Session 2: Religious Dimensions of Fear, Horror and Terror

Session 2: Religious Dimensions of Fear, Horror and Terror
Chair: Rob Fisher

Fear, Horror and Terror: Contextual Usage in the Qur’an
Muhammad Imtiaz Zafar
Da’wah Academy, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan

The incident of 9/11 has revived the rhetoric that Islam is the religion of extremism. It has been argued that majority of terrorists are Muslims and the Qur’an dictates fanaticism. A number of writings by western and Muslim scholars like Walter Laqueur: 1999, Kelton Cobb: 2002 and Yousuf al-Qardhawi: 1997 have surfaced to identify verses of the Qur’an, asking Muslims to adopt terrorism as a strategy of war.
Qur’an has used at least five phrases Khawf, Raw’, Faza’, Ru’b and Rahb to mean fear, horror and terror. These terms depict a variety of meanings in situational contexts and one cannot demarcate clear cut boundaries of the usage of term. It is the circumstance that leads to properly comprehend the phrase stands for. The paper is an effort to understand the application of the terms in their proper context. Main theme of the paper is the study of ayah al-Irhab 8:60 of the Qur’an.  Meaning of the ayah is analysed in relation to the holistic nature of the religion of Islam i.e. its historical context, its cultural limitations, its unique temperament, its theological and ethical perceptive. The study establishes that only one meaning of any particular ayah or phrase of the Qur’an is not sufficient to claim that this is the only purpose of the commandment of Allah. Comprehensive approach nullifies the misconception that the ayah teaches terrorism. In this regard classical exegetes of the Qur’an; i.e. at-?abar? 310 H., Zamakhshar? 535 H., Suy??? 911 H. and Shawk?n? 1250 H. along with the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad have been consulted.

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Colonial Fear and Ideology of Buddhist Incantation and Poetry: Heterogeneous Times of Japan and Korea, 1910-35
Inhye Han
University of California, San Diego, USA

This paper examines the way fear, on both collective and individual levels, was experienced in Japan and Korea during the colonial era as evidenced in Buddhist incantations and confessional poetry from 1910 to 1935. Its aim is less to illuminate the way that the sentiment of apprehension was articulated and resolved, than to trace the residues of recusant and compelling dread hardly countervailed even by the authoritative promise of religious redemption. I firstly examine the way in which secular fear is replaced by sacred fear – and vice versa. Secondly, I discuss the relation between perceptions of fear and the structure of temporalities. This study focuses on the delay between new fear and traditional incantations for them: the newly sensed horrors always predate the given modes of consoling language.
My claim that the sense of fear is over-determined by external historicity implies its determination also of the patterns of temporal conception. The feeling of dread, in its extreme, entails a radical discontinuity of past, present, and future. This metonymic relation among the forms of time is exemplified in the spells of the Dharani Sutra,the core scripture of the Pure Land sect. Secondly, the sense of horror can privilege a synecdochical feature of the relation between past and present, as typified in Mahayana spells. The present, likewise, realizes itself as that which emulates the past although it always remains its pale imitation. Finally, the metaphoric relationships of temporality, which counterpose the modern forms of time-line and time-circle, are also informed by the sense of fear, addressed by the incantations of esoteric sects.
In modern Japan, the sense of fear and anxiety induced by the uncertainty of the age conformed to the synecdochic and metonymic forms of temporality embodied in the spells of Mahayana sects. Colonial Korea, crucially influenced by Japanese religious practices, resisted its fear of intellectual colonization by stressing the radical potential of metaphoric time.

Relationship between Death Anxiety, Fear, and Religiosity among Security Personnel in Pakistan
Rabia Hussain
Kanwal Center for Psychological Research, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between death anxiety, fear, and religiosity among security personnel. The sample of forty eight (48) was divided into two equal groups (24 senior and 24 junior security personnel respectively) age range from 25-50 years, and selected from ten police stations from twin-city i.e. Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The revised Death Anxiety Scale and Religious Life inventory were administrated on both groups of security personnel. The significant mean difference between senior and junior security personnel has been revealed as juniors security personnel have more death anxiety, fear of the uncertainty of death and dying, and fear of pain as compared to seniors. In addition, the fear of suicide bombers, dying process, and insecurity of job has also been depicted during the structured interviews. The findings also revealed a negative relationship between education and death anxiety while positive relationship has been found in monthly income and death anxiety. However, the results indicated insignificant relationship between death anxiety and religiosity. The findings encourage further exploration among security personnel as well as the impact of type of death experienced in current scenario of Pakistan