Scanning the lists of diaries today I came upon one by Arun concerning the murder of Avijit Roy, a Bengladeshi-born American citizen, who was hacked to death, while walking back to his hotel with his wife after attending an annual Bengla book fair. My ignorance on this subject was enlightened by a very thoughtful diary by Calvino Partigiani, the link to which is here: The murder of Avijit Roy. This diary is exceptional not only because of the eloquence of the diarist but the quality of many of the comments appended to it.
I will admit to an encyclopedic lack of knowledge on this subject of Mr. Roy but I do know about religious fundamentalism--since it is so rife within our nation, infecting large portions of the body politic.
Regarding one statement, that "faith is a virus", attributed to Mr. Roy is one which I have problem with--that is the problem about which I will discuss in more detail below. Painting everybody who is of "faith" as being somehow infected with the seeds of evil, which may not have been Mr. Roy's intent, but that is how one could view the above statement. Overbroad generalizations serve no good, doing disservice to the many due to the few who are guilty of the critique. "Faith" is the belief in things that cannot be proven. This is to be differentiated from the more extreme "blind faith", by which I mean the intolerant view of those believing in a certain creed regarding non-believers. Oft times, this intolerant attitude fosters isolation of the despised group. Sometimes, this blind faith results in the murder, mass murder, of the "non-believers".
The purpose of this diary is to elaborate upon certain, undeniable similarities of various fundamentalist religions. Religious fundamentalism is neither Right Wing nor Left Wing. Religious fundamentalism is a closed-minded insistence that all hear and obey the narrow interpretations of religious doctrine espoused by those fundamentalists. This is true of Islamic fundamentalists, but equally true of Christian, Jewish or any other sectarian creed, whose disciples are of the same bent, i.e. fundamentalists. Yes, this may be my guilt in portraying fundamentalists with the same over broad generalizations which I criticized above. But my definition of religious fundamentalism is quite specific: this refers to the outright intolerance and hostility of "true believers" against any people who do not share the same belief system.
Religious fundamentalism is not a new phenomenon. A prime example, although earlier ones exist, is the Spanish Inquisition as well as the "convert-or-die" demands of the early colonizers of America toward the indigenous peoples.