Politics & Power Quote by Karen Armstrong

Armstrong’s line is less a diagnosis of theology than a map of fear. By anchoring fundamentalism in the “gut, visceral” register, she strips away the flattering idea that these movements are mainly about pristine doctrine. The engine is felt threat: a suspicion that modernity isn’t merely indifferent to religion but actively bent on its erasure. That framing matters because it explains fundamentalism’s intensity and its recurring patterns across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam without pretending the traditions are interchangeable. The common denominator isn’t scripture; it’s siege psychology.

The key word is “convinced.” Armstrong isn’t claiming secular liberal society actually plans a purge. She’s pointing to a deep internal certainty that makes compromise feel like surrender. If you believe the other side wants you extinct, pluralism reads as a trap, tolerance as condescension, and cultural change as an attack. That’s why fundamentalist movements often become obsessed with boundary-policing: modesty codes, education battles, ritual strictness, and “purity” campaigns. These aren’t quaint throwbacks; they’re defensive technologies.

Contextually, Armstrong is writing out of late-20th-century culture war conditions: expanding women’s rights, sexual liberation, secular schooling, mass media, and (in many places) postcolonial displacement and geopolitical humiliation. “Secular liberal society” becomes a single villainous character, an all-purpose stand-in for courts, universities, entertainment, and the state. Her subtext is a warning to liberals too: when modernity broadcasts contempt for faith, it validates the very narrative fundamentalists need. The quote works because it treats fundamentalism as a political emotion before it becomes a religious argument.