Why is it that we are letting the media divide us by giving us names such as modernists and fundamentalists. The fact is we are all Muslim. Also why is the word Fundamentalist just limited to Muslims because a fundamentalist is someone who turns to the fundamentals or roots of their beliefs, anyone standing for democracy does the same thing. If we attack democracy then people who believe in democracy turn to freedom of speech, freedom of belief etc which are the fundamentals of democracy so these people are also fundamentalists.
Very well said, do agree with u, But the worst part is that even a large no. of Muslims today do think in this way. To my knowledge these terms originated from the West. The US and the Europe like only those muslims who agree with them in all walk of life, leaving their own religion and culture behind so the ones who act on them are called Fundamentalist / Extremists.
You are right Mudassar. Everyone's a fundamentalist of some kind or another. Unfortunately, it is the Muslims who are most afraid of the so called "Muslim Fundamentalists" than anyone else. I guess it's because they want to be "modern" like the Americans, and if they follow some basics of Islam, then they believe they can't be "modern".
I think how people differentiate b/w those two terms would be like giving example of Iran's Ayatollah as fundamentalist whereas any other islamic government's head would be counted as modernist or well behaved muslims in the view of West.
I believe it is all how you perceive things, Kashmiri Mujahideens are considered Freedom Fighters by Pakistan and Islamic World Where as India consider them Terrorist... :) Go Figure...