed them from scripture.

This led to the second kind of Fundamentalism within our example of Mormonism... Joseph Smith, the founder of the religion taught that when needed, a prophet would be provided for the people. These prophets were said to commune directly with God, and teachings made by the prophets were supposed to be God's will. It was apparently God's will when he told his current prophet that the world wasn't ready for polygamy yet, and this teaching removed from the religion. Therefore, those who follow the current scripture as closely as possible could be another kind of Fundamentalist.

Applied to the example of Islam, the first kind of Fundamentalism might be seen where Muhammad followed the ideal of "converting by the sword." During his lifetime, after reclaiming Mecca and establishing the Muslim people as a strong military force in their day, many surrounding countries and people converted to Islam to keep their lifes intact. During the early middle ages, conquests were made through sections of Europe in an attempt to convert by the sword.

However, I've read sections of the Qu'ran that teach that adherants to the faith should treat everyone with respect and charity. If they don't deserve it, it's up to Allah to sort them out; it's not mankind's descision. In fact, I haven't seen anywhere in the Qu'ran that teaches that people should "convert or die." I could be wrong about that though. I haven't studied it in detail.

Therein lies the dilemma. What is truly meant when one refers to "Islamic Fundamentalism"? Modern Turkey is something I know very little about. I know it is predominantly Islamic, and has been since the aforementioned conquests, but I don't know much beyond that. Personally, I'd be wary of staying in any non-Christian country for any extended period of time. For me, it has to do with being comfortable with my surroundings. I know how to deal with Christians, but like I said, Muslims view the world differently.

Just a few thoughts.

I think there is more chance of getting killed by a car than a terrorist in America, that's to say America is generally safe as far as terrorism is concerned.

I do believe Turkey is a safe country, and that the mother is simply fearing what she doesn't know much about. Certainly expats in that country know how to go about life there in a safe manner.

And also that a lot of fundamentalists aren't as bad as people and the media make them out to be. My mother is a fundamentalist, but besides supporting civil unions rather than gay marriage, her views don't really affect anyone, and she gets on extremely well with everyone in her life. In fact, students here after having met her for just forty minutes have taken an extreme liking to her.

Certainly there are some very intolerant and unpleasant fundammentalists, and they absorb a lot of media and people's attention.

Fundamentalism is an attempt in many ways to find order in life. Without fundamentalism, so many issues would be grey, but with fundamentalism, they can supposedly know what's black and what's white with confidence. There is a whole lot less uncertainity when one subscribes to some sort of fundamentalism, but at least as I see it, there is also less room for actual growth as well.

I have read excerpts from the Qu'ran posted by anti-Islamic people that supposedly illustrates just how the Qu'ran supports terrorism and hate, and while I could see how the Qu'ran could be interpreted as supporting terrorism and intolerance, I also see how it could be interpreted in a much gentler way.

Some secular scholars have been moved by the Qu'ran, as they interpreted a lot of the more violent language as an internal spiritual struggle against hate/rage/arrogance/etc, and in that light, some of those verses are inspiring.

I almost replied to this yesterday but I held off as my thoughts were being relatively incoherent. One thing that did come to mind though is that when people use the word fundamentalist, they tend to use it as an all-purpose snarl word and usually mean the more militant fundamentalists as opposed to simply people who have a very conservative or traditionalist way of doing things. They think of fanatics, in other words, instead of simply people who are just very (and to others, often irrationally) set in their ways. Why is that? Are fanatics the only things that come to mind when people mention Islamic fundamentalists?

I totally agree with that!

I also agree with that. I'm sure the mother hasn't really informed herself about Turkey's current political or economic situation, about the landscape or the culture, about the people or the religion. If she had known at least something about any of that, she probably would have had less prejudices or would at least try to be more open for the future plans of her daughter.


This sounds really interesting. Actually I have to admit that I always thought of religious fundamentalists as close-minded, intolerant and dogmatic, but what you wrote opened my eyes!

That is exactely what I'm most afraid of happening. That people start to condemn things they don't know a single thing about and then even look for evidence that support their prejudices and intolerance.


This sounds a lot better! As I have mentioned before, I haven't found the time to look into the Qu'ran at all, but I'd love to if I had time. I'm sure I would be moved as well by the "internal spiritual struggle". I'm all for spirituality and the good things that religions can achieve and make out of people, but I really, really don't like people that deliberately condemn religions they don't know anything about!

Religious fundamentalists generally are dogmatic and close-minded in their beliefs. I mean you certainly couldn't convince my mother that being gay was morally correct, or that the world evolved over billions of years. She is however tolerant, and she can accept that other people believe other things even though she of course disagrees. She would never make a big deal over anything that she differs with others in regards to her religious beliefs. In fact, she usually just doesn't say anything when someone expresses an opinion that she would disagree with on religious grounds (with but a few exceptions like her children --> me!, in which she can be quite vocal with her beliefs). All in all though she is a very likable fundamentalist.

What you say is really interesting and I'd have to say that I agree. I actually never really thought about it this way.

It probably wouldn't make sense to say that we are really a whole lot different than the fundamentalists we condemn because of their close-mindedness and intolerance of other points of view and opinions about certain things. But most people have beliefs and opinions they wouldn't want to change. Why change when your opinion and standpoint is the "right" one. If there is a right or wrong belongs into a different debate. The important thing is that because of the freedom of opinion we are all entitled to have different views whether others like it or not.

The difference though, in my opinion, is like you said that fundamentalists (if we define them like that) tend to push their beliefs on others and aren't willing to accept or tolerate other opinions that differ from their own. This is the thing that makes it so difficult when dealing with fundamentalists. No matter how convincing your arguments are, there is no way in persuading them to open up for a different belief/opinion.