Tag Archives: Samuel P. Huntington

A Clash between Religions or between Religion and No Religion?

In the waning years of the twentieth century, a few years before the terrorist attacks of 9/ll, Samuel P. Huntington wrote a best seller, The Clash of Civilizations.

The Soviet Union had dissolved, and the Cold War was over. Americans reveled in the dawning digital age, freed, they believed, from fears of a global conflict. Huntington, a professor at Harvard University, did not share their optimism for the new age.

In the absence of cold war ideology, Huntington suggested, religion was becoming more important, not less. Secularization had disrupted communities and cultures. I saw this disruption in the Middle Eastern countries where I lived during the 1990’s. Oil wealth led to vast change in one, Saudi Arabia. A consumer society emerged in one generation from an isolated, desert kingdom, bringing in Westerners who got drunk and watched x-rated movies. Most of the 9/ll terrorists came from this shell-shocked nation.

Humans needed, Huntington said, “new sources of identity, new forms of stable community, and new sets of moral precepts to provide them with a sense of meaning and purpose. Religion . . . meets these needs.”

Are the clashes and terrorist attacks since the publication of Huntington’s book only a struggle between religions or do they stem more from a struggle between religion and no religion?

Western societies have assumed an upward progress toward secular utopias with high rates of material benefits. In an age of rapid change, ordinary men and women may yearn for purpose and meaning. Where do they find them?

Are Americans Exceptional?

Samuel P. Huntington, a Harvard professor, wrote an article, “The West Unique, Not Universal” for Foreign Affairs in 1996. The Western alliance of nations had won the Cold War. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, everything from Coca-Cola to democracy appeared unstoppable. Soon American exceptionalism would conquer the globe, we believed.

Perhaps not. Huntington listed several unique ancestors of Western civilization: the classical legacy, Western Christianity, European languages, separation of spiritual and temporal authority, rule of law, social pluralism with its civil society, representative bodies, and individualism. Huntington believed that when strong leaders (like Kemal Ataturk in Turkey) attempt to force Westernization on their non-Western citizens, they create “torn” societies.

Consider the upheaval in Iran that caused the repudiation of the Shah’s ties to the United States in 1979. Or the fallout from the more recent Arab spring revolutions and the brutal conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

The West developed unique characteristics, whose foundations Americans built on to create their own society. Our exceptionalism matters little, however, if we ignore the uniqueness of other civilizations. Some, more ancient than Western ones, perceive society in different ways.

We would do better to serve as example, not exporter or enforcer.

 

 

Where’s Jeddah?

When the U.S. State Department assigned me to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in the summer of 1990, my mother asked, “Where’s that?” About a month later, Saddam Hussein and the Iraqis invaded Kuwait to begin the first Gulf War. After that, all America knew where Saudi Arabia was, though many Americans have since forgotten that first war. Most of us do remember the second Gulf conflict, the one we fought in Iraq after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I watched that one from a second posting in Saudi Arabia.

Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya? Many Americans couldn’t find these countries on a map. Yet the unrest earlier this year across North Africa (where these countries are located) and the Middle East led to an immediate rise in the prices we pay at the pump for gas.

How many Americans are aware that India and other emerging economies have fared better than the United States in the current economic recession?

If Western Christians hope for continued influence, we must develop awareness of the rest of the world. The phrase ‘the West and the rest’ was a phrase used by Samuel P. Huntington, a Harvard University professor, in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Today “the rest” is emerging from the shadows to demand their place at the table. Too many of us are ignorant of this coming force. (Them and Us.)