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![]() Struggling over civilisation
The fundamental shared feeling that characterises regional political forces -- that theirs is the sole correct vision --
A Lebanese fundamentalist group signs a document of understanding with Hizbullah. Syria and Russia are snuggling up to each other. Iran is allying with Hamas and Hizbullah (and, perhaps soon, with all other politically and culturally anti- Western
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Friday, September 19,2008 06:52 | |||||||
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A Lebanese fundamentalist group signs a document of understanding with Hizbullah. Our conflicts and alliances are not sectarian or religious, as natural as this would seem, but rather determined by civilisational motives to the core. Perhaps this explains that "amazing" convergence between opposites and why But how do we account for the meeting of opposites (fundamentalists and Shia) and the mutual repulsion of likes (Hamas and Saad Al-Hariri"s Future Movement)? How can we understand the Turkish-Israeli "alliance" in contrast with Arab-Iranian "tension", or the Qaeda- Afghani "rapprochement" versus the Afghani- Pakistani "enmity"? In short, how can we explain this perplexing mosaic in the Islamic world? Common interests alone are not sufficient to grasp these conflicting and intricate relationships. The convergences are by their very nature temporary and fluctuating in view of the lack of anything solid upon which to build cooperative relations and in view of the fluctuating nature of the "interests" themselves. Nor does religious- sectarian attraction or repulsion explain the mosaic. Indeed, the patterns of "cooperative" interplay are proof that this dynamic is not a key to unravelling the mystery. The essence of this mosaic goes deeper than mere temporary interests or customary sectarian tensions. It is to be found in the ethical and philosophical framework of these relationships or, otherwise put, in the "civilisational" component that seems to regulate the patterns of cooperation and conflict in the Arab and Islamic world. Specifically, it is to be found in the disparities in the ways the various units in the mosaic (governments, movements, organisations and other political forces) understand and handle this component. If we enlarge the picture, it appears that our current alliances and conflicts have entered a phase of fermentation in which likes and opposites within the same civilisation are surfacing as separate "civilisational" entities, each fanatically seeking to attain its own objectives. The Arab and Islamic world is in the grips of a conflict over the region"s civilisational heritage. Moreover, the conflict appears to have less to do with the "grand battle" between civilisations that Samuel Huntington predicted a decade and a half ago as it does with fighting "peers" within the same Islamic culture. It is about This "internal" civilisational conflict is governed by four factors, the first and foremost being religion. A huge battle is raging over the monopoly on religious capital in the Arab and Islamic world. The arenas are scriptural interpretation and rival claims to represent it politically and culturally. The contestants, in general, are four "versions" of Islam: the Iranian, the Turkish, the Arab and the Pakistani (to which some add a fifth, the Asian version), all bound solely by a common root (Islamic scripture) but divided by their diverse interpretations into conflicting opinions and applications ranging from the ultra right to the far left. In addition to the fight between the proponents of these versions to impose their vision on all others, the proponents of each version are fighting among themselves over who has the right to act as its spokesperson. For example, we have inter-Shia controversies over such questions as the rule of the clergy, the anticipated appearance of the Mahdi -- the prophesied guide of Islam -- and the higher aims of Islamic law. In The second governing factor is the minority structure in Arab societies. It has long been a shaky structure, not only because of spurts of political and religious fanaticism, but also because of the general lack of a climate of tolerance and the failure of the attempts on the part of Arab and Muslim regimes to forcefully integrate their minorities. This minority structure is, thus, rife with ethnic and sectarian time bombs throughout the length and breadth of the Islamic world. Some of these tensions have flared into open conflict, as is the case with the Ahmedis, Christians and Hindus in The third factor is the despotic structure in the Arab and Islamic world, a structure that has become so embedded that it has been transmitted from the head to the body, which is to say from prevailing regimes to the societies in which they operate. The expansion of the despotic structure benefited, of course, from the first two factors. At first glance, this trait seems to offer a window onto much of the interplay in the Arab world. Does not the despotic rigidity, demagoguery and inability to compromise form an "underlying" common denominator between all extremist forces? Is there not a powerful bond between the forces of "moderation" in their chauvinism and their desire to monopolise power forever? Do not both "extremists" and "moderates" conjure up the image of two bulls butting heads over an inert cadaver, this being Arab society? In this regard, it is possible to understand all this rooting for The fourth factor is the civilisational perception of the West. Here, there is a vast distance between those who want to sustain the greater civilisational confrontation against the West, which, for many of them, is lucrative political capital that earns them great kudos in their conflicts with domestic political elites, and those who seek to sustain a "scratch my back, I"ll scratch yours" connection with the West in the hope of perpetuating their power and influence without having to pay the political and cultural "price" of real modernisation and democratisation. Naturally, this adversarial structure did not suddenly spring up; it has been around for decades. However, it appears to be a more powerfully and intricately involved factor than ever before, and there are more and more indications that it is on the verge of exploding in the Arab and Islamic world. What may hasten the explosion is that the conflicting parties have no agreed-upon rules of play and that some are manoeuvring to outbalance and unbalance the others. The Islamists in If, as some Westerners claim, democracies don"t fight each other, authoritarian entities do. And the authoritarian entities we are talking about are currently thriving on religious and cultural fanaticism, their mutual animosities heightened by the profound economic and social disparities that riddle the Arab world from east to west as well as by the nature of their relationships with the West, which some regard as sufficient justification for attacking others on the grounds that this is a part of the holy war against heretics and secularism. Ending this inevitable internal "civilisational clash" seems almost like reinventing the wheel. The civil wars in * The writer is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution,
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Posted in Other Opinions , Lebanon , Iran |
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