ABSTRACT
Fundamentalists’ actions and behaviour certainly grab our attention, just as they are intended to. From 9/11 on through subsequent violent assaults, terrorist activities have dominated the media when they have occurred. Other actions, for different reasons, have impinged on our awareness, for example dramatic acts of ‘healing’ by televangelists, or angry demonstrations against the ordination of gay bishops. And we cannot help noticing fundamentalists’ regular daily habits, such as the wearing of eighteenth-century dress by Haredim and Amesh believers. Unusual and unexpected actions do indeed often speak louder to us than words, for we use them to infer actors’ beliefs and motives. And, as I will argue, they perform exactly the same function for fundamentalists themselves.
