Well my hats off to all of you, this is the most interesting thread I've read in a long time.
In terms of the subject, I think I have a bit of interesting additions since I live in the heart of what some people consider the fundamentalist world. I live in Abu Dhabi, next to Dubai in the UAE squarely in the Persian Gulf. And here Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and all other religions, except perhaps Jews openly anyway, and ethnicities exist quite harmoniously. However, everyone watches the news, and they all know what is going on, and what is at stake. If some fundie decided to blow up the Ski Mall, or worse the tallest building in the world, all the business would dry out, and our way of life would change for the worse. So the Muslim government, and the police infrastructure do their best to dance around the issue of whether their religious tolerance encourages of discourages fundamentalism of any kind, in particular muslim fundamentalism, since that is the hot trend.
For me Fundamentalism, is the adherence to a faith in a dogmatic fashion. Now faiths could be anything. Religious fundamentalism, is the definition above, but to a religion or its interpretation by one scholar, many scholars, or a school. Fundamentalism can happen practically anywhere, and whether it is good or bad is arguable, it happens in the business world all the time, to some good effects. Religious fundamentalism is the same, except that it is based on readings of ancient texts. I think this is where the huge mistakes come in. I see all the time. Like Pendragon said, in Islam the religion is fixated on the text since it is supposed to be the word of God. But it takes only a very educated few, to understand what the text is really trying to say. These scripts, whether they be Latin based, Aramaic, Arabic, or Sanskrit, all are written in incredibly complex poetic imagery, that could mean completely different things now, than when they were written, by God or otherwise. So the problem I see, is that some people who feel they are ignorant in spirituality, or feel they lack faith, look toward religion to provide them some structure. And then they become convinced that they have found the path, due to some clerics interpretation of some text, and before you know it you have a cult. Suicide bombers, truly believe, they are acting in God's interest. This is because of their conditions, the politics, and the skewing of the texts teachings. It all comes in to play.
Myself I try to stay away from Fundies, but I myself am one, if I say so. Because I'm on the moderate humanist side of things. I've got my pole, and they have theirs. However being a fundamentalist in the speed at which snails move for example, is probably not going to hurt anyone, where as others faiths, ideologies, or practices ... have been known to be a bit more ... problematic.
Does this resolve the issues. No, of course not, it just clears up a bit, or what a fundamentalist is. I am a humanist, and have been for a very long time. That means I believe in the ability of any human being to overcome almost any challenge it meets, through its mental, spiritual, and physical power. Being an artist, I picked up this while I was studying about the Renaissance. At that time, there were a lot of humanists. Am I a fundamentalist. Perhaps. Perhaps not. Depends how much I want to be in the grey I suppose.