Individuals maintain indicators throughout an indication in opposition to Islamophobia in Montréal in March 2017. The antiquated and faulty Conflict of Civilizations idea has harmed Muslims for nearly 30 years. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
“The conflict of civilizations,” wrote the late American political scientist Samuel Huntington in a well-known 1993 article, “will dominate world politics.” He predicted: “The fault traces between civilizations would be the battle traces of the longer term.”
Picked aside by critics for conceptual and empirical errors, the tragedy of 9/11 breathed new life into his idea of worldwide relations. Huntington was considered prophetic.
Smoke rises from the burning twin towers of the World Commerce Middle after hijacked planes crashed into the towers on 9/11.
(AP Picture/Richard Drew, File)
His imaginative and prescient of an “Islam with bloody borders” that will confront the West, fuelled by Muslim extremists, put wind within the sails of the so-called Warfare on Terror, turning western Muslims into suspects, not residents, and remodeling them into societal outcasts.
However Huntington additionally predicted:
“If civilization is what counts … the probability of violence between Ukrainians and Russians needs to be low. They’re two Slavic, primarily Orthodox peoples who’ve had shut relationships with one another for hundreds of years.”
Now that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has proved him spectacularly incorrect, it’s time to throw out his entire outlook, which has traumatized Muslims the world over.
Learn extra:
Russia’s actions in post-Soviet wars present clues to its brutal Ukraine invasion
What was Huntington’s idea about?
Some would possibly argue {that a} idea is fabricated from components, and Huntington might have been incorrect on the Russian aspect of his beliefs, however on Islam, he was proper — so there’s no must throw the infant out with the tub water.
Nevertheless, the Conflict of Civilizations idea has devastated Muslims for years as a result of it fashioned the idea of post-9/11 safety insurance policies
that focused the supposed enemy of the West — Muslims. We have to shatter the Huntington lens utterly, not simply take away the portion on Russia and Ukraine.
First, a quick recap of the idea.
Many analysts are reluctant to foretell what politics will appear like sooner or later. Huntington didn’t hesitate, and was completely happy to supply editors on the journal Overseas Affairs, Jim Hoge and Fareed Zakaria, the “large and controversial” article they wished for his or her launch.
The duvet of Huntington’s e-book.
(GoodReads)
His piece, “The Conflict of Civilizations?” — the query mark was eliminated for the e-book model — argued that wars had developed from fights between princes to conflicts amongst nations after which to ideological clashes.
Huntington opined that the longer term conflicts that will dominate the globe could be wars between civilizations. The almost definitely perpetrator could be Islam which, he mentioned, had “bloody borders.”
Sept. 11 elevated the idea
With out 9/11, Huntington’s idea would have doubtless been relegated to academia.
Even on the “Islam versus the West” depend, it failed. It didn’t account for:
• A steady alliance between america and Saudi Arabia
• Sectarian or ethnic divisions inside civilizations
(Protestant/Catholic; Sunni/Shia; Germany/France; Turks/Arabs/Persians/Malays, and many others.)
• Inter-ethnic and inter-religious pluralism in Muslim historical past (700 odd years of the Convivencia in Al Andalus, Muslim Spain)
• Alliances between Islamists and the CIA within the 1979 Afghan warfare to oust the Soviet Union
• Thousands and thousands of Muslims keen and completely happy to dwell in western nations.
That’s a quick record.
Muslim leaders pushed for various world views, akin to former Iranian president Seyed Mohammad Khatami in his Dialogue of Civilizations and by way of organizations just like the Alliance of Civilizations and the Frequent Phrase Initiative that developed into World Interfaith Concord Week. They countered that politics was by no means inevitable, however formed by selections we make.
Sherene Razack, a Canadian girls’s research and important race educational, argues that niqab bans are illogical as a result of not one of the acknowledged causes, akin to incapacity to speak or combine, stand as much as comparative scrutiny, so we should flip to psychoanalysis to grasp.
Learn extra:
Québec’s push to ban the hijab is ‘sexularism’
The identical applies to Huntington’s idea. Why does the idea nonetheless enchantment, regardless of proof that it’s incorrect?
The Conflict of Civilizations nonetheless has traction due to its emotive, tribal enchantment, establishing an us-versus-them state of affairs that’s helped create anti-Muslim westerners and anti-westerner Muslims.
Hurt to Muslim westerners
Muslim youth rising up within the West since 9/11 have skilled a “collective trauma,” as one among my college students put it not too long ago.
Their weekly reflection notes written in response to class discussions roil with themes of despair at being scapegoated for violent actions that occurred earlier than they had been born and that they’d nothing to do with.
They’re resentful that their beloved religion has been singled out for being violent, whereas they know and expertise western violence within the identify of democracy. They watched because the U.S. dropped greater than 26,000 bombs on Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan in 2016 alone.
Some really feel anxiousness and despair at not having the ability to slot in and be accepted for who they’re.
An anti-Islamic protester is pursued by a bunch of protesters with opposing views throughout an indication in Toronto in March 2017.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
The scant literature on the psychological fallout from being handled as a terror suspect highlights psychological well being problems with despair, anxiousness, despair — a power trauma embracing all the Muslim group, younger to outdated.
The West and Islam share many values that may kind the muse of excellent relations. There’s no must outcast those that share beliefs of standing up for justice, service to the poor, aiding neighbours, being sort to the aged and kids and the significance of onerous work and self-sufficiency.
Subsequent yr, the Conflict of Civilizations idea could have carried out a horrible job at explaining geopolitical forces for the previous 30 years. Let’s throw it a retirement occasion.
Katherine Bullock doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that will profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.
