The struggle between the arab world and the christian west - Book Report/Review Example

The issue is not about America and the Arabs or American hegemony against Arab extremism. The United States is just a recent player in the entire experience of the conflict between the East and West based on religious grounds. The author cited the long narrative of the Middle Eastern experience. He pointed to the establishment of the many governments of each the states in the Middle East – from the establishment of military authoritarian governments, to democracies and constitutional monarchies.

For Viorst, these developments in this century are characterized by foreign involvement and that the war being waged from the perspective of the Arabs (at least those who engage in extremism and with the current permeation of anti-American sentiment) is the natural reaction in order to liberate their homeland. Their campaign and desire are not unlike what has been waged in the Middle Ages for control of the Holy Land. The Viorst text has helped me understand world affairs and world history in several ways.

The first of these is the fact religion is a vital force behind the Arab nationalism. Certainly, this point has been cited by several authors and historians several times already but, in this case, I learned a deeper understanding why this is so. The potency of religion in influencing conviction is due to the fact that it forms part of the belief and value systems of a community. Islam has been known to combine politics and religion that is why nationalism has been reinforced in such a way that the Western concept of it pale in comparison.

Arabs can talk about death to oppressors and claim religious righteousness but Western societies cannot accept this from its people. The differences are glaring and these underscored the irreconcilable conflicts in the perspectives of the East and the West. In Chapter 2 of the Stearns text, colonies emerge as new nations and that the reader is offered the simplistic analysis about nation-building for those territories that has been part of European imperialism and how the West took an active role in paving the road for them towards democracy.

Viorst arguments made me realize that they could emerge as another version of the Middle East, with a particular hatred to the West because of two factors: one, Islam dominated some of these states; and, the other being the West’s intervention in the self-determination of these nations. These former colonies could still harbor deep resentment from the exploitation of their resources and their wealth. Then, there is also the way I understood the current American foreign policies as exemplified best by the Bush doctrine.

Ideally, these policies look good and noble – that there is a need for freer societies in other parts of the world. As with the examples cited by Stearn in the newly-emergent nations of the Sub-Saharan Africa, the West took an active role in shaping the way they veered towards democracy. But the experiences of these countries with democracy have been troublesome. Many have descended into political chaos and authoritarianism, with constant bouts of civil wars. This is reminiscent of the brand of American democracy that is imposed upon under threats or promises of military and economic actions.

This has been highlighted in the