Word: seculare
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...Koran, this killing violates some of its most sacred precepts. But during the 20th century, the militant form of piety often known as fundamentalism erupted in every major religion as a rebellion against modernity. Every fundamentalist movement I have studied in Judaism, Christianity and Islam is convinced that liberal, secular society is determined to wipe out religion. Fighting, as they imagine, a battle for survival, fundamentalists often feel justified in ignoring the more compassionate principles of their faith. But in amplifying the more aggressive passages that exist in all our scriptures, they distort the tradition...
Animosity toward the U.S. in the Middle East can be plotted through concentric circles. In the white-hot core are violent ideologues like bin Laden and their acolytes. Then come Arab radicals, including both Islamic fundamentalists and secular nationalists, who are desperate and angry enough to have danced in the streets upon hearing the news of Sept. 11. But the distaste also extends to large numbers of temperate Arabs who were quietly pleased to see American arrogance taken down a notch--business people and family people who smiled and sent messages of congratulations to one another when the Twin Towers...
...Orphaned a year after its birth 54 years ago?when its founder and main visionary, the secular-minded lawyer Muhammad Ali Jinnah, died?the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has always suffered from an identity crisis. Born out of bloodshed, chaos, pride and insecurity, Pakistan was created as a homeland for India's Muslims?its very name means "land of the spiritually pure"?but Jinnah, who favored a pluralistic democracy, never envisioned a theocratic state. His successors had other ideas, and 30 years after Jinnah was gone, the military dictator General Zia ul-Haq shackled the country's fortunes to religion...
...picture. And it isn't restricted to the illiterate and the destitute, those most susceptible to the pull of extremism. Even the sons of some wealthy businessmen are growing beards and joining the jihad against India over the disputed territory of Kashmir, often to the dismay of their secular-leaning families. Others sign up for local wars: more than 100 Pakistanis have been killed in sectarian attacks since the beginning of this year. In recent months, minority Shia professionals, especially doctors, have been targeted for assassination. Doctors are among the best educated and most successful Shia professionals in Pakistan...
...work. "Nadeem asked me to buy a burka as a wedding gift for his new wife," says Attiya, "but I said no." Nadeem describes his aunt as his "very, very, very good friend," and he admires her work helping victims of domestic violence. But their different approaches to life?secular vs. religious?have become a running joke. "Nadeem, your job should have been to come to me and make me a good Muslim," Attiya tells him. "I know I can never convince you," he sighs good-naturedly...