The word "fundamentalist" was originally used, as is well known, to describe an American Protestant movement which is said to have arisen out of the millenarian movement[1] of the 19th century, and which came into its own in the early twentwentieth century "in opposition to modernist tendencies in American religious and secular life"[2] The term is derived from a series of tracts, The Fundamentals, published in the USA in 1909.[3]

However, fundamentalism in the sense of a return to the fundamentals of a religion and a rejection of secularism was soon discovered to be a world-wide phenomenon. There are among adherents of all religions of the world some who have been disillusioned with secularism and who have decided, therefore, to go back to their respective religions, and not only to reject secularism but to organize themselves and fight it, each from the point of view of his religion, and to provide alternatives to it. Thus there are fundamentalist Jews, fundamentalist Buddhists, fundamentalist Hindus, and so on.

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Washington’s Islamic Center, a magnificently arched structure gracing Massachusetts Avenue on Embassy Row,...