American History

In Bernard Lewis essay, Clash of Civilizations, the main thesis is what the article says is true.  As the title suggests, there is indeed an ongoing clash of two civilizations or cultures, particularly Western and Islamic.  However, as a point of clarification, this conflict was instigated not by Islamic society in general, but by those sitting on the extreme of their beliefs such as Osama bin Laden who declared war against the west because they saw it as a threat not only to their faith, but also to their way of  life and have called upon the faithful to take up arms and defend Islam from evil forces represented by the west, particularly the United States.   These extremists are called Islamists.

This group in particular, as stated before is anti-democratic and seeks to establish a government grounded on the teachings of the Quran, their sacred scripture.  They seek to use Islam a political movement to mobilize people to their cause to gain political authority through any means necessary, legitimate, through elections, or otherwise through revolution and once in power, enforce their agenda based on Islamic teachings upon society.  Bin Laden would evoke historical allusions where the Muslim world has suffered more than 80 years of what he called  humiliation and disgrace  at the hands of western nations, particularly the United States in most recent times.  Lewis further states
 In the early centuries of the Muslim era, the Islamic community was one state under one ruler.  Even after that community split up into many states, the ideal of a single Islamic polity existed. The states were almost all dynastic with shirting frontiers there are histories of dynasties, of cities and primarily, of the Islamic state and community (417).  

Islamists oppose democracy because of its intimate association with western culture.  This began way back when the Young Turks led by Mustafa Kemal overthrew the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.  What made this even a  precedent  for the Islamists was that the Sultan was also recognized a Caliph as anyone who carried the title could trace their lineage to the Prophet Mohammed himself.  Kemal s secularist policies were not Islamic but of western influence.  The secularization of Turkey for the Islamists appear to set a  dangerous  precedent as far as the continued existence of Islamic culture is concerned.   What Islamists want is to restore the old ways   the Caliphate which they believed helped Islamic culture flourish through the 7th centuries and beyond following the death of Mohammed.
Islamists tend to regard democracy and capitalism not only foreign but something exclusive to western civilization.  From a religious standpoint, they see western ideals as a product of Judaeo-Christian influence.  This is why when they entertain the thoughts of modernizing or embracing democracy, they tend to equate this with westernization.  And with westernization, this would mean putting their culture in danger of being  polluted  or  corrupted  if not eradicated completely (Huntington,  if not, Civilizations, what ).  This is the reason why fundamentalism or extremism resorts to terrorism.  Their faith impels them to defend their culture against the  evil  influence of democracy and capitalism. With this kind of image, non-Muslims will think Islam is not tolerant to change or progress, that western ideas are incompatible to the teachings of the Quran.

Huntington further states this will go on as the world is  shrinking.    This stands to benefit the west since they no longer had any rival since the Cold War in the Soviet Union and communism.  The only thing now is that the loss of an ideological rival brought in a cultural rival which saw them as a threat (Huntington,  Clash of Civilizations ). The challenge on the part of the west is to demonstrate that they do not pose a threat to other cultures by being sensitive to it, and democracy and western ideas can be compatible with Islam. President George W. Bush took the right step in clarifying they are going after the terrorists responsible for the 911 attacks, not attacking Islam in general.  They need to counter Bin Ladens argument that the west is threatening Islam.  In this war on terrorism, they must prove Bin Laden is wrong.  Afghanistan and Iraq should serve as the test bed to prove their resolve.  If the west can succeed here, then they will have won the battle between civilizations.  Once again, as a point of clarification, they want to pursue peaceful coexistence with Islamic cultures and only want to defeat the extremists who wants to see them destroyed.