New thinking that questions the assumptions and propositions of the conventional approach is required. The meeting taking place today in Cairo on “Islam, the West and Modernization,” organized by the Abant Platform and the Al Ahram Center, promises a new beginning in this direction. Analyzing Islamic communities with a globalization perspective is certainly a fruitful enterprise. Challenges that globalization bring about touch upon issues of identity, gender relations, democratic government, development, etc. They have to be properly debated, understood and resolved.
However, the globalist perspective should also be broadened so as to “rethink” “Islam and the West.” We usually take it for granted that the basic parameters of this relationship were defined a century ago when the West dominated the Islamic world. It is therefore widely assumed that the relationship between the two is one of Western domination and the subordination of the Islamic world. That is to say, an arrogant and unfair Western superiority and rightful resistance and rebellion of Islam. Such a description no longer fits the reality. Globalization, while empowering the weak with unconventional means of power, made the powerful ever more vulnerable.
The first step in rethinking Islam-West relations is to recognize the fact that each side is equally vulnerable and capable of inflicting significant damage on the other side in case of open and violent confrontation. Not only are the lots of Islamic communities fragile but the West’s too. There is no civilization, in this age of globalization, that is capable of crashing the other without harming or even destroying itself. Yes, it is a new global balance of terror… This is so because the economies of nations have become interdependent and societies have turned out to be interpenetrated. Splitting one cultural-civilizational element from the other in any given political unit is virtually impossible without destroying social and political peace.
Thus, an understanding that “cultural purity” is achievable and sustainable is a great fallacy. We had better see that we all live in a world where there may still be distinct civilizations, yet these civilizations are equally vulnerable and at the same time capable.
Can Islam be confronted violently as part of a clash of civilizations -- in France with 6 million Muslims, or in Germany with 4 million Muslims, or in Britain with 1.5 million Muslims -- without destroying democracy and welfare in these countries. What about Europe as a whole where 120 million Muslims live when Russia and Turkey are included?
There is no Islam and the West; but Islam in the West and the West in Islamic communities worldwide. While the West should understand its vulnerabilities, the Islamic world had better realize its capabilities. If only they both saw they were equally fragile and powerful then we would take the first step in eliminating the annihilating danger of a clash of civilizations.
Benzer Haberler 
