Religious Identity and Mass Education1

Mass communication is turning human societies into a global community. Mass education, in conjunction with print technology, were expected to promote pluralism in this community as there were apprehensions that purely technological societies might lose diversity and the ethical and moral values necessary to human civilization. Dale Eickelman observes that mass higher education has certainly raised some basic questions about self and society, including questions about the place and role of religion in it.² It leads to the objectification of religion in people’s consciousness. Consequently, it has often given rise to religious activism, generally called fundamentalism. Mass higher education, Eickelman argues, began in the Muslim world in 1950s, but its effects began to be felt in 1980s, particularly in terms of reshaping the concepts of religious identity and authority among groups which generally have come to be known as fundamentalists.