Religious Fundamentalism: A Theoretical-Constitutional Analysis

Abstract

This Article analysis the phenomenon of religious fundamentalism from a theoretical-constitutional perspective. The two basic questions are: what religious fundamentalism is? And what are its boundaries? At one side, religious fundamentalism is seen as a fundamental right (religious freedom) exercise, thus appointing proper constitutional boundaries in order to harmonize it with other rights, values, goods and interests. That is the question for applying balancing. From another side, religious fundamentalism is seen as a political control strategy, a platform for achieving political aims through a religiously based fundamentalist discourse. The Article demonstrates that not only the fundamentalist phenomenon crosses the constitutional boundaries of fundamental rights exercise, rather it denies central pieces of modern liberal constitutionalism.