Clash of Civilizations
Asia Time Online
By Gavin Coates (2004)

Cartoon
Src: Allied Media Corps

Beyond the Clash of Civilizations. (src= cannot be found)

In 1993, U.S. American political advisor and Harvard professor, Samuel P. Huntington published his hypothesis, The Clash of Civilizations, in which he posited that identity politics, mainly cultural and religious, would pose the biggest threat to post-Cold War U.S. Specifically, he discusses the threatening nature of Islam to U.S. identity.

The Clash of Civilizations has its roots in contentious academic, Bernard Lewis’ The Roots of Muslim Rage, in which he asks (and answers) : “Why so many Muslims deeply resent the West, and why their bitterness will not easily be mollified.”

Both Huntington and Lewis’ texts essentialize Islam and the West, while painting the former as barbaric, and the latter as progressive.

This notion of ‘the Clash of Civilizations’ became the motto of many right-wing, elite, white supremacist groups in the U.S. to justify any violence on the part of Muslims in and outside the U.S. In the same logic, the hyphenated identity ‘Muslim-American’ no longer made sense to those who subscribed to this ideology.

This view does not take into account the many nuances that exist not only within notions of ‘The West’ and ‘Islam’, but also the relationship between ‘The West’ and ‘Islam’. Instead, it conveniently, demarcates both identities and defines them as fundamentally in opposition to one another.

Although many have criticized the usage of this term, it has been relentlessly exploited. In fact, the Financial Times had published a piece entitled Trump, Islam, and the Clash of Civilizations, only yesterday. While the piece itself decries Trump’s policies, it nevertheless operates under the paradigm of the ‘Clash of Civilizations’, building a prison around itself.

As we have discussed in class, using the same icons or symbols to fight another is like ‘replacing one addiction with another’. (Blooshi, Feb. 15) It’s time to move away from this straitjacket that disguises itself as truth.