Political Cultural Perspective Of Islam And West - Term Paper Example

Political Cultural Perspective Of Islam And West Introduction Of late, the world appears to be divided into two distinct civilizations: the Islamic and the Western. Countries which follow Islam are Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, Nigeria, to name just a few. The followers of Islam are referred to as Moslems. On the other hand, countries like the USA and Canada adhere to a different pattern of civilization: the Western civilization. According to some Western scholars like Huntington, Fukuyama and Lewis, the Islamic nations to merge with the modern age we live in and are very much on a verge of collision with the Western countries. Diversity in civilizations can be stated as the root cause for this collision (Huntington). Social, cultural and religious issues have always remained a dividing line between the Islamic and the Western countries. Uneven development of social issues and the recent clash of globalization have added to this partition. In spite of the Western participation in the issues of the Islamic countries, mostly the Middle East, no sweet bonding between the two civilizations has been revealed. The Islamic nations like Iran and Syria are actually being considered the storehouse of war weapons and are in the full mood to enter into war with the West especially, the US. According to the innumerable number of Muslim and non-Muslim scholars Islamic societies, like other world cultures influenced by traditional religions are reacting to the global transformation taking place. The reaction is a combination of anguish, denials, and social tensions. Like Christianity or Judaism, Hinduism or Buddhism, Islam has been adopted for various reasons, from modernism to traditionalism, liberalism to conservatism, which may have nothing to do with its origination transcendent, message of unity and equality before God. Nourishment of humanitarian acts like terrorism in the terra firma of the Middle East reveals an expression of rebellious nature for the West. It cannot be denied that the 11th September terrorists’ attack was actually an attempt of the Islamic communities to instigate the Western powers. The Split between the Two Civilizations The world will soon enter a phase when there will be wars not on the basis of ideology or economy, but on the ground of conflicting cultures (Huntington). The differentiating factors of the Islamic and Western civilization are history, culture, language, tradition and religion (Huntington). Individuals of these two civilizations possess diverse outlook towards the relations between God and man. It is true that the West is considered to be at the peak of power (Huntington). However, it has also been observed that the failure of Western thoughts of socialism and nationalism has led to “re-Islamization” of the Middle East (Huntington). “A West at the peak of its power confronts non-West that increasingly have the desire, the will and the resources to shape the world in non-Western ways” (Huntington). It has been argued that the wrong answer to the question “What are you” in Islamic places like Caucasus, Sudan and Bosnia can lead to a bullet in the head (Huntington). Further, it is believed that there can be a half-French or a Half-Arab, but the existence of a half-Muslim or a half-Catholic is impossible (Huntington). Research reveals that while Western countries like the USA boasts of a literacy rate of almost 99% for both men and women, an Islamic nation like Saudi Arabia holds a literacy rate of only 84.7% for men and 70.8% for women (Stevenson). Moreover, the two civilizations differ grossly in terms of the religion followed. Although the majority of the Western population follows Christianity, this part of the world is home to the followers of various diverse religions as well. However, Islamic countries strictly follow Islam and Muslims dominate the society. Also, the two civilizations exhibit totally uncommon lifestyles (“The Differences”). In most of the Islamic nations, the people have a conservative mind-set in terms of women. Here, two women are forbidden to go outside together. Moreover, women have to keep their heads covered in public. On the other hand, the Western nations reveal a liberal and democratic mind-set in which both the genders can enjoy equal privileges (“The Differences”). Western scholars claim that the collision is expected to take place between the west and the rest (Huntington 1993). It has been stated that despite the nation states being the strongest in global politics, the culture along with the religion of the Middle Eastern Islam and Eastern Asian Confucianism will pose the maximum threat to the security of the world (Huntington). The cultural similarities will go a long way in combining countries into civilizations thereby leading to wars (Huntington). In the words of Huntington (Huntington): Civilians are differentiated from each other by history, language, culture, tradition and, most important, religion. The people of different civilizations have different views on the relations between God and man, the individual and the group, the citizen and the state, parents and children, husband and wife, as well as differing views of the relative importance of rights and responsibilities, liberty and authority, equality and hierarchy. The ideas of Huntington have been challenged by other scholars like Skidmore who argues that it is impossible to combine two nations into common civilizations keeping in mind the vast cultural differences (Skidmore). The scholar further states that Huntington has not offered any standard criteria for recognizing civilizations or differentiating them (Skidmore). Also, Skidmore argues that not all civilizations can be grouped on the basis of language, religion and ethnicity (Skidmore). Hence the scholar is confident that such vague beliefs can hardly cause any threat to the Western Nations (Skidmore). Another popular scholar, Fukuyama reveals discontent on Huntington’s logic and is confident that such unclear commonness of civilizations can never merge them together for calling a war against the West (Fukuyama). Huntington’s short-changing of the effects of globalization has been grossly considered as a bad guess for the future conflict as it is not a good idea to assume that globalization can be equated with Westernization thereby leading to collisions. Globalization will result into multi-culturalism rather than Westernization. Hence, the effect of globalization will have more positive than negative results in Islamic countries. It is a fact that though though liberal democracy is not-favoured, millions of Muslim people in Egypt belonging to the middle class considers the notion of Islamic state with awe, secretly wanting a more modern, Westernized policy in which religion has no political participation (Auda). Conclusion Several scholars have provided their opinions about the relations between the Islamic and the Western countries. According to some Western scholars like Huntington, the world is soon going to enter an era in which wars will take place on the ground of contrasting cultures and religions. The scholar declares that the non-Western nations will together become civilizations on the basis of similar cultures and religions and will together pose a great threat to the Western nations in terms of wars. However, this approach of Huntington has been thoroughly questioned by other scholars like Skidmore, Fukuyama and Andes who are of opinion that such vague similarities can never unite all civilizations and hence there is no question of any great threat to the Western world from the side of he the Islamic nations. From the above study, we can conclude that though there appears to be some kind of anguish going on in the terra firma of the Islamic nations, it cannot come out as a strong threat to the Western world in terms of wars. Also, due to the diverse ethnicity, religion and culture followed in different nations such as Buddhism followed in Japan, China and most of the south Asian Countries and Hinduism followed by India, it appears less likely that such diverse civilizations will merge together to launch a war against the West. The issues of this part of the Islamic world have been carried out since the past, persist in the present and are most likely to move to the future as well. This calls for a proper strategy of the Islamic nations to develop strategies for encouraging growth and peace. Globalization can be an important helping tool at this stage. It is high time that the Islamic nations look forward to a more open-minded society in which liberty is encouraged. Failure to do so will enable the presence of the existing chaotic situations in the Islamic nations. Works Cited Auda, G. ’The Islamic Movement and Resource Mobilization of Egypt: A Political Cultural Perspective”, in L Diamoond (ed.) Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries. Boulder, Col., Lynne Rienner. 1993. 379-407. Fukuyama, F. ”The End Trust: Social Virtues and the Creating of Prosperity”. 1995. New York Press: New York Huntington, S. ”The Clash of Civilization”. Foreign Affairs. 1993. 22-50. 1993. Skidmore, D. “Huntington’s Clash Revisited”. Journal of World Systems Research.4(2). 1998, 178-188. Stevenson, J. “Educational Differences between Saudi Arabia and the United States of America”. Associated Content. 8 Oct. 2010. Retrieved on 9 Dec. 2010. . “The Differences between Saudi Society and American Society”. AE2. 13 Sep. 2008. Retrieved on 9 Dec. 2010. < http://ceslae2.blogspot.com/2008/09/differences-between-saudi-society-and_13.html>. Read More