CHAPTER
IX
CULTURAL
FACTORS IN ARAB-WEST RELATIONS
LI WEIJIAN
One of the important
features of the Islamic culture is that its religion is not only the source of
the whole cultural system, but also its quintessence and core. The revival based
on Islam targets both the secular regimes of the Islamic world and the US-led
Western hegemonic forces. The collision between the Islamic culture and the
Western civilization results in two conflicting social trends of thought, a
so-called “division of values”.
In dealing with the
relations between modernization and their national features, many countries go
to two extremes, either full Westernization or overemphasis on their tradition.
The integration of their traditional culture with foreign cultures is of key
importance to Arab modernization. The contemporary Islamic movement is
fundamentally an inward social reform. Islamic culture has the trait of
integrating and assimilating fine cultures of other nations. The so-called
“Islamic threat” is actually a “Devil” fabricated by the West.
The concepts of national power, military security and
geopolitics emphasized by Western realism long dominated the theory and practice
of international relations. However, other relevant factors, covered over by the
ideological confrontation between blocs led by the United States and the former
Soviet Union, did not receive enough attention. After the end of the Cold War,
with the strengthening of nationalization and the pluralism of world cultures,
the role of culture in international relations has become prominent; this is
obvious particularly in Arab-West relations. The conflicts and clashes between
Arab cultures with Islamic traits and Western capitalist culture have a long
history and were subordinated to US-Soviet contention for hegemony in the past
nearly half century. The Islamic revival in the late 1970s renewed once again
ethnic, national and cultural consciousness among Arabs. The transformation of
the international configuration has added a strong Islamic cultural color to the
politics and foreign relations of Arab countries. The Arab voice for the
reestablishment of Islamic cultural identity and value norms has become ever
stronger. Such a social thought trend has deeply affected the orientation of
cultural values in the policy making of Arab countries. This has caused deep worries in the West which thinks that it “will certainly make
the relations between Islamic countries and the West more complex”.1
Islamic culture is a unique cultural system based on
the fine cultural heritage of Arab nation and integrating the fine cultural
elements of other nations. What makes it different from other cultures is that
the religion is not only the source of the cultural system, but continues to be
its quintessence and core. This is determined by the ideological features of
Islam itself.
Islam is both a religion and a whole set of social,
economic and cultural systems. Its ethical and moral systems reflect its
socio-economic foundation with broad and profound connotations. This enables it
to form a close relationship with Arab society of the same structure since its
birth in Arabia in the early 7th century. Hence, Islam suits
Easterners, especially Arabs. That is to say, Engels noted that, on the one
hand, it suits the businessman and craftsman living in the city; on the other
hand, it suits also the nomadic Bedouins.2 The lifestyle enlightened
by this religion suits all the fields of human existence. Thus it is regarded as
the guideline of every Muslim and becomes the norm for every social event,
transformation and cultural alienation. This implies that “a development, an
event, or a social change viewed in one fashion in the West may be seen in a
totally different light by an Islamic society”.3
Having experienced centuries of changes and development, Islam, as the
dominant culture of the Arab world, has permeated every level of society and
life, becoming the coordinate of social values and directing the mode of
thinking and the behavioral trends of most Muslims. Many famous Arab thinkers
including Jemaleddin Afghani, one of the pioneers of Muslim reform, used Islam
merely as a vehicle to express their political views because “he had no other
way to express his views so as to make them relevant to the Muslim audiences
except by reference to Islam.”4
The Arab nation shares all the elements to define a
nation: the same language, land, customs, descent and history. However, nothing
can continuously combine all kinds of Arab groups except Islam which has played
an important role in the formation of Arab national consciousness. In his book, The
Historical Roots of Arab Nationalism, the famous Arab scholar Abd al-Aziz
al-Duri said, “Arab nationalism is essentially cultural. It is not based on a
racial concept, since the conception of the Arab nation was drawn from the
language, the process of Arabization, the cultural heritage, and the historic
role of the Arabs.”5 Arabs
were unified through the Islamic movement and became
one nation. Islam furnished Arab consciousness with a clear content and a
well-defined direction, provided this Arab nation with a humanistic message that
it carried throughout the world, and gave the Arabs a comprehensive foundation
for the creation of a new society and a new civilization.6
It
was not until the late 19th century that nationalism as an
influential ideology emerged in the Arab world. “Muslim Arabs, however, did
not experience a truly nationalist awakening until the end of the nineteenth
century and the beginning of the twentieth century.”7 In the past,
the Arab elite used to interpret social and political changes according to
relevant Islamic principles. After World War II, however, all kinds of
nationalist consciousness dominant in the Arab world and Muslim national
awakening were consistent with the struggles against colonial rule and for
national independence.
The two are different by nature. Nationalism
originated from the West, and its values have more or less Western vestiges.
What is more, the purpose of nationalism is to build a non-religious national
state. Therefore, it cannot survive without secularism as a condition. Muslim
society is against secularization, thinking that secularization would damage the
Islamic cultural tradition and result in Muslim nations' loss of political
independence.
Besides, Islam is also incompatible with the West in
ideology and values. The participation of Muslim society in the national
movement is actually an instinctive reaction to the colonial expansion of the
West. It is an undeveloped, but strong, desire embraced by the majority of
Muslims to be rid of the heretic oppression, resist foreign rule, and safeguard
their liberty. Because of the essential contradiction of the two, nationalists
obviously lowered the position of Islam in national politics and Islamic forces
were repressed to different degrees during the first more than a decade when
they were in power.
However, Arab nationalism has never got rid of the
influence of Islam because of the restriction of its historic condition and
social foundation, its congenital deficiency, and particularly close link with
Islam through the language and culture used as its basis. That is why Islam is
often put forward immediately as a substitute value choice when nationalism
meets with frustration. Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz, a former Iraqi ambassador to
Egypt and later Prime Minister, expressed to his view on the relationship
between nationalism and Islam in the 1950s, which has been influential up to
now. Arab nationalism and Islam, according to al-Bazzaz, are intimately
connected. Islam is a kind of national religion; its inner core being Arabic.
The Prophet was an Arab, the language used in the revelation from the Koran is
Arabic, and Islam retains many customs of the Arabs. Therefore,
“notwithstanding its universality, Islam had an inner appeal to the Arabs and,
through its language, formed the core of Arab nationalism.”8 Though
his view caused some dissatisfaction among non-Arab Muslims because of its
overemphasis on Islamic Arab features and their resulting sense of superiority,
the intimate and inherent connection of Arab nationalism with Islam it reveals
is believable.
From a general survey of the political and social
movements in Arab history, one finds that very few occurred without an Islamic
background; almost all the important Arab nationalist movements took place under
the banner of Islam in modern times. It was through allying with the
fundamentalist Wahhabi Movement at the very beginning and unifying the
ideologies of different tribes with Islam that the Saudi royal family was able
to establish a nation state. Islam also played a decisive role in the national
movements in Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Morocco and Oman.
Though secular nationalists led the national
movements in Egypt and the crescent, at the beginning they made full and
effective use of Islam to call on the common people. For example, Nasser, the
Arab national hero, took power, to a great extent, because of the support of
Muslim Brotherhood. He endowed Islam with a new explanation in terms of
nationalist ideas, holding that “all the revelations of God are actually
embodied in revolution, the goal of which is to resume human dignity and
well-being.”9 During the first years when he led the reform in
Egypt, though emphasizing the Pan-Arabism, he did not interfere in the then
religious regime. He preserved all the Islamic institutions and even tried to
endow them with some modern functions and gradually include them in his national
state. In foreign policy, Nasser also paid attention to making use of Islam to
fight against imperialism. In 1955 when the Islamic Conference was held in
Cairo, he called on Arab Muslim countries to unite to oppose the Baghdad Treaty
Organization. Even when the Muslim Brotherhood became increasingly strong and at
last posed a threat to the power of his national state so that Nasser had to
take measures to ban it, he also did it in the name of Islam by denouncing its
leader for disobeying the “true” Islamic spirit. To seek support from
religious circles including fundamentalist organizations and individuals, Sadat,
Nasser's successor, emphasized the religious color of the state immediately
after he took office. He made Islam the state religion, its doctrine the source
of state legislation, and also promoted a series of measures to Islamize social
life. However, his pro-American attitude and policy of “free opening” to the
West, particularly his trip to Jerusalem, the signing of Camp David Accord and the Arab-Israel Peace Treaty, resulted in the strong
dissatisfaction in Islamic community, and finally led to his murder by Islamic
extremists.
Generally speaking, nationalism can arouse enthusiasm
and fidelity to achieve its objectives only by stimulating emotion. That is to
say, only when regarded as a universal value system can nationalism be widely
accepted. In the Arab world. Islam has been thought of, up to now, as a major
cultural pillar and a binding force of all social values. Therefore, nationalism
without Islamic culture as its background can never be strong. That is also the
reason why westernized nationalism, though conflicting with Islam in many
aspects, has to rely on it. In some Arab countries, nationalist political
propositions carry certain ideas of Pan-Islamism. Such a close combination of
nationalism and Islamic culture is called Islamic nationalism, which is a very
popular ideology in the Arab world. Those national cultural features of Arab
countries lead to the strong religious influence on state politics.
Meanwhile, the resistance of the Islamic community to
Western culture as well as the difference between Islam and the West in ideology
and values will certainly have far-reaching influence on Arab-West relations.
The Islamic revival, which swept the whole Arab world in the late 1970s as a
cultural revival phenomenon, is a product of the ideological struggles, as well
as a social movement dominated by the Muslim masses. It targets the US-led
Western hegemonic forces, as well as the secular ruling class of the Islamic
world. Its aim is to oppose the material and spiritual (cultural) invasion of
the West, to reestablish cultural identity among Muslims, and to form “an
Islamic order” without oppression from Western hegemony. Therefore, some
Western scholars consider that “the clash between Islam and the West is one of
civilizations”.10
The Iran-Iraq war in essence was not a religious war.
However, to prevent the interests of the West from being threatened by Iran
exporting its Islamic revolution Western countries supported Iraq overtly or
covertly. The Gulf War was not a religious war. However, Saddam's appeal in the
name of “Jihad” to fight against Western allied forces stimulated religious
emotions in the Muslim world. “Islamic fundamentalists all backed Iraq not the
Kuwaiti or Saudi governments, which were supported by the West”.11
In not a few countries, contradictions between the Muslim masses and the ruling
class were intensified because of the latter’s support of the US-led Western
military operation and presence. Fundamentalists think that their rulers have
been reduced from nationalists to complete vassals of the US-led West and
protectors of its interests in Middle East. Therefore, they must be overthrown.
The Saudi royal family had to ask the U.S. to send troops to protect them from
being “threatened by Iraq”. But the US military base in Saudi Arabia itself
was bombed twice within a year. In fact, of all the major international events
related to Arab-West relations in recent years, none took place without a
profound Islamic cultural background.
Modernization is a revolution with the most profound
implication in human history and requires a historic transition from
agricultural to industrial society. To the Islamic world, it is also a process
of mutual conflict and integration between Islamic culture and Western
civilization. Following colonialism Western industrial civilization and modern
science and technology has poured into the Arab world since the 19th
century. Arab countries got rid of colonial rule through the national liberation
movement, but they were not able to prevent Western civilization from spreading.
After the nationalists came to power, most of them took up a non-religious
political ideology, and adopted the development model of the West, which
involved the Arab world in the tide of modernization. This accelerated the
progress of secularization in Arab society and had great impact on traditional
Islamic values: this, in turn, generated resistance in Muslim society.
The clash of different cultures resulted in the emergence of two opposite
social trends of thought in the Arab world: this is “the division of
values”.
One is the revolutionary trend, whose representative
figures are mainly nationalists, their proponents and some intellectuals having
received Western and secular education. They identify with modern values
naturally and reasonably; at the same time they look upon traditional culture
with a critical attitude. Some admire Western civilization; others disagree with
the expression “Western civilization”. They think that though Western
civilization played an important role in the creation of modern civilization and
made its own impression upon it, that does not mean that it should be called
“Western”. In their opinion, modern civilization actually belongs to
humanity.
The above two opinions about the concept of Western
civilization are different, but both intend to accept it in its totality. The
reason is that “there is no other alternative, for people who wish to live and
do not desire to become fixed in a past which is over, but to accept and
assimilate it in its totality”.12 To them, the process of
modernization is that of reforming their own culture (i.e., traditional Islamic
culture) and learning from and assimilating advanced Western civilization. The
political trends of thought of the secularization of Islam such as Kemalism of
Turkey, Nasserism of Egypt, the doctrine of the Arab Socialist Baath Party in
Iraq and Syria, and Bourguibaism of Tunisia all had a great influence on the
Arab world in Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s. Most Arab countries after
independence established their non-Islamic systems following the model of the
West, and began their way of capitalism.
Another trend is conservative, supporters of which
are mainly the broad Muslim masses in the middle and lower strata. They accept
traditional ethics and values, hold strong belief in their religious concept,
and are strongly resistant to Western culture.
Their “popular logic” is to regard all the injustice in society, the
frustrations and failures of their states and nations, the corruption of social
values and the loss of morals as the consequences of secularization and
corrosion from Western culture. They oppose modernization because, in their
opinion, modernization is nothing but Westernization with secularization as its
premise, which is against their Islamic tradition. They think that to
restructure their society by the model of the West is actually to promote a
“colonial culture” and to impose Western values and lifestyle on their
Muslim society. This would result in the alienation of politics, economy and
social system and the loss of the traditional values of Islamic states.
Edward W. Said, a famous scholar, in his book Orientalism
published in 1978, criticized the fact that some people in the West belittle
Arab culture and describe it as the opposite of Western civilization in order to
establish cultural hegemony worldwide. He called on Arabs to resist Western
civilization and to set up their own cultural identity, warning them not to
accept Western culture as a universal norm of values. His book evoked a huge
reaction both in the Arab world and in the West. In Muslims' eyes, Islam in
history made great contributions to world culture in such fields as literature,
philosophy, arts and science. At the beginning of Middle Ages, when Europe was
still in its dark ages in science and culture, the brilliant Islamic culture and
that of China's Tang Dynasty had already reached the peak of human realization.
Islamic culture brought prosperity to the Arab Empire, and stepped up the
development of both eastern and western civilizations. The present backwardness
and social problems facing the Islamic world are just the consequences of the
colonial reign and imperialist invasion by the West.
Therefore, he concludes that Islamic civilization is
an overall system, “which is infinitely more accomplished, more pure, more
glorious, more complete and more beautiful than all that has been discovered up
till now by social theorists and reformers”.13 It can solve all the
problems produced in the development of modern society with its own resources as
“there was no blemish against which the social organization of a watchful
Islam could not guard (its people) by showing them its fearful consequences.”14
There is another compromise point of view besides the two above; it
thinks that only the science and technology indispensable for progress should be
absorbed from Western civilization and that anything else should be discarded,
especially in morals. When talking
about Arab-West relations, Abd al-Aziz al-Duri pointed out:
the Arab contact with the West, first as a culture
and then as an imperialist power, was very important in clarifying the
historical roots of Arab nation, in consolidating these roots, and in
establishing their true implication. The Arabs welcomed the implications of
freedom and tried to imitate the West in bettering their way of life and their
economy. But they were not prepared
to forsake their heritage or deny their identity. They took troubles for not
losing this heritage and identity and did their best to emphasize these
[national] characteristics.15
This
compromise position was deeply affected by different kinds of Islamic reformist
trends in the second half of the 19th century, holding that Islam is
capable of adapting itself to the modern situation, and confident that
advancement toward modernization is not against the basic principles of Islam.
The difference between this point of view and the first trend is that the latter
evaluates traditional Islamic culture more in line with the general principles
and universal rational norms of Western modernization. It considers this to be a
historic burden that must be reformed and revised in order to be adapted to the
needs of modernization. However, the former holds an attitude of cultural
relativism, emphasizing more the Islamic traditional cultural features of the
Arab world and regarding it as an inherently restrictive factor unavoidable in
the modernization process of the Arab world. It proposes a development model
rooted in its own Islamic traditional culture and different from that of the
West and other parts of the world.
This point of view is widely accepted by many Arab
countries. On the one hand, they try to assimilate Western advanced scientific
and technological achievements and management experience through a so-called
“transformation of values” to revive the national economy. On the other
hand, they keep sharp vigilance on the “cultural imperialism” of the West in
ideology and stick to an independent “Islamic development road” in state
strategy. For example, Gulf countries, while introducing a lot of oil exploiting
equipment and modern technology, carry out strict Islamization measures in
religious belief and social life. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab
Emirates still act according to the doctrine of Islam. Western -- American in
particular -- cultural products such as movies, TV and radio programmes,
audiovisual products, compact discs, books and magazines are restricted.
It has been more than two centuries since the
industrial revolution took place in Europe, and modern science and technology
has advanced by leaps and bounds, changing the face of the world day by day.
However, for the Arab world, how to meet the challenges of the times and realize
the transformation to modern society is still a pending problem.
The fact that the Arab world lags behind in the
process of world modernization can have several reasons. From the angle of
culture, the key to this question is that the ruling class has not dealt
properly with the relations between modernization and traditional Islamic
culture. As is known to all, there exists a huge paradox between religion and
modernization: Religion theoretically is grounded on unreasonable beliefs, while
modernization takes reason and science as its norm. Generally speaking, with the
spreading of science and technology and the accelerating process of
modernization, the role of religion in modern society should be gradually weaker
– as already has been proved by the present state of Christianity in developed
European and American countries. However, the relations between the two are more
complex in the Islamic world. Today, we can still see that though the Arab world
has already experienced the impact of more than half a century of
industrialization and modernization, most nations still retain their Islamic
features. The cultural tradition of Islam remains a very important factor
affecting Muslim values. On the one hand, modernization and industrialization
have been permeating the Arab world irresistibly; on the other hand, Muslim
society has been displaying a strong resistance against Western culture,
ideology and lifestyle carried by modernization. The contradiction and conflict
between the cultural and social conservatism and the industrialization process
have severely obstructed the Arab world’s joining modern states.
As we all know, modernization with modern science and
technology and large industry at its core is a material and economic force
beyond national cultural difference. Such a material and economic force marked
by standardization and generalization brings to the world not only the positive
results of modern civilization, but also negative ones. The global structural
similarity brought by modernization usually subtly weakens the cultural
tradition and the characteristic features of different nations, thus making the
human spiritual world and cultural space similar and singular. The Western
modernization model has been dominant in modern and contemporary world history.
With advanced science and technology and industrial forces, Western countries
disintegrate and ruin many traditional national cultures including those of the
Arab world.
But, this kind of disintegration or ruin is not
unavoidable, and non-western countries do not necessarily need to give up or
transform their own cultural features to realize modernization. On the contrary,
each nation should pursue a development type and way based on its own cultural
features and according to its own ideological and behavioral structure. “Only
when all cultures are able to enjoy equal dignity can modernization be of real
significance.”16 Such Asian countries as Japan and Singapore have
already had successful experience in this aspect.
Let us take Japan for example. Its modernization was
started and realized under the fierce impact of Western civilization. After the
Meiji Restoration, Japan began to introduce Western civilization on a large
scale in politics, law, economy and lifestyle, as well as in technology. But,
Japan processed and digested it subtly instead of copying it mechanically. On
the one hand, Japan assimilated the fine achievements of modern civilization; on
the other hand, it preserved its traditional cultural features, and made them
suitable for the actual conditions of Japanese society. During the Meiji era,
influenced by modern Western politics, Japan started to set up a new form of
government. At that moment, there was a strong appeal for a Western form of
government at home. However, after many years' exploration, a constitutional
monarchy called the Tenno system finally came into being. This brought in
Western democratic and legal elements, and maintained its national cultural
tradition. On the whole, it suited the Japanese society. “The function of such
a system was essential in Japan's rapid industrialization and practical
modernization since the late 1880s.”17 Integration or introduction
and inoculation of civilizations should be moderate. If too radical, it would
result in “more haste, less speed”; if too conservative, it would hold back
social modernization. Japan managed this issue well and therefore “promoted
modernization steadily instead of obstructing it”.18
Looking back into the modernization process of Arab countries after
World War II, we find that a number of countries went to extremes when dealing
with the relations between modernization and their national characteristics.
They either accepted Westernization totally or over-emphasized their traditional
cultures. The former, in order to catch up with the current of modernization,
absorbed the capitalist experience in its totality, introduced the Western
economic development model blindly, and spared nothing in encouraging foreign
investment in the search for rapid economic development. As a result, the
economy lost its balance, the divide between the rich and the poor widened,
corruption became serious, and domestic conflicts intensified. Under such
circumstances the impact on, and erosion of, local culture by Western culture
would more easily cause discontent and resistance from traditional forces,
resulting in social disintegration and impeding the process of modernization.
Other countries chose the socialist development model
or the mixed economy, but neglected the humane background on which modernization
is dependent and the restrictions of the native, i.e., the traditional, Islamic,
culture on their politics, economy and technical behavior.
As a result, they failed to produce a constant and stable effect for lack
of the inner cultural support of the Arab world. However, the latter
over-emphasized the restrictions and influence of Islamic cultural features on
the reality of Arab states, and simply attributed the contradictions and
problems that emerged in Arab modernization to inappropriately copying Western
development model. For example, Iranian religious leader Khomeini decided that
Islamic countries must follow the guideline of “no West, no East, but only
Islam” in their modernization. The theory called Islamism was positive in
opposing foreign intervention and moral corruption and erosion and in
reestablishing Islamic cultural identity and value norms. But it was going
backward by totally objecting to economic and social development models and the
successful experience of Western or other non-Western countries, and trying to
seek a road out from “Islamic substitute option”.
There is no denying the fact that Islam still carries
a dominant “political vitality” in Muslim society with its special historic
tradition, social customs and severe religious rules. However, such “political
vitality” also influences Muslim society in their absorption of new ideas.
Most Islamists only emphasize the “vitality” of Islam, and disregard other
factors beneficial to social development. Such self-confining theory, lacking
conformity with present world currents and contradicting the objective laws of
the development of modern society, is the fundamental reason why Arab countries
cannot join modern states. Once a national traditional culture is developed in
the process of modernization, it will produce huge dynamic force, as has been
proved by successful experience of many countries. Therefore, for the Arab
world, what is essential in pushing forward modernization is not whether or how
to introduce Western or other foreign cultures, but how to integrate their
traditional culture with foreign cultures. This is the most important problem
that the Arab world needs to solve in order to realize modernization in this and
even the following centuries.
THE
ISLAMIC CULTURE AND WESTERN CULTURE: CONFLICT AND INTEGRATION
Modern theory on international relations holds that
differences between cultures is an important factor leading to international
conflicts. Samuel P. Huntington, a famous expert in political science at Harvard
University, pushed this theory to the extreme attributing maximum human
divergence and conflicts to cultural difference. In “The Clash of
Civilizations” he asserted that under the new situation, the causes of human
conflicts are no longer ideological or economic ones, but the cultural
differences or factors which differentiate civilizations. When talking about the
relations between the West and Islamic world, he argued that the clash between
the two is that of civilizations, and such a clash in the future “will be more
intensified instead of being weakened.”19 Among all the popular
points of view toward the Muslim world in the West, Huntington's is typical: the
Islamic movement as a threat to the West, and clash and confrontation between
the two civilizations in the foreseeable future is objectively unavoidable.
In history, clash and confrontation has existed
between the Arab world and the West. From
the creation of Islam in the 7th century, such a clash and
confrontation has been deeply rooted in the conflict between Islamic and Western
cultures, covering such fields as politics, economy, culture, ideology,
lifestyle, spiritual beliefs and ethical values. The conflicts and struggles
between the two cultures have almost never ceased during more than one thousand
years. They include the first four caliphs' Islamic expansion in the Middle Ages
resulting in extending the territory of the Arab Empire to the borders of Spain
and then of France and later Vienna, areas once controlled by the Roman Empire,
and Christian crusade against Arabs for over-two-century. They also include the
Western colonial invasion and ravaging of the Islamic world in modern times, the
Islamic revival in the late 1970s with an anti-Western tendency, and the Gulf
War in the early 1990s. However, can we conclude from the above facts that such
conflicts and struggles will be intensified in the future and further assert
that next human clash will necessarily be an all-out confrontation between
Islamic and Western civilizations?
The answer is negative and for three reasons:
1. The so-called “Islam threat” is the
“Devil” fabricated by some Western countries, the U.S. in particular, on the
theoretical ground of “power politics”. This is the theory of international
relations generally adopted in Western countries during the Cold War. Its basic
point of view is that just as everyone wants to dominate others whenever
possible, every country wants to dominate other countries whenever possible, or
at least be free of other countries' domination. Such impulse of domination and
anti-domination urges each country to realize self-expansion by all means
possible (forming alliances with other countries is one of the means to realize
self-expansion). Even though purely defensive, it will inevitably increase other
countries' sense of insecurity. Though the Cold War is over today, the West has
not retreated from “power politics”. The reason is that such a theory is
rooted in the basic worldview of Christian culture, reflecting the deep-rooted
conception of the Christian West regarding the “secular world”.
According to this the Devil will exist as long as the
secular world. As one Satan yields, another will arise. Therefore, the West must
seek another threat when the communist threat disappeared after the Cold War.
Through a comprehensive survey of post-Cold War world political situation, the
West has found that the Chinese community and the Middle East countries will be
the main forces resisting the West in the future. The former headed by China is
powerful both militarily and economically; and the latter controlling the world
energy lifeline is fairly powerful militarily and with an anti-Western tendency.
Military cooperation between the two could possibly cause a loss of balance in
international politics. Huntington's conclusion, drawn on this basis, is that
the connection of Confucianism and Islam will challenge Western interests,
values and power. Therefore, his “clash of civilizations” is not only the
international strategic analysis of power politics, but also the only logical
and natural conclusion for the Christian West after the Cold War.20
No doubt there is in essence an aspect in which
Islamic and Western cultures conflict, and the rise of radical Islamic forces
does challenge Western, especially U.S., hegemony in Middle East. However, the
initiation and development of the Islamic revival are due completely to the fact
that Muslim countries have long suffered from the invasion of Western
colonialism and have been interfered with and constantly bullied by the West in
every way since their independence. Western colonialism constantly puts pressure
on Islamic society -- in politics, economy, education, culture and social
affairs. Under such circumstances, the resistance of the latter is logical.
Robert N. Bellah, an influential contemporary American social thinker and
religious sociologist commented on the so-called connection of Islam and
Confucianism in challenging Western civilization. He pointed out that the main
reason why Huntington has such a serious illusion is that some special problems
were triggered in the Islamic revival, which are irrelevant to Buddhism,
Confucianism or other religious groups. The reason why the Islamic movement
sometimes goes to the extreme is that the majority of Islamic societies, after
experiencing a painful colonial reign, have lost their self-esteem, and need to
confirm their own dignity and cultural value. Bellah argued that during an era
of abrupt social changes, men's self-identification is threatened, so all kinds
of religious organizations arise at that historic moment; these produce senses
of union and self-identification. They are likely to be stubbornly imperious,
but also to help people to transit to a broader understanding of the world. This
cannot be avoided and new religious groups emerge in any society all over the
world.”21
2. The
contemporary Islamic revival is fundamentally an inward social reform. This can
be demonstrated by the background of the origin of Islamic revival and its
internal and external reasons. The background of this movement lies in the Arab
countries’ disastrous and disgraceful defeat, loss of territory and complete
discrediting in the third Middle East War; and the economic difficulties in most
Arab countries, unjust distribution and a series of severe social problems such
as corruption. The secular
governments led by the nationalists were neither able to defeat Israel's
invasion nor able to solve economic problems and achieve social justice and
common prosperity. When this caused disappointment and pain among Muslims in
those countries they turned to Islam for a way out. The social sources of the
Islamic revival were complex, whether internal factors such as politics,
economy, religion, culture and ideology or external stimuli. Generally, however,
it was based on internal factors and reflected Muslims' mentality of yearning
for a suitable road for development. Therefore, whatever threatened, it mainly
targeted the secular governments of the countries in the region. Of course, the
contemporary Islamic movement targets external as well as internal forces. But
as far as the external forces are concerned, it is mainly manifested in its
opposition to external domination and intervention, the foreign despoiling of
the natural resources of the region, and the decadent Western capitalist
cultural erosion and destruction of their traditional national culture. Some
countries once tried to “export the Islamic revolution”, the major targets
of which were the countries of the same cultural background; but they were not
successful. Terrorism against Western countries and individuals by a few
extremists can by no means be identified with Islamic civilization. Just as
Bellah pointed out, no matter how strong the so-called Islamic fundamentalism,
among Muslims we know that there are many moderates and reformists who do not
believe in fundamentalism. So there is no truth in regarding Islam or any other
religion as being of that nature.22 This shows that it is indeed
groundless that “the contemporary Islamic revival is mainly against the
West”. In fact, some Western scholars and experts on Islam do not agree with
this either. They have noticed the latest ideas of some influential contemporary
Islamic thinkers, such as Sudanese religious leader Hassan at-Turabi, who said,
“awakened Islam has no interest in confrontation and fight against the
West”. What it cares almost is mainly the recovery of the society and economy
severely damaged under the decades long rule of the incompetent, corrupt and
autocratic “nationalist” and “socialist” regimes.23 Western
scholars think that the need of wielding political power and keeping ties with
the international market will mitigate Islamic nations' hatred toward the West,
and will possibly further their bilateral relations, “because Muslim nations
cannot avoid being affected by the image, technology and ideology of Western
modernization”.24
3. Islamic culture has the trait of integrating and
assimilating fine cultures of other nations. As stated above, the Islamic
cultural system integrates the essence of other nations' cultures, based on the
inheritance of its fine Arab national cultural heritage. In history, Arab
culture matured later than those of other nations in the world, so it has been
very assimilative from its beginning. Arabs “brought out of the desert sharp
sense organs, a strong curiosity, a desire for knowledge that was difficult to
satisfy and great talents and potentials. When they contacted and conquered more
ancient and advanced nations, they soon became the beneficiary and heir of those
ancient cultures. . . . What Greece developed in hundreds of years was totally
assimilated by Arab scholars within decades.”25 The “unique
ability of the Islamic culture to assimilate other cultures” enabled it
miraculously to “unite two contradictory cultures within one society. One was
the divergent traditional Greek, Roman, Israeli and Near Eastern cultures in the
Mediterranean region with a history of a thousand years; the other was the
colorful Persian culture, which had its own life and ideological models and
adequate contacts with the great Far Eastern culture.”26 Islam
itself constantly absorbed the cultures of the conquered nations to substantiate
its expansion and make itself persuasive, attractive and strong in combat
strength. It was in this process that Islam gradually became the general name of
a sociopolitical system, economy, lifestyle, with cultural and moral
regulations.
History has proved that the mutual integration and
mixture of cultures which are different in essence will promote cultural
development. The Arab Empire at its peak was exactly the time when its culture
best integrated with other cultures. As we all know, Arabs began to introduce
foreign cultures from the Umayyad Dynasty and reached its peak in Abbassid
Dynasty, symbolized by the famous “translation movement”. During this period
of time, it widely absorbed the cultural quintessence of India, Persia, Greece,
China, etc. For example, in philosophy, Arabs not only did a very good job in
inheriting the color of Aristotle's school, but also integrated the theories of
Hippocrates, Plato and Aristotle into Arab thought and spread them to the Latin
world. All these produced a decisive influence on European philosophical studies
during the Middle Ages and enabled Arab culture to bloom in the garden of world
cultures. Engels summarized this in his article “Dialectics of Nature”
noting that in the nations who speak Latin, the basic thought had been absorbed
from the Arabs and nourished by the newly discovered Greek philosophy. It was
more and more absorbed in making preparation for the materialism of the 18th
century.27 It is no exaggeration to say that if Arabs had not spread
to West Europe the academic works of India, the papermaking technology of China,
and the ancient Greek academic works lost in Europe, thereby preparing for the
European Enlightenment and Renaissance, the brilliant history of the Renaissance
in Europe would not have been written. Arabs made distinguished contributions to
world culture in the Middle Ages while absorbing the quintessence of all kinds
of cultures all over the world and enriching the content of the Islamic culture.
The development of the Arab Empire reached its peak during the Abbassid Dynasty.
After that, each dynasty tended to be conservative in culture, gradually
changing from opening outward to a self-confining inwardness. The brilliant Arab
history in the Middle Ages thus gradually ended.
Today, there exists also a modernist tendency in the
Islamic world. It is obviously a bourgeois reformism, holding that the Prophet
Mohammed himself was the pioneer of reform, namely, of Judaism and Christianity.
The representative figures of this tendency brought in from the West new moral
standards suitable for modern life such as equality between man and woman and
free competition. Some countries such as Syria, Iraq and Egypt adopted the
policy of separating politics from religion. Islam is no longer the major source
of legislation, the religious court is no longer the major judicial organ, and
Islamic doctrine is no longer a country's basic law. It is merely “private
law” dealing with such private affairs of Muslim citizens as marriage, wills,
property inheritance and religious funds. Even
the Gulf states, once famous for their conservatism, have adopted some reform
measures in recent years, epitomized by the ulemas’ (theologians)
breakthroughs in the traditional interpretation of Islamic doctrine and tenets.
Governments require these clergymen to give religious interpretation and
judgements relevant to present social problems. Up to now, more and more Arab
countries have realized that on issues relating to national economy and people's
livelihood such as national sovereignty, ethnic rights and economic development,
it is not wise to take a conservative self-confining pose and to overemphasize
traditionalism.
There are already many common factors helpful for the
integration of different cultures in today's world: the common language of
modern technology and the production techniques it entails, frequent cultural
exchanges and mutual transmission of resources. In recent decades, breakthroughs
in communication and tourism have made it possible for modern ideas to penetrate
the most remote areas in the widely dispersed Muslim world. These factors are
the common conditions for the integration of human society. No cultural group
can exclude itself from these conditions or escape the constant integration
caused by such conditions. The interactive role between cultural groups should
provide each other with factors for co-existence, and there do exist some basic
common standards and ethical norms among the great civilizations.
Today's Islamic society is in a period of change,
seeking its own cultural features. This is a long process in which Islamic
culture cannot avoid colliding with Western culture. Overall, however, it surely
will achieve the best integration of its national culture with those of other
nations, including Western culture. The West should be fully aware of this. It
should be noted that any civilization that can have a long and sustained
development in the world is sure to contain at its core a culture and quality
which manifests the maturity of human reason. Modern scientific and
technological civilization, though begun from the West, has not long been a
Western monopoly. What is important, then, is how the dominant Western
civilization drops its pretentious airs and sincerely begins an equal and
reasonable dialogue with non-Western civilizations, instead of adopting the high
profile of an attempt to assimilate other civilizations. This is of decisive
importance in determining whether cultures that are different in essence can
realize effective integration.
1.
S. Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations”, Foreign
Affairs, summer, 1993.
2.
Engels, “On the Early History of Christianity”, The
Complete Selection of Marx and Engels' Works, Vol. 22, p. 526.
3.
Kemal H. Karpat, Political and Social
Thought in the Contemporary Middle East (revised and enlarged edition,
Praeger Publishers), p. 90.
4.
Ibid., p. 91.
5.
'Abd al-'Aziz al-Duri, The Historical
Roots of Nationalism (Beirut: Dar al-'ilm lil-malayin, 1960), p. 25.
6.
Ibid., pp. 22-23.
7.
Ibid., p. 3.
8.
'Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz, Arab Nationalism,
p. 37.
9.
See A Handbook of Middle East (Ninxia Publishing House, December 1989),
p. 572.
10.
Huntington.
11.
Ibid.
12.
Muhammad Wahbi, Arabism and Humanism,
quoted from Political and Social Thought
in the Contemporary Middle East, by Kemal H. Karpat, p. 206
13.
Al-Duri, pp. 24-25.
14.
Hasan al-Banna, “ Of Old: The Direction of the New Renaissance in the Islamic
World”, The Muslim (Damascus, February 1958), pp. 55-56.
15.
Al-Duri, pp. 24-25.
16.
See Practical Guideline: Ten Years' World Cultural Development, compiled
by UNESCO.
17.
Zhang Luping, the Clash and Integration of
Civilizations -- Modernization Research in Japan (Tianjin Publishing House,
July 1999), p. 231.
18.
Ibid.
19.
Huntington.
20
Gan Yang, “Diplomacy Is Not the Extension of Domestic Politics”, The
21st Century, bimonthly (Hong Kong, August 1995).
21.
“'Citizens' Religion' and Social Conflicts -- Exclusive Interview with Bellah”,
The 21st Century, bimonthly (Hong Kong, August 1995).
22.
Liberation (France, August 8, 1994).
23.
“'Citizens' religion' and Social Conflicts”.
24.
Liberation.
25.
Hidi, A General History of the Arabs (Commercial Press), I, p. 357.
26.
Arabs in History (China Social Sciences Publishing House, 1979), p.
160.
27.
Engels, “Dialectics of Nature” (People's Publishing House, August 1971), p.
7.