Competing Fundamentalisms

In the last chapter of his recent book, Christian America and the Kingdom of God, Richard T. Hughes has argued that fundamentalist Protestants and fundamentalist Muslims have increasingly seen themselves in a battle of apocalyptic significance between themselves and the other. For both sides, the goal is global religious hegemony. One need only tune in to the radical religious right to realize he’s correct. Some of this can also be found in more mainstream evangelical circles. Lately I’ve been seeing signs around my town advertizing a local revival event complete with Christian America and anti-Muslim overtones. It resembles a similar event held last year sponsored by our local Tea Party. Call it end-times enthusiasm, a neo-cold war, or Christian nationalism, but historian Thomas Kidd, in American Christians and Islam: Evangelical Culture and Muslims from the Colonial Period to the Age of Terror, has shown us that this kind of Christian/Muslim contest has been a part of evangelical rhetoric since the colonial era. We just happen to live in a time when the political circumstances have produced an especially militant strand of anti-Muslim sentiments among ultra-conservatives. For the historical context of what we’re seeing now, Kidd’s book is an absolute must read – check it out!