Conflicts between civilizations have existed since civilizations themselves were evolved, due to differences in culture, religion, and politics. While the clash between the dominantly Christian West and the Muslim East, is certainly due to these differences, it is also the product of centuries of stereotypes inflated by biased scholarly work. More importantly, the struggle that the United States faces today with the Muslim world can be traced back to a false sense of superiority among white Europeans and the fight for power and land.
Following the birth of the Islam religion onto the Arabian Peninsula, it was documented in the Qur’an, which is believed to be the word of god as communicated to the prophet Muhammad, in the year 610 . The religion itself was similar to both Christianity and Judaism, but Westerners were ignorant to this fact and considered the followers as an ethnic group. This young civilization quickly began to conquer and acquire land including all of Arabia, Persia, ancient Rome, and Africa by 711. In the 15th century the Ottomans, a powerful Muslim dynasty, started to conquer additional land in central and southeastern Europe. While the Muslims continued to expand, they successfully passed on their religion to many native Christians, Jewish, and Zoroastrians on conquered land. The spread of Islam, among other social differences, created a cultural division in Europe referred to as “The Velvet Curtain”, with Protestant and Catholic on the North and West, and Orthodox or Muslim on the South and East .
Western Europeans began to see Muslims as a larger threat following their reign of power, and they often depicted them as violent and barbaric. As the Ottoman Empire began to lose land in the 18th century, Wester...
... middle of paper ...
...tates history, they were a retaliation on the government’s foreign policy, and not an unprompted attack on American people as the government reported . Now when there is any disaster including bombs or planes, the media is quick to assume and report that Islamic terrorists are to blame, and a majority of the time they are incorrect.
The generalizations on the Orient and Islam are deeply set into Western media, people and history. Americans must also face the stereotype pinned to our government as the people who want to take over the world . Western cultures tend to assume that every outside civilization strives to be a replica of themselves, and that the citizens of these non-conforming countries are out to destroy Western people and cultures. The racism involved with these attitudes have a lengthy history of inaccuracies, assumptions, and second-hand experiences.
Spielvogel, Jackson J. "The Muslim Empires: The Ottoman Empire.” Glencoe World History. New York, NY: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2005. p.484-489. Print.
In the years since the early 90’s, Huntington’s premise has not been proven wrong. Along the years, various conflicts occurred around the world which can be identified as the examples of the clash of civilizations. Certainly, other factors such as politics, economics and military also contribute to many conflicts, yet the most catastrophic and chaotic ones inevitably occur in the dispute between civilizations. Between Orthodoxy and Islam there was wars in Bosnia, Kosovo and the Caucuses, between Islam and Africa there was Boko Haram, between Islam and the Hindu civilization there was perpetual terrorism, between Orthodoxy and the West there was wars in Croatia and Slovenia and the current crisis in Ukraine, and of course, between the West and Islam, there was the phenomenon of Charlie Hebdo, not to mention the widely-known 9/11 tragedy.
The first is a rejection of the Clash thesis as fabricated myth for perpetuating Western dominance and justifying its aggrandizing policies. The other is of the Clash being inevitable due to the essentially and radically different ethos of Islam that makes it impossible to reconcile with the West. Sajjad (2013) thus added that Muslims needed to prepare for the approaching Clash. In his article, Sajjad (2013) interestingly shared some analysis from the non-Western world point of view on the flaw of Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations as
Islam is portrayed and is commonly accepted as the most violent and largest direct threat to the West. This is a generalization made by most of the West, but it is not particularly the West or the Islamic people’s fault. There is constant turmoil in Islamic countries in the Middle East and these conflicts are what make the news in the West. The only representation in the media that the Islamic nation gets is that of war. Though most Islamic people are not violent, the select few that do participate in terrorist groups give the rest of the Islam nation a bad image.
Islam, a religion of people submitting to one God, seeking peace and a way of life without sin, is always misunderstood throughout the world. What some consider act of bigotry, others believe it to be the lack of education and wrong portrayal of events in media; however, one cannot not justify the so little knowledge that America and Americans have about Islam and Muslims. Historically there are have been myths, many attacks on Islam and much confusion between Islam as a religion and Middle Easter culture that is always associated with it. This paper is meant to dispel, or rather educate about the big issues that plague people’s minds with false ideas and this will only be touching the surface.
The failure of defensive development in Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia had a large and long-lasting effect on the Muslim world. The original goal of the reforms was to end European intervention, revive the weakening empires, and to be on equal standing with Europe. Yet, all three empires over-utilized the wealth and knowledge of Europe, leading to their ultimate demise. The empires wished to impose reforms in the military, economics, education, and law which the region had not experienced previously. This resulted in backlash, violence, and division within the empires eventually leading to bankruptcy, ironically, to those which they wished to separate themselves.
Christianity has been in America since the Colonial Era (1600’s - 1700’s), and for over three centuries has dominated and deeply engrained itself into American Society . Islam, however, has only been introduced recently, and this has caused Islamic Believers (or Muslims) residing in America to be misinterpreted. After the September 11 bombings in 2001, there was a huge hatred for Muslims as they were interpreted as a religion that promotes destruction in the name of ‘Jihad’, or as it is often mistranslated as ‘Holy war’ . Although, the meaning of ‘Jihad’ is much wider than just ‘Holy war’, it is an internal struggle, within each Muslim, “…to be a good Muslim as well as advance the cause of Islam.” The Western understanding of ‘jihad’ however has been twisted to become related to terrorism. Whereas, Christians claim to promote the qualities of hard-work, honesty and moderation, and are therefore highly thought of in American Society, not only because of their supposed all encompassing teachings, but also because of their dominance as a religion in the Western World.
Orientalism as termed by Edward Said is meant to create awareness of a constellation of assumptions that are flawed and underlying Western attitudes towards the Muslim societies. Evidence from his 1978 book “Orientalism”, states that the culture has been of influence and marred with controversy in post colonial studies and other fields of study. Moreover, the scholarship is surrounded by somehow persistent and otherwise subtle prejudice of Eurocentric nature, which is against Islam religion and culture (Windschuttle, 1999). In his book, Said illustrates through arguments, that the long tradition in existence containing romanticized images of Islamic stronghold regions i.e. Middle East, and the Western culture have for a long time served as implicit justifications for the European and American Imperial ambitions. In light of this, Said denounced the practice of influential Arabs who contributed to the internalization of Arabic culture ideas by US and British orientalists. Thus, his hypothesis that Western scholarship on Muslim was historically flawed and essentially continues to misrepresent the reality of Muslim people. In lieu to this, Said quotes that, “So far as the United States seems to be concerned, it is only a slight overstatement to say that Muslims and Arabs are essentially seen as either oil suppliers or potential terrorists. Therefore, very few details such as human density, the passion of Arab-Muslim life has entered the awareness of even the people whose profession revolve around reporting of the Arab world. Due to this, we have instead a series of crude, essentialized caricatures of the Islamic world presented in such a way as to make that world vulnerable to military aggression” (Said, 1980).
Religion can be viewed from many different perspectives. People throughout the world hold different religious values. One person’s religious value will not match the religious values of another person. Globalization as a whole has affected the way we view the different religions and our feelings towards them; it has moved towards a more symbolic representation of ideologies. Many have come to believe that the west is more superior to others. Martha Crenshaw argues that globalization is a key driver of terrorism because there is a comparison between countries having less access to means of production and others having more access. Furthermore, most religions go against each other’s beliefs and as for Islam; they have neglected the ideologies of the west. In order to understand how religious values are interconnected is through language games; we think in certain ways because of issues of power.
Islam is a major world religion. Its origin can be traced back to 610 CE in Arabia. The basis of this religion is the revelations to the prophet Mohammad. Dissatisfied with his life, he traveled to deserts, hills, and the wilderness surrounding Mecca, where he lived, to meditate and reflect. He became a new man through his revelations, which many of his followers believe Allah transmitted to him through his angel Gabriel. Islam was originally an Arab religion, but many different beliefs and practices were added to it, making it extremely popular and aiding in its rapid spread. This new religion spread to many different areas surrounding Arabia, both under Mohammad and after his death. The Muslim Empire grew to encompass Spain and the Eastern Roman Empire as well Persia and Africa. Many different practices and methods were used to spread Islam. The religion itself was appealing to, in addition to the inhabitants of Arabia, other people in the surrounding areas because of its distinct religious beliefs and practices, such as the five pillars, as well as the humility and prayerfulness of the Islamic people. They fought cruel, vicious wars with their enemies. Many different things motivated the warriors to expand, but above all, the riches they would gain from the people of the Fertile Crescent encouraged them to expand.
If you recall my main point in “The Clash of Civilizations?”, I argued that the conflicts of the future will dominantly be due to cultural differences (Huntington, 1993). However, Said argues that instead of cultural differences, conflicts will stem from the ignorance that different cultures have when it comes to the other (Said, 2001). I defend my argument by pointing out that although Said believes the conflicts will stem from ignorance, the conflicts are still between civilizations. For Said’s argument to make sense, he has to admit that there are and always will be differences between these cultures that are of a sufficient scale, in order for one side to be ignorant about the beliefs and values of the other. The result of either civilization not understanding or accepting the practices of the other side’s culture is their eventual conflict (Huntington, 1993). Therefore, the basis of Said’s point supports my hypothesis that future conflicts will firstly, be between civilizations, and secondly, be due to their differences in culture.
Gradually, despite their many internal differences, the countries of Western Europe began to conceive of themselves as a single civilization, known as the West (Hall and Gieben 1992:289). The challenge from Islam was an important factor in shaping Europe and developing the idea of the West. Europe’s cultural identity was originally characterized by religion and civilisation, eventually, Europe developed a sharper geographical, political and economic definition; closer to the modern secular concept of the West (Hall and Gieb...
The division of the globe based on superior and inferior cultures due to Islamophobia is evident in the fact that Western countries, especially the Britain and America consider Islam as inferior. The countries also consider themselves superior to the Islamic religion and any individual associated with it.
My research has led me to the conclusion that conflict between Muslim groups and the Western societies is purely political, but tinged with misinterpretations of the Quran by Islamic radicals. The false justifications these groups make about the Quran explicitly directing Muslims to attack anyone of a different religion is motivated by a few key instigators political ambitions and want for power. It is because of these few groups of radicals and their own misinterpretation of the Quran that lead Westerners to view Muslims with distrust and suspicion. There is a strong need to practice religious tolerance and identify that the problem lies within a few groups of disgruntled individuals. Islam is a religion that preaches peace among those that follow its guidance and tolerance for peoples of other religions.
In 1992 within a lecture Samuel P. Huntington proposed a theory that suggests that people's cultural and religious identities will undoubtedly be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world, this theory is known as the Clash of Civilizations. Therefore this essay provides a criticism of this theory, whether I agree or disagree with it and also the aspects I like or dislike about the theory as a whole.