Adrian Tamayo
University of Mindanao
Clash of Culture as war against terrorism?
The 9/11 entered into the history of mankind as the worst butchery ever aside from the world wars. In response, the Bush administration declared the war against terrorism. But what this declaration connotes is more than imagining the tanks rolling out of the arsenals, this should highlight who are the targets. The war against terrorism is fight against the spreading of the plague of the barbarians who are opposing civilization itself” . The target of this war against will be those depraved who opposed civilization. Huntington supposed that the source of conflict cannot be ideologic neither economic, he said that “ the great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural” as power and control now rests in the nation states and that conflicts will be among these different nations with different cultures – thus Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations”.
It was said that a civilization is the highest grouping of people having the same culture and cultural level which strikes the difference of one group of people from another, civilization is a primary source of pride and identity. The civilizations can be as large as China or can also be small, it may also be composed of various nations and can be subdivided into small civilizations – Islam can be subdivided to Arab, Turkic and Malay while the Western Civilization can be categorized broadly to European and North American (Huntington, 1993). As mentioned that there were 21 civilizations according to history study of Arnold Tonybee but it was stressed that due to blending, overlapping and merging of these various civilizations, eight sustained – Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American and a hopeful African civilization. These civilizations are likely to be in conflict because of the six reasons as enumerated by Huntington as: (1) differences in civilizations are real; (2) the world is getting smaller through ease of mobility and communication; (3) modernization and social changes which sensationalizes the North-South relationship, or the rich country - poor country relationship; (4) the civilization consciousness and the role of the West; (5) cultural characteristics are considered to be mutable and can be resolved; (6) economic regionalism is apparent. Cromsky added the seventh most logical reason – the role of the United States is increasingly observable in the domestic affairs of the many nations which caused economic and political instability in countries like Palestine, Lebanon, Algeria, South Africa, Nicaragua, Afghanistan.
The mode of intervention was to quell down the enemies through “ wrecking the economy and prosecute a long and deadly proxy war until the exhausted natives overthrow the unwanted government themselves,” thus forcing the people themselves to rise in revolt against their own government and in the end leaving the economy in great havoc with many basic infrastructure destroyed and population annihilated. The proxy war or the minimal conflict employs the use of brute force to the inhabitants to agitate the natives against their own government. These perpetrators of proxy wars have the sophisticated logistical and intelligence support through the CIA.
While the Bush Administration was quick to declare war on terror, other countries supported the policy even more eager. These countries on the other hand, have a history of their own account of atrocities: Russia against Chechnya; China is involved in the violence against the Muslim secessionist in Western China; Turkey is killing the Kurds in the Southeastern Turkey; Indonesia against Ache; Algeria which is domestically terrorizing its people - Cromsky described the coalition against terrorism as the leading terrorists States in the world which is led by the worst terrorist state – US.
The Rise of the Perpetrators
It was said that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) organized the terrorists of the world. These individuals were coming from across the globe – Pakistan, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and China, with the sole purpose to pester the Russians in the 1980’s. These individuals were referred to as the Mojaheddin. It was in the format of mercenary army to cause the biggest trouble to the Russian army conquering Afghanistan. It is understandable that the Afghans should defend themselves against the Russians but with the US intervening in the affairs through the Mojaheddin was beyond the call. As the Russians were withdrawing and the Russo-Afghan war coming to an end, the terrorists forces of the CIA pursued their own agenda with the first act of aggression being observed when they assassinated President Sadat of Egypt. Note Sadat was one of the most supportive of the creation of the Mojaheddin in the Afghanistan. When the Russians withdraw completely in 1989, the terror attacks were since then found in other countries such as Chech-nya, Western China, Bosnia, Kashmir, South East Asia, North Africa resonating the same agenda. As evident in the words of Bin Laden and other known terrorists that their objective is to stop the infidels, “clash of civilization” thesis - a conflict between the Western and the Islamic civilizations. The enemy is the corrupt and brutal regime of the Arab world and their aim is to defend the proper Islamist governments and defend Muslims against the infidels. With the US establishing a permanent military base in Saudi Arabia after responding to the call of King Fahd for military support against Iraq, the act was considered as act of aggression against the Muslim World as it is a home to holy places to Islam. It was also deemed that the United States continuously halting the development of the many countries, in addition to its policies to Iraq, and its support to the Israeli army’s harsh and brutal occupation of the Gaza and part of Palestine.
On the other hand, the breeding of the terrorist was hard to penetrate. The terrorist convention of activities developed into a new method of organizing called as the leaderless resistance . It takes in the assumption that the person can most truly trust in a small, unorganized group characterized by affinity – thus also called as affinity groups or decentralized networks.
The Rise of Islamic Militancy
The Islamic fundamentalism had been using the suhra in order to justify their course of violence in the pre-text of self-defense or a response to an imminent threat. However, it was found that more often, the militancy does not associate with Islam and its teachings. According to Vertigans (2009) that the militant groups such as Hizb ul – Mujahidin in Kashmir, Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian territories, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Lashkar Jihad in Indonesia, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Arakan Rohingya Nationalist Organization in Myammar and the Southeast Asian Jemaah Islamiyah are tending away from the Islamic way of life.
When this militancy started? Vertigans (2009) subscribed to the “clash of civilization” thesis of Huntington(1993) in describing the declaration of Bin Laden in 1998 with its “Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Holy Places” enjoining all Muslims to kill Americans anywhere in the world. Accordingly, the objective is to expel Americans from Saudi Arabia . With this declaration, the hidebound and nation-bounded war against threat to Islam was concentrated and supported with a fatwa or a religious edict, a united opposition for militancy against the United States started. Thus the clash spread from Palestine, to Iraq, Kenya, Tanzania, Chechnya, Indonesia, Kashmir and in 2001 the world witnessed that the threat was already brought into the territory of the United States .
These until
As civilizations clash, the victims are primarily the defenseless children and women who by thousands are deprived of food, shelter and safety. The children and women are living the day in fear, trouble and uncertainty of life. The figures and horrible deaths by no means were used as statements of objective by the terrorists themselves. But all of these will persist when civilizations continue to point their differences as source of conflict and not potential co-existence; the roads, villages, towns will remain dark, dangerous and deserted. Fear shall be the language of the land. Until culprits of carnage were not put to trial and face justice, horizontal violence is potent aiming at innocent civilians in the name of revenge. Until when people learn to forgive and reconcile, recognize and respect common differences as platform for dialogue, recognize individual dignity and equal rights , then terrorism will threaten humanity with its compelling force.
The development of the principle of Centrist Democracy fits perfectly in the desire to bring peace among warring nations, among civilizations. The trialogue of the centrist democracy of human dignity, subsidiarity and social market economy all hail praise for the supremacy of the welfare of the individual as opposed to the welding of powers in the center. Can the Centrist Democracy fit into the big picture? Or narrowly asked can each one contribute towards a just and lasting peace in accordance with the principles of dignity and respect for life without the compulsion and force?
