East against West - why?

Walid M. Sadi

I beg to differ with the classic view that the Palestinian conflict and its non resolution is the primary cause for the waves of violence and terrorism against Western targets, including of course the US.

Without wanting to belittle the direct impact of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the surge of violence or terrorism by Islamists outside the Palestinian theatre, mostly against the US, I continue to believe that overdramatising the impact of this conflict on the Islamic uprising against Western interests and peoples could be an act of oversimplification.

To begin with, the reasons for the upsurge in militancy across the Muslim world and beyond is no simple matter. The international community needs to reflect much more on the causes in a much more thorough manner. Second, the Palestinian question has been with us for almost a century and has seen ups and downs in its long history. The chronic flare-ups in the Arab-Israeli conflict have also contributed to periodic upsurges in the violence and terrorism against certain Western capitals.

No doubt, the resolution of the Palestinian question, thoroughly and to the satisfaction of all sides, would diminish dramatically the list of contributing factors to Islamic militancy. Yet, to pin the rise in Islamic militancy against the Western nations on the Arab conflict with Israel alone may miss the main point.

I believe that Islamic militancy against the West will continue unabated even if the Palestinian case is resolved tomorrow. My reasons are based more on religious than political issues. I have no doubt that the clash between Islam and Western Christianity is old and deeply rooted. It was always there, but remained muted and subdued throughout the past decades, even centuries, because there appeared to be no direct threat from either to the other.

There has been a situation of noninterference and benign neglect in the relationship between the two religions for centuries. This all changed, however, when the world turned into a big village and the more ancient world, that was indeed large countries with peoples and cultures separated by geography, rudimentary means of cross border mobility and interactions, was reduced to a bare.

In other words, there were no direct threats to Islam and its traditions and culture from the outside world, especially from the West and the US, for literally many centuries. Few Muslims travelled to the West, few Westerners visited Muslim countries, and each side was able to maintain its own identity, culture and style of life and mores undisturbed by what went on in the outside world.

These manageable situation that existed between the Muslim East and the West became all of a sudden unmanageable due to dramatic changes in the relations between peoples, cultures and styles of life on our planet. All of a "sudden", there was an onslaught of Western culture deep onto the Muslim world that reached the doorsteps of Muslim houses, schools, universities and places of employment. This is where and when the Muslims saw the" Western Christian" threat to their traditions, culture, religion and simplistic way of life.

The immediate reaction was to step back and revert to fundamentalism as a bastion against the invasion of the new and threatening Western culture. The second reaction was to declare a "war" against Western culture and all those associated with it, especially the US.

Muslims could see and feel what happens to their societies when they become too closely associated with Western culture. The most ominous dangers, as the Muslims saw them, were the growing lax sexual behaviour among them and the Westernisation of their men women.

Of course, the threat from the West became more intense and closer to home in the Islamic world thanks to the information technology, satellite television and increased travel to and from Muslim countries.

It seems that the Muslims decided to wage a holy war to save their traditions and culture from the creeping Westernisation. Many may have thought that this is a losing battle, hence, the increased tempo of militancy which reflects the degree of desperation that has crept into the minds and souls of many a Muslim.

This article originally appeared in the Sunday, June 20, 2004 edition of the Jordan Times. It is used here with permission.