Fanaticism, what is it?

We've heard a lot about "Fanaticism". It became familiar that "A fanatic group kills……" or "The house of …… was attacked by some fanatics."

We should ask our selves what a Fanatic means. According to the dictionary a fanatic is someone whose beliefs and behaviour are extreme especially concerning religion or politics.

The recent events made us believe that fanaticism is strongly linked with religion and politics.

I think this is wrong. I think that we need a more general definition of fanaticism.

We can say that fanaticism means violent and extreme prejudice to an idea whatever it is. This prejudice doesn't allow tolerance between different ideas to exist.

According to this definition, we can find fanaticism every time and every where. The history tells us about many countries which fell down because of fanaticism.

Along the centuries, aspects of life have changed. Reasons and aspects of fanaticism have increased.

In this project we study the factors which affects man at various periods of the age and cause him to be fanatic. We also present the solutions to this problem. We study a lot of forms and aspects of fanaticism which we can face in our practical life.

We deal with fanaticism without exaggeration or ignoring.

In this project, we discuss religious, racial, cultural and sports fanaticism.

We think it's better to start with religious fanaticism because it is the most important and obvious kind of fanaticism and because it has a strong link to recent politics and events.

Nations suffer from Religious Fanaticism

I am going to discuss this matter according to the three holy religions, Islam, Christianity and Jewish.

We can find that there are a lot of common things between the three holy religions, all their believers believe in GOD, in angels, prophets, paradise and hell. These common things make the atmosphere suitable for tolerance between the holy religions.

According to this principle was Muslim's tolerant treatment to the believers of the other holy religions through history which can be proved by many situations.

They were and still safe in the Islamic country were they can worship and carry their rituals freely.

The phenomenon of religious fanaticism is new and it's wrong to link between it and Islam. It's a global phenomenon which has many reasons.

The religious fanaticism may be caused by governments which try to deceive its people and deceive the world. There is a lot of fanaticism against Islam. Many people think that we are a big group of terrorists. This is probably because they don't know the true picture of Islam as many governments try to cover it especially using mass-media. Lack of religious knowledge may also cause this kind of fanaticism. If we

tried to achieve religious tolerance, the world would be much better.

Is "Mass media" responsible ???

It makes me sad to say that mass media is one of the main causes of fanaticism. Many media stations give wrong or half-true ideas about others. Mass media is supposed to fight fanaticism not to increase it.

Mass media has it’s a great effect on people who are fanatic. Mass media should persuade them that fanaticism mustn't exist between nations. Mass media should spread true ideas about religions and correct the wrong ideas. This can be made through religious programmes on TV.

It is also important to set programmes fighting sport fanaticism and show people and supporters how the spirit of the sport between players is. Sport fanaticism must disappear and people must know that the loss is not the end of the world, for sport fanaticism is a step towards serious fanaticism.

To eradicate violence between fanatic spectators and supporters, they must know that sports are activities, not wars. They create good relationships between countries like we see in the Olympic Games and the World Cup. Mass media should speak with all layers of the society, especially illiterate and uneducated people because they have many wrong thoughts that must be corrected. These thoughts make them fanatic. Those people must be aware of the power of unity and tolerance between nations. Finally mass media should present programmes to children including the idea of connection between nations and cultures and tolerance between religions.

Man must face fanaticism

Fanaticism will destroy the world. This is no laughing matter. This is a fact. The world will be destroyed if we don't face this phenomenon quickly and firmly.

Fanaticism causes hatred. Fanaticism causes disputes Fanaticism causes violence. Fanaticism causes wars. Fanaticism causes death, tears and terror for thousands of people. Fanaticism destroys the relationship between man and man. Fanaticism turns our world into hell.

We should know that all kinds of fanaticism are complicatedly linked together. I don't exaggerate when I say that even sports fanaticism is a disaster itself. It is a wide gate to other lethal kinds of fanaticism. If people can't be tolerant with sports teams, how can they be tolerant to other nations?

Cultural fanaticism leads the nations to be isolated from each other and that results in pre-judice and lack of dialogue between nations which is the main reason for the fanaticism we suffer from.

Religious and political fanaticism are the most dangerous kinds of fanaticism. I think they are the main cause of the creation of many hot areas in the world. Mass media, as we said before, plays a major role in this matter.

The problem of the world now is the absence of justice, global justice. We suffer from "double Policy" and "Playing with words" such as "Terrorism, Self-defence, War against terrorism, The Infra-structure of terrorism …etc"

This absence of justice is a result of political or religious fanaticism. This fanaticism will really lead the world into a deep hole

There is one and only one solution to get rid of all that ….

Just one word ….

Easy to say….

But Hard to do….

Tolerance

We've found that all kinds of fanaticism even those which are thought not to be dangerous mustn't be neglected and that fanaticism must be faced firmly.

Facing Fanaticism must depend on main bases. As the human being is the main brick of the society, we should start with him.

To convert a fanatic one into a tolerant one, we should depend on awareness. Religious tolerance needs religious awareness, as religious fanaticism is a result of ignorance. People must know that Islam and Christianity called for equality between people. They must know that this fanaticism is not a sign of being religious.

Sports fanaticism needs awareness of the truth of sports. They should remember that they play or watch sports for entertainment and benefits, not to be angry.

Cultural fanaticism can't be solved by us because we can't force people to think in a particular way. This problem solves itself when people finally find that they should take from others but choose what they take.

Political fanaticism is a matter of governments. They must look well at their policy and try to achieve justice.

No one can deny that also mass-media has to be more honest and seek the truth because that makes people avoids pre-judice.

In the end, we hope that we've made something that may lead the world to be better.