Religious Fundamentalism and Stereotyping: A Review

Abstract

Religious groups have one overarching resemblance that is each has a God in addition to very strict doctrines that distinguish them from one another. The strict definition, articulation, and implementation of the doctrines referred and fundamentalism that defines the beliefs and norm for every group can be potentially stereotypical and prejudicial. With freedom of religion, one person may subscribe to Christianity teaching while another to Buddhism or Islamic; each having converging and diverging principles towards different behaviors and subjects. Racial prejudice is significantly embedded in fundamentalism in that people interpret and implement their holy scriptures differently with varied thresholds.  In order to prove Scriptural and doctrine superiority, fundamentalism can be used to promote racial stereotyping and prejudice; for instance, currently, people of Arabic and Islamic origin are often characterized to be terrorists based on the Islamic extremist groups that interpret some scriptures in the Quran to initiate and perpetuate violence in the name of Allah (God). Basing on this extremism resulting from fundamentalism, racial prejudice against people of Arabic and Islamic origins is promoted leading to segregation and discrimination of the Arabs more so in non-Arabic dominant nations over terrorism prejudice. As noted above, fundamentalism can inhibit logic and rational thinking primarily because members that subscribe to a certain religious group are implored with a desire to adhere without question to the doctrines that they believe are holy and supreme. I believe the Roman Catholic clumsy response to actively condemn sexual abuse is a product of fundamentalism. Pope Francis, leaders of the Roman Catholic admitting that the church took too long to respond to the sexual abuse crisis attributing the delay to church consciousness which has been skewed. When the church hides such heinous practices in the name of protecting the reputation of the church fundamentalism wins hence promoting progressive perpetration of the vices. Therefore, we reviewed cases of religiosity with stereotyping and crimes committed by the church and other religious dominations.