ABSTRACT
Fundamentalism The term ‘fundamentalism’ originated in the United States, where it appeared in the 1920s as a reference to Protestants who published a series on ‘The Fundamentals’ of the Christian faith. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, it became a broad concept used to describe most groups that took religion seriously, and especially those that made claims on public policy (Bruce, 2007, pp. 10-12). The term also often had negative connotations, implying that fundamentalists were irrational and emotional extremists, and that their religious interpretations and practices were backward.
