Introduction
The world is passing through the phase of rapid technological advancements and scientific achievements. Along with these, globalisation and other concepts like liberal democracy and secularism are making us perceive the world in a more dynamic and convergent nature. There are more economic interdependence, communications and other shared interests among countries. With newly found business strategies like business outsourcing and increasing international business collaborations portrays the trend in a more positively influencing manner. The apparent economic gains that can be assumed of this condition naturally elicit overwhelming response from key nations on the world map. Some scholars like Anwar (1998) even predict this trend to give rise to a new world civilization that will suppress all conflicts of nations and the world as a whole.
On the other side, the concepts of liberal democracy and secularism are drawing criticism from a considerable proportion of people. Some people and, indeed, nations see these concepts as the outcomes of western attitude of dominance on the world. Moreover, many developing and third world countries are cynic of this mainly western notion of globalisation. For, the issue of secularism has different implications in regard to different communities.
Also, there is a surge in various conflicts across countries, of which religious conflicts are important and of particular interest to the present discussion. There have been many incidents of terrorist activities in recent years, affecting many countries.
Incidents like the September 11th attack in the United States are highlighting the Islamic terrorist activities. Apart from these, the growing tensions among communities, especially between the Western and the Islamic, are causing intellectual elite to think on cause and effect situations of these conflicts. In order to conclude whether or not religious conflicts are taking us back from the post-enlightenment trends to medieval periods, we need to analyse the possible reasons behind these tensions.
Body
It seems appropriate to start the main discussion with the highly debated Huntington’s ‘clash of civilizations’ hypothesis, as it gives an overview of various interrelated factors. He classifies the world population into different civilizations and predicts that civilizational conflicts will be intense in the post-cold war era. According to him, civilizations evolve with people sharing various common aspects such as language, history and religion, among others. In his further analysis of the concept, the religious influence becomes evident, as he by himself classifies civilizations with much weightage on religion.
The hypothesis leads to a prediction of three types of conflicts in the world. They are- tensions that may rise between icons of different civilizations (core state conflicts), conflicts between bordering states of two different civilizations (international fault-line conflicts) and conflicts between different groups in a same state (domestic fault-line conflicts). His theory seems to give us a broader view on possible reasons behind various conflicts, mainly religious.
However, the remarkably higher conflicts between the western and Islamic groups than among others needs further analysis.
Coming to the US, which is predominantly seen as a representative of western culture, its modern civilization has its roots in Christianity. It has undergone immense changes from its origin to realize present trends of individualistic domestic policies. The initial influencing role of the church on government policies has been eliminated to a great extent in a sequential manner. It has given liberty in formulating secular principles and the evolution of fields like economics, politics and science away from the control of religion. The separation of religion from power has limited the former to individuals’ experience and private institutions. This has supposedly changed the country’s political attitude towards a secular and people centered one than a religiously controlled one.
However, outsiders perceive this change as a mere modification or rather an extension of protestant themes to make it more absorbable worldwide. The reason can be that the concepts of secularism such as anti hierarchy and community seemingly have their roots in protestant culture. Conflicts may arise when the secular and liberal feelings of the US have to be experienced by people belonging to other cultures that are not compatible to it. However, supporters of the US modern religious/secular formation, such as Asad, may stress on the broader applicability of secularization in the present globalisation scenario of the world.
Furthermore, predominantly western scholars have ignored the role of religion in international relations. It may be because of apparent shift of western cultures from religious to secular ones. However, in the international arena, religion has an important role; for both policy makers and their opponents of many countries can use it as a source of legitimacy. It is in one way a drawback for the western society to consider international relations only in view of power and material goods without paying attention to religion.
Blind adoption of policies without analyzing their compatibility with regional cultures and trends may lead to rejection of them by the public, no matter how effective they can be otherwise. As Huntington (1996) puts it, failure to integration of western ideologies into regional communities leads to legitimacy crisis that will make people look at religion as an alternative to overcome the chaos. This makes clear that religion plays a crucial role, if not decisive, in key domestic and international issues that cannot be ignored.
There seems to be a need to look at current theories of international relations in a religious perspective. For, the less religious concerned policies of the west have to be reassessed to meet the needs in the globalisation period. For example, the three main assumptions of the popular ‘Realist theory’ have not considered religion by merely focusing on that the aims of foreign policies are to gain power and material resources, and that the internal functioning of a country is not vital as every country has similar interests on the international ground.
Religion influences the people’s perception of world affairs. It is not that religion is the sole deciding factor in such circumstances, but is one of the main factors that cannot be ignored. Even some of the much-acclaimed international ethics, such as issues of human rights, are prone to differential views in regards to religion. To state, concepts like women’s rights that are much accepted in Christian dominated cultures are not acceptable to Muslim fundamentalists in their current form. Even the universally acceptable democratic principles also have different interpretations for the west and Islamic world. For, the western democracies separate religion from state policies that doesn’t go in line with Islamic interests.
Also, it is already mentioned that domestic policies and, in turn, foreign policies are formulated as per the interests of respective people. In such case, states with traditional religious practices may not go away from religion in their policies and it may eventually exposed in international issues as well. Moreover, religious ideology helps in attracting people of same group present in other states and to work in favour of the concerned state. This can be best explained by the efforts of Jewish and Islamic lobbies working in the US to support the cause of their respective parties in the Palestinian-Israel conflict. At present, it may be a tough task for the leaders to overlook the religious beliefs of their people, even for better reasons.
In view of these factors, the other theories of international relations also need to be improved to include various dimensions of the religion for developing better and universally acceptable strategies for international dealings of countries. The best example can be found in the theory of ‘liberalism’ in which the integration of religion can foresee the evolution of a world civilization that will enhance peace and prosperity by culminating the positive and shared values of various religions. The concept seems enlightening, keeping aside the practical difficulties.
Other theories, like the ‘body of international relations’ also need to be modified, as they consider only economics as the sole criterion for international relations.
The most important point here is that people tend to interact with and help those whose identity closely resembles with them. This has vital implications in international arena, as countries tend to tie up with like-minded counterparts with shared values of history, language and religion, among others.
Hence, it becomes arguable to spread the ‘secular liberal myth of modernity’, as termed by Cady, from the west, say the US, to other regions of the world without proper evaluation of regional conditions. Also, believers of other religions across the world may criticise these values with their perspective of the inherent cultural fusion of the US, as often called as ‘church-state’ relations. This can presumably affect the chances of the western intention to spread the concepts of democracy and secularism all over the globe. However, the interplay of religion and liberal views are somehow similar in many parts of the world. It needs proper implementation to integrate all these entities under one roof, providing adequate platform for moulding of liberal and mythic views as per local needs.
The discussion till now has concentrated on the west’s failure to recognize the importance of religion, which is crucial for the spread of western’s views to other communities in a more acceptable manner and also to understand the tendencies and views of people from other religions and civilizations.
In line with the analysis, it is important to consider certain opinions, probably negative, on the so-called western ideology of recent times. For, it makes the understanding conflicts in a broader sense so that inferences can be drawn on a more realistic base. As the much-hyped conflict in the present world seems to be the one between the Islam and the west, it’ll be interesting to know in detail on that.
There is an interesting depiction of this conflict that the Islamic war against the US, such as the September 11 attack, should not be considered as the war against Christianity, but it is the war against the West. According to Mazrui (2006), there is significant religious convergence and secular divergence between the West and the Islam. The divergence of political relations are because of the intention of the West to dominate the world for economic gains. It seems that there is no rivalry between the Islam and Christianity in other parts of the world at least at a superficial level. It means that, along with religion, certain other factors have a determining role here in the conflict between the west and the Islam. Interestingly, the author states that there is increasing concern over the western materialism from both Islam and Christianity, and that the conflict against the West is in reality against its imperialistic and materialistic attitudes in trying to conquer other cultures than their religion.
There seems to be severe opposition to the military activities of the West. Also, the reasoning of the US that their military intervention of other countries sovereignty to protect democracies and civil liberties seems to be drawing criticism from various quarters. Scholars like Marzui (2006) accuse the West for organizing innumerable wars and killing millions of people from different religions including Christianity. The western ideals and the practice of secularism have been compared with the Christian entities of African countries and other nations around the world. It is further said that African Christians are more forgiving in nature, there by, maintaining real ideals of Christianity and Jesus, than the so-called Christian rulers of the West.
The Western militarism has been further accused of targeting Muslims in the last decades of the twentieth century in the name of countering terrorism. Here, it is worth mentioning that the opponents of Huntington’s clash of civilizations argue that the identity crisis aroused in the US after the cold war has been fulfilled by assumptions of threat from new found enemies like the Islamic fundamentalists. The growing opposition to the western international policies cannot be ignored. The efforts by the West to spread democratic and secular principles are viewed by the rest of the world as attempts of dominance. It is imperative that the US and its allies should focus on this reaction of other countries and take necessary steps in order to guide the world through liberal democracy and benefit from that.
Other major argument is that the Muslim world is crucial to the West by its location and resources. So any intervention of the US in the sovereignty of these countries will be seen with cynicism. The constant wars by the US on some of these countries for one or the other reason are also confronted. It not only escalates the tensions between the Islam and the West, but also gives the conflict an apparent view of civilizational clash. Further, the international propaganda of the US regarding some countries, of which most are Islamic, seems to be attracting severe enmity. To be precise, the US attempts of highlighting certain countries as supporters of terrorist activities is confronted by the argument that the US itself had supported terrorism to be useful against the then Soviet union.
Apart from these, the secularism concept supported by the US and the West is criticized as a threat to the sacred values of both the Islam and the Christianity. By this, it becomes more evident that the actual conflict is not between Christianity and the Islam. For, traditional followers of both the religions are up against this secular ideology that is arguably supported by materialstic and capitalist purposes. As a whole, it seems that there is rising concern against the new concepts of liberal democracy and secularism that are put forward by the US. Marzui (2004) goes to the extent of commenting that the Western intervention of conflicts between two countries, of which one is Islamic, further complicates the situations for worse. The whole scenario indicates the growing insecurities over other countries.
Conflicts do not seem to occur only between religions. Various evidences suggest that there are clashes and differences between branches of the same religion as well. For example, the world has witnessed both the clashes between Sunnis and shies of the Muslim religion and the differences between the Arab and Asain Muslims. The faith based clashes take on various forms and severities that sometimes seem to be beyond superficial reasoning.
Coming to Huntington’s (1993) hypothesis again, his classfication of civilizations on one side includes various kinds of overlapping of religions, and on the other side includes different types of Islamic groups under one category. Huntington tries to explain his view on conflicts as mentioned earlier. Though, he does not mention about religion, he indirectly stresses on the influence of religion in civilizational conflicts. Huntington’s prediction of an Islamic threat to the west, though unsupported, emphasizes the growing tensions between two different entities. Moreover, most of the critics who oppose Huntington’s hypothesis do not deny the assumption of religious clashes that further gives importance to the religion factor.
As it is seen that religion played a key role in the evolution of many civilizations and is still determining factor of policies in many countries, makes it clear that religion issue cannot be overlooked. At the same time, as mentioned earlier, religion, though vital factor, is not the only determining aspect of domestic and international relations and policies. It may be due to the fact that religion forms the basis of lifestyles for people of different cultures and ignoring it will need greater alternative with more positive and motivating aspects. As of now, it may not be practical to predict such alternative.
Some studies suggest that political factors are most influential in determining conflicts than cultural or religious factors. The tendencies of nations on international aspects seem to be lie in cooperation with nations of political similarities. The increasing economic interdependence and strategic alliances may probably dictate the foreign policies of respective countries. However, the various dimensions of religions that have direct or indirect influences on these relations are important. They may not be apparent at times, but can be ignored by no means. It may be more evident in the case of the East-West or the West and Islam conflicts. Here, the possibility, a sis evident by existing experiences, can be that there will be unity amongst the West against the rest. Similarly, Islamic nations tend fight as a group against their rival.
The voices of certain people who are more optimistic and assume of a possible religious union all over the world should b considered. However, these views can be confronted by critical opinions like those of Huntington. He (1993) argues that the realization of universal civilization, religion indirectly, is possible only with a universal power. Current scenarios do not allow any assumption towards that end. At the maximum, groups of nations may become into a collective dominating power. He (1993) also states that the coalition of the world into one civilization may not be realized, as the individual identities like religion and language act as dividing factors. It can be implied that the formation of a united culture all over the world is not possible in the near future. Apart from individual identities, different ideologies of nations in view of globalization also present various interpretations for others that make the situation further complicated. The state of confusion on how to integrate all faiths into a united one is not yet resolving.
The conflict of ideologies becomes evident with the fact that attempts to apply modern democratic principles of the West to the Islam, for example, will not yield a favorable response. The influences of fundamentalists do not allow Muslim countries to separate religion from government, apparently like that of Western culture. In particular, political Islam is cautious about adopting westernized ideologies. Instead, such people may like to implement the ideology in their unique manner. For example, the efforts for democracy in countries like Iran are largely based on applying liberal democratic principles along line with religious, Islam in this case, moral framework.
Conclusion
It can be implied that religions are key factors in determining countries internal as well as international policies. For, the age-old beliefs and traditions of people have their origins in their religions. However, religion is not the sole criterion for international relations. More than this, economic, regional and strategic factors play the major role. Hence, a difference in religious of two countries need not force them towards a clash. The chances may exist when these differences are further reinforced by other conflicts. It is evident from the case of traditional Christian and Islam followers that religions, indeed, shared values of truth and justice that need to be fostered irrespective of individuals’ cultures.
Ideologies are not strictly rejected or confronted with. One should understand that the perception and the applicability of many ideologies vary among communities based on certain factors. Also, it tends t vary from time to time as changes propelled by globalization become apparent. The initial reluctances are more because of theological, religious, practical and political conflicts between nations than by religion alone.
Considering the preoccupations of the Islamic community on the Western community, the democratic initiatives of the West do not receive positive response from fundamentalists of the Islam. On the other hand, Western countries also need to reanalyze their policies in order that they will be more universally acceptable while maintaining personal interests. Over enthusiasm in enforcing liberal democratic principles on other nations may result in negative responses due to system incompatibility.
While the role of faith or religion cannot be over ruled, every extremist attempt should not be considered as religious hyperactivity. For, the spread of ideologies has been in practice for long time either through missionaries or by force. No one can be alienated alone for this cause.
The time has come to think of resolving conflicts between communities, instead of blindly blaming religious factors. Self-realization and practical approach are necessary aspects for all countries facing conflicts. If one tries to clear all misgivings about each other’s, one can see no reason for religion to become a source of conflict. Ideologies that address broader aspects of communities will always flourish with greater support among nations. Constructive approach without prejudice is needed to realize a world with only one culture, i.e., ‘human culture’.
References
- Cady L. E. ‘Categories, Conflicts, and Conundrums: Ethics and the Religious/Secular Divide’ in War and Border Crossings. Ethics when Cultures Clash. Eds. French P. and Short J. (2005). Pp. 143-57.
- Fox J. and Sandler S. (2004). ‘The Clash of Civilizations Debate’ in Bringing Religion into International Relations. Palgrave, Mcmillan. pp. 115-35.
- Fox J. and Sandler S. (2004). ‘Toward a Theory of International Relations and Religion’ in Bringing Religion into International Relations. Palgrave, Mcmillan. pp. 163-71.
- Mazrui A. (2006).‘Islam Between Christian Allies and Western Adversaries: A NewAlignment?’ in Islam between Globalization and Counterterrorism. Oxford press. pp. 223-37.