In explaining the varied applications of Traditionalism - in religion, philosophy, metaphysics, etc. -, Sedgwick writes that Traditionalism has "been used to encourage respect for the environment, compose great music, and reduce hostility between followers of different religions. It has also been used to support very different causes, from the [first] election of Donald Trump as President of the United States of America, to what many would call fascism and racism, not to mention terrorism." Sedgwick writes that "some Traditionalists read both Evola and Guénon and focus on politics, while some read both Schuon and Guénon, or just Guénon, and focus on religion and
self-realization."
In the Muslim world Through its close affiliation with Sufism, the Guénonian Traditionalist perspective has had an influence in Asia and the Islamic world at large.
Iran In Iran, it was introduced by Hossein Nasr as well as, earlier, by
Ali Shariati, the intellectual considered the ideologue of the
Iranian Revolution who recommended Guénon to his students. While it never acquired a mass following, its influence on the elite can be measured by the fact that when
Ayatollah Khomeini organized the
Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, out of the seven members designed to serve it, three were acquainted with Traditionalist ideas, namely
Abdolkarim Soroush,
Reza Davari Ardakani, and
Nasrullah Pourjavady.
Pakistan Hasan Askari, an important Pakistani writer and literary critic, was directly influenced by Guénon, and, through him,
Muhammad Shafi and his son
Taqi Usmani, some of the country's most influential Islamic scholars, integrated Guénon's works in the curriculum of the
Darul Uloom Karachi, one of the most important
madrassa or religious seminaries in the country. Other important figures of Pakistan influenced by Traditionalism include
A. K. Brohi, who was seen as close to
General Zia-ul-Haq, and psychologist
Muhammad Ajmal.
Morocco The
Budshishiyya order of Sufism, based in Morocco, is known to have strands influenced by Traditionalism.
Far-right and right-wing populist movements Sedgwick notes that in the 21st century, some "post-Traditionalists" - notably
Aleksandr Dugin - have drawn rhetorically on the "pair of traditional and modern" to advance the political agenda of the "radical right," while rejecting or downplaying perennialism. Dugin, an influential Russian far-right thinker, has been influenced by Guénon and Evola.
Julius Evola was an Italian Traditionalist influenced by Guénon but from whom he departed on many points, which did not allow him to be assimilated to Guénonian Traditionalism. The ideas of Evola have been associated with some far-right movements, such as the European
Nouvelle Droite ("New Right"), and Italian
neo-fascists during the
Years of Lead. Similarly, the Romanian Traditionalist
Mircea Eliade had been a supporter of the Romanian Orthodox fascist
Iron Guard. According to
Benjamin Teitelbaum,
Savitri Devi, the founder of
Esoteric Hitlerism, was influenced by both Guénon and Evola, so was Donald Trump's former adviser
Steve Bannon, Dugin, the Brazilian writer
Olavo de Carvalho, and , a one time adviser to the Hungarian
Jobbik conservative political party. According to Teitelbaum, they have all interacted with each other based on those interests. Carvalho denies this association.
Mark Sedgwick's
Against the Modern World, published in 2004, gives an analysis of political traditionalism:
Environmentalism Starting in 1966,
Seyyed Hossein Nasr began to apply Traditionalist ideas to environmentalism. He was one of the first philosophers to turn to this question and he is considered to be the founder of environmentalism in the Muslim world. In several works he deals with the causes of the destruction of the planet and the restorative remedies. Nasr summarizes his position thus: Tarik Quadir argues that "the ecological crisis, for Nasr, is only an externalization of an inner malaise [...] due in large part to the various applications of modern [western] science. [...] Following the loss of the vision of the universe proper to medieval Christian worldview, [...] this science ignores or denies the existence of any reality other than that of the material aspect of nature". It is "to modernism and its false presumptions about the nature of man and the world", that Nasr attributes "the destruction of the natural environment", in addition to "the disintegration of the social fabric", and he deplores that all States, "from monarchies to communist governments, to revolutionary regimes, […] all want to copy avidly Western science and technology, without thought of their cultural, social and environmental consequences". Nasr believes that
scientism is a major cause of ecological problems. He defines scientism as the conviction that "modern science provides if not the only, at least the most reliable means to true knowledge" and that it leads thereby "to human progress", as imagined by those who evaluate a human society solely in terms of its economic growth. Nasr corroborates the observation that the development of the current economic system rests largely on human passions, which it feeds in its turn, thus generating a continuous blossoming of new needs which, in reality, are only desires. Finally, "if modern man destroys nature with such impunity, it is because he looks upon it as a mere economic resource". Quadir maintains that for Nasr, it is not by technology that environmental problems can be solved in the long term, being themselves the consequence of this technology. According to Nasr, the critique of the extraordinary technological development is certainly necessary, but the real critique must start with the root of the problem, i.e. with oneself, because in a desacralized West, few are aware of what Nasr considers the raison d'être of human life and of nature. This consciousness, for Nasr, is present in the wisdom of the various religious traditions, "as well as in their cosmologies and sacred sciences". And it alone makes it possible to rediscover "the sense of the sacred", in particular with regard to nature, because deprived of this sense, the human being remains immersed in the ephemeral, abandoning himself to his own lower nature, with an illusory feeling of freedom.
Interfaith dialogue Nasr was the first Traditionalist to apply the thoughts of the Traditionalist School to
interfaith dialogue, based on
Frithjof Schuon's idea of the "transcendent unity of religions." This perspective states that all religions have the same transcendent metaphysical source, best expressed in their esoteric and mystical traditions, which converge greatly with one another. While the exoteric dimension of religions present many differences in terms of doctrine and practice, Schuon argues that this is
providential, each religion meeting the needs of a given society and culture, and that these different
revelations ultimately
emanate from the same divine source. Sedgwick writes that Nasr "[pointed] out that this solved the problem of disagreements between exoteric religions while leaving those religions intact, which the more popular approach of ignoring disagreements did not." Nasr also believed Traditionalism helped Muslims to understand that when conversing with Western Christians, they were "in dialogue with modernity at least as much as they were in dialogue with Christianity." According to Sedgwick, "Traditionalism's interfaith dialogue projects have been especially important because they have been seen as Islamic initiatives in a field that has generally been dominated by Christian institutions." The Traditionalist approach to Islam has been especially well-received by Muslim-majority countries seeking better relations with the West, and by Western leaders who see it as a moderating influence in Islam. Muslim leaders in Bosnia and Jordan have applied these ideas to dialogue with other traditions in the context of sectarian conflict in their own societies, with the Jordanian approach having a "worldwide impact" and receiving the support of the country's government. In
Bosnia,
Rusmir Mahmutćehajić attempted to apply Nasr's ideas to promote peace between Muslim Bosnians and
Eastern Orthodox Christian Serbs in the aftermath of the
Bosnian War, "blaming the conflict on modernity and seeking a return to traditional tolerance based on an appreciation of transcendent unity." Sedgwick described Mahmutćehajić's success as "limited," based on his analysis that traditional religious tolerance in the region had been rooted more in the
Ottoman political situation than in cultural values analogous to transcendent unity. In
Jordan,
Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad and the Jordanian state have supported the
Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, which has applied Nasr's ideas to interfaith dialogue in a number of international projects. Prince Ghazi drew on Nasr's ideas in a 2007 open letter to
Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders called "
A Common Word Between Us and You." This project found success in Jordan and other Muslim-majority countries, especially those interested in more positive relations with the West, and was signed or endorsed by hundreds of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders around the world. Notably, it received positive responses from Pope Benedict XVI,
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams,
U.K. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and former
U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. Another dialogue project of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute called the
Common Ground Project was organized by Prince Ghazi and the
14th Dalai Lama and led by
Reza Shah-Kazemi. It applied Traditionalist ideas, especially the transcendent unity of religions, to dialogue between Islam and
Buddhism. These were compiled into a book entitled
Common Ground Between Islam & Buddhism, which the Institute has made freely accessible in its entirety online.
King Charles III According to Mark Sedgwick,
King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, was "more of an anti-modernist than a Traditionalist, though [...] Traditionalist influences [were] increasingly visible in some of his speeches". His 2010 book,
Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World shows the influence of Traditionalist thought applied to subjects such as environmentalism, organic farming, sacred art and architecture. The
Temenos Academy, which has Charles as a patron, is associated with Traditionalism and perennialism.
The Matheson Trust, an educational charity promoting interfaith dialogue and the study of comparative religion founded by Schuon's translator
Donald Macleod Matheson, has published Charles' contributions to the Traditionalist journal
Sacred Web. These include an article on "Building Bridges Between Islam and the West," and the transcript of a speech he gave introducing a Traditionalist academic conference in Canada. ==See also==