Religious differences the new danger

The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future, said Samuel P Huntington in 1993.

COMMENT

By Khoo Ying Hooi

Strong protests have swept across the Muslim world over the trailer “Innocence of Muslims” since the video was first released on YouTube, uploaded by its director Sam Bacile.

The low-budget film stirred a wave of anti-American violence which targeted mostly symbols of American influence.

The video illustrates Prophet Muhammad in a negative light, portraying Him as a fool, womaniser and killer.

The debate over the video can be viewed in different perspectives. Some claim it is about freedom of expression and speech, while others say it is politically driven and manipulated.

The film has sparked a delicate debate about how far artistic freedom can be stretched.

YouTube has since blocked access to this video in several countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Morocco, including Malaysia and its neighbouring countries, Indonesia and Singapore.

Then a few days ago, a French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, published several insulting caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, including portraying the Prophet naked in the cartoons, which exacerbated the already tense atmosphere in the Muslim world.

In the past, there have been many other controversial publications and artworks that have caused uproar among the Muslims. But this time, the scale of protests has been massive and violent.

Back in 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the execution of British author Salman Rushdie for his novel “The Satanic Verses” because it contained some insults in the account of the Prophet Muhammad’s life.

In 2004, a short film “Submission” directed by prominent Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was aired in the Dutch television. The film was intended to feature the abuse of Muslim women; however it became dubious due to several images in the film.

In one of the controversial images, the opening lines of the Quran were written across the naked body of a Muslim woman. Two months after the broadcast, van Gogh was murdered by a young man, Mohammed Bouyeri, on an Amsterdam street.

In 2005, 12 cartoons by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten showed Prophet Muhammad in various humorous situations, including a drawing of the Prophet wearing a lit bomb inside his turban. This sparked violent demonstrations throughout much of the Muslim world.

The clash of civilizations

The theory of the clash of civilizations, first propounded by the influential political scientist Samuel P Huntington in 1993 in the magazine “Foreign Affairs”, just shortly after the end of the Cold War, might be able to shed some light on what is happening now.

The theory came about as a response to Francis Fukuyama’s book in 1992, “The End of History and the Last Man”.

Huntington opined that there will be no longer ideological (political) or economic conflicts in the post-Cold War world; instead the new danger will arise out of the cultural and religious differences between the people, and this will serve as the primary source of conflict.

In his book, “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order”, he stated that “religion is the central defining characteristic of civilizations”.

He emphasised that people are being divided along cultural lines and there is no universal civilization but there are cultural blocks, with each block having its own distinct set of values.

In the 1993 “Foreign Affairs” article, Huntington wrote, and I quote:

“It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.”

If we recall the Sept 11 attacks which have left a strong impact and become a turning point in re-looking into global security, many scholars have turned to Huntington’s theory in seeking to understand the reasons for such attacks.

Some argue that the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the war between the West and al-Qaeda and the acts of terrorism by religious extremists are some of the reasons that have led to the escalation of the clash of civilizations.

“The Innocence of Muslims” may not have literally caused the killings of the four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, but the spread of the video has indeed sparked viral protests in many Muslim countries.

Like it or not, whether one agrees with Huntington’s theory, there appears to be a serious conflict between Islam and the Western world. Reconciliation between civilizations is a tough task and will only be achievable in the long term.

The writer is an academic staff in Universiti Malaya and a PhD candidate in the University Putra Malaysia. She is a FMT columnist and can be contacted at yinghooi@gmail.com.