Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Was Mr Samuel Huntington right after all? Is there a clash of global civilizations in the making?
Boko Haram and its killings on nigerian christian population, the frequent clashes between indian hinduist and muslim populations, shia versus sunnis growing divide and animosity, and now ISIS threats on iraqis christians nestorians, as well as Lebanon becoming again a powder keg for an all out broad inter confessional war between christians and sunnis and shias, all these recent and recurrent events that are shown and often magnified by mainstream media have one thing in common: religion and civilization fault lines breaking apart, where more than energy resources reasons for these conflicts, there´s religious motives also underlying these confrontations and killings. And all these giving relevance, for supporters and haters, to Mr Samuel Huntington´s main and (in)famous political theory of a clash of civilization confronting western values against the eastern and mostly muslim societies. Though this theory was claimed to be by many detractors as racist and inspired by the WASP elements (white anglo saxon protestants) of global powers, and strongly exxagerating the superiority of the West over East in simple words, nowadays, one crucial factor of this theory has proven to be accurate, and is the one of religion, and we have been seeing this sadly on the news recently when talking about previous events i mentioned at the beginning of this post. But what prompted me to think about Mr Huntington right away was when reading the Vatican justified the U.S intervention over Iraq on behalf of iraqi´s christian nestorians minority against the ISIS mass murder of minorities of yezidis and christians, and really is showing that there´s a growing divide between western and eastern societies, even with the expanding reach of internet, social networks and the likes, wheere religious divisions are playing a pivotal role when talking about this. Even though Mr Huntington was criticized and supported at the same time by all ideologies worldwide, one thing is true in our times, religious intolerance at every spot of the world is growing, as well as at the ethnic and nationalities category, and where on the contrary of globalization and borderless world claimed and asked for by many groups, ultranationalism and xenophobia is on the rise specially in Europe aimed mainly at muslim immigration from the Maghreb and other parts of Africa and the Middle East, adding another element to the revival for this clash of civilization of Mr Huntington. But lets see for how long this endure and sustain.
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