Religious Extremism

RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM W hat is religious extremism? Religious extremism is, in fact, a sign of decline. When a community enters a later stage of degeneration, this tendency, known as religious extremism, begins to emerge among them. Decline operates according to a law of nature, and no community is exempt from this process. In the present age, the Muslim community is going through a period of decline, and, like other signs of decline, religious extremism has appeared among them. The term used in the Quran and the Hadith for religious extremism is ghulu. When decline sets in among the later generations of a community, a natural law comes into effect: the spirit of religion fades away from its members, and only its outward form remains. Religious extremism is, in reality, another name for a religion that is reduced to form alone. When a community enters a period of decline, religion often turns into what may be called a form-