Religion (Part 2: Fundamentalism and Intolerance)

One of the topics I covered in Part One of this series on religion concerned writers/world-builders’ preconceptions about religion and religious people. In this part I want to talk specifically about religious intolerance, particularly in regards to how ‘we’ as modern writers perceive religious attitudes towards other cultures/traditions. This article will attempt to answer the following questions: Are religious traditions intolerant? and, Where does that belief come from? The reason I believe this is important is to hopefully help you to avoid stereotypes and prejudice. It’s also my hope to equip you with the knowledge to begin to explore those preconceptions about religion more consciously in your writing.

Are religious traditions intolerant?

Simple answer is sometimes, but not nearly as often as you probably presume. While in the West we might think of Islam and Christianity as almost inherently intolerant of other traditions, it’s important to note that neither has always been, or is always, that way, and that there are countless examples of religious traditions that have lived peacefully along side other religious traditions (including early Islam). Hinduism has long been more of a patchwork of religious traditions than a unified religious system. Likewise, Japanese society not only tolerates religious diversity, but embraces it on an individual level. There is a saying that Japanese people are born Shinto, marry Christian, and die Buddhist.

As such, when creating religions for your fantasy world, you are under no obligations, and bound by no historical precedent,  to make your religions intolerant or at odds with other traditions. Of course these themes could be what drives your plot (I explore this in my own work) but intolerance is NOT a natural consequence of religion.

Where does the belief that religions are intolerant come from?

In the West we have a very long tradition of religious intolerance to draw inspiration from. Whether it’s the Crusades, Protestants vs. Catholics, or the Spanish Inquisition persecuting suspected witches, Europe and the Near East has seen a lot of bloodshed in the name of religion (violent squabbles over whose ‘God’ is better). More recently we have seen the rise of the Far Right in America and fundamentalist Islam in war torn countries in the Middle East. It’s easy to observe this and presume that it is the normal state of the world’s religions, but it should be noted that the ‘Religion of the Sword’  is in more ways than not, a fiction promoted by a war of civilisations narrative from the perspective of christian’s writers. The Islamic world, while expansionist in it inception, knew centuries of peace and prosperity there after. Islam may have united the Arab conquerers, but they never aimed to convert their new subjects. Rather, in the early centuries of Islam, people converted because they saw benefit in it for themselves and often wanted to imitate their new ruler’s culture. Islam may not have come to people peacefully, but it was never forced upon them. The Muslim conquerers had little concern for the religious beliefs of their new subjects. But in time, I believe, Islam took inspiration from the West (specifically the Christian world, as Spain was ruled by Muslims) and became more intolerant of other religious traditions. What we call ‘extreme Islam’ has its roots in the very recent past with the rise of Communism. Prior to that time ‘Jihad’ which it typically translated as a ‘religious war/struggle,’ was an internal/personal struggle to live a life more in line with one’s religious beliefs. However, encouraged by the CIA, the concept of Jihad was transformed into a literal/physical war against atheism (i.e. Communist Russia). The Taliban, who are today perceived as enemies of the west, were armed and trained to defend Afghanistan and American interests in the region. Decades of war (at first against the Russians, then against the war lords vying for power with American and Russian weapons, then America against the Taliban, and today against Al Qaeda and Daesh) has created fertile ground in which fundamentalism can flourish.   A religion that once promoted rational debate and an intellectual legal system, has in many places devolved into an ideology of bigotry and hate.

I wonder if the arming of the Faith Militant in Game of Thrones is inspired in part by the arming of the Taliban. Cercei armed them to serve her purpose, but in doing so created her greatest threat, that isn’t a Targarian and her dragons.)

Okay history lesson over lol. The point is that many of our preconceptions about religion are deeply subjective and even prejudice. We have TV networks like Fox “News” that do little more that spread American war propaganda and xenophobic fear mongering. Naturally, many of us (particularly those whom remember 9/11) often have a biased view that religions encourage intolerance. This simply isn’t true. Even though, unfortunately, religion can be used to justify intolerance (rather than necessarily the cause of it).

So you want religious fundamentalism at the heart of your plot… There is nothing wrong with this, and can make for some interesting antagonists. BUT please try not to write a thinly veiled anti-christian diatribe. In the very least you don’t want to take the religious fundamentalism for granted. Instead you want to consider the conditions that fostered that fundamentalism. Was the tradition always fundamentalist in nature? if so, why? and if not, how did it become that way? George RR Martin did an excellent job of doing this with the Faith of the Seven. Initially there was little indication that this was a fundamentalist religion (except maybe the destruction of the trees sacred to the old religion). No until the sect of the high sparrow appeared in the story, which seemed to have been fostered in part by war and in part by the sins of the kingdoms rulers (incest, regicide, and general corruption), only to be encouraged and armed by the misguided ambitions of Cercei Lannister. Don’t copy and paste Martin’s ideas, but if fundamentalism is going to be a theme of your narrative than it should at least have context.

I hope this article has proved interesting, insightful and has encouraged you to challenge some of your’s (and/or society’s) preconceptions about religious fundamentalism before you inadvertently propagate these biases in your own work.

The next part in this series will explore the mythology underlying religious traditions, and how these religions seek to answer the more difficult questions in life.