Islam Rediscovered
12. Islamic Fundamentalism
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This political view of Islam, in spite of being a grave
misinterpretation, spread rapidly among Muslims.
The only reason for this was that Muslims, owing to
their defeatist mentality, saw nothing incongruous
in its negativity. Given the circumstances of their
past history, this political interpretation was in total
consonance with their psychological condition.
Thus, due to their negative mindset and not due to
Islamic reasoning this false inter-pretation soon
gained currency among them, and the activities
which were an offshoot from this—paradoxical as
this may seem—were backed by funding from
America in a bid to stem the rising tide of
Communism.
Prior to 1991, when the Soviet Union had assumed
the position of a super power, and posed a
continuing threat to America, one of the strategies
adopted by America was to set off the Muslim
fundamentalists against the Communists, because
these fundamentalists were persistently writing and
speaking against Communism as being the enemy
of Islam. America also gave all kinds of help, to the
fundamentalists. It provided them with weapons to
set themselves up against the Soviet Union and
