Abstract
Religious fundamentalism is a phenomenon that has affected many parts of the world. Its very presence baffles the minds of scholars of secularization. In the United States and Egypt, fundamentalism has infiltrated Protestant Christianity and Sunni Islam respectively. Using the work of numerous sociological and religious scholars, secondary historical texts as well as data, this thesis examines the origins of Christian and Islamic fundamentalism in the United States and Egypt, as well as their politicization. It will first look at the meanings of several concepts provided by several scholars, including fundamentalism, modernization and secularization. It will examine the Islamic fundamentalist movement in Egypt and the Christian fundamentalist movement in the United States during the early and late 20th century, and the social and political contexts under which they developed. The paper makes the argument that both fundamentalist movements, despite their differences, they have many similarities; most notably the variables of modernization, secularization, changing social, political and economic conditions, migration and urbanization.