Who's A Fanatic?

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 25 September 2024 I've often experienced how people easily take umbrage at certain words and call the user a prejudiced person with a hidden agenda or an ulterior motive. Let me cite one such loaded and connotational word: Fanatic. Most of us know its popular and in-vogue connotation only in the context of religious matters and issues like, ' a person who has very extreme beliefs that may lead them to behave in unreasonable or violent ways.' A religious fanatic is a common word in our everyday parlance and conversations. But the word 'fanatic' also has a different shade that has nothing to do with any faith. A fanatic is also a person who's extremely interested in something to a degree that some find unreasonable. For example, a fitness/film fanatic. The late writer and polymath Nirad C Chaudhury told Khuswant Singh, Back in Mymensingh in Bangladesh, we had a Quran-fanatic otherwise gentle Muslim neighbour who wouldn't kill even an ant." See the brilliant usage of the word, 'Quran-fanatic otherwise gentle Muslim.' A fanatic is not always violent. He'll not kill people just because they don't belong to his faith. But he'll try tooth and nail to prove the validity of his ideology. He'll keep harping on his ramshackle belief or ideology till Doomsday arrives. Winston Churchill aptly said that, " A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." A fanatic's lifetime mission is to validate and authenticate his beliefs however weird they may be. To prove his beliefs and buttress his points, he'll concoct all sorts of outlandish theories that will make people laugh. Undeterred and unfazed, he'll go on and no amount of counter arguments will make him change his stand and stance. An ideological fanatic is often a deluded person. His brain is concussed by the blows of his delusions. Such individuals may not be harmful to society but their fixed thinking may prove to be a roadblock to themselves. This happened to the great German maverick Nietzsche. His fanatic belief that there was no god landed him in a lunatic asylum where he died demented. So, it's not that only the believers are fanatics. Both theists as well as atheists could be fanatic in their respective belief systems. A fanatic also suffers from the delusion that he can never be wrong. This infallibility syndrome is often a fanatic's undoing. Avoid monomaniac thinking of any type, not always religious. You'll not be branded a fanatic. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/quranic-ideological-fanatic-religious-/d/133279 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism