ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS Session 15

ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY: CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS Session 15: Clash of Civilizations

As we look globally at the world, we are faced with changes and challenges which are both old and new. The old world was challenged by ideologies between communism and democracy. The new world is challenged by issues of local ethnicity and global civilizations. What will the new world look like? Will it be dominated by one superpower: the U. S. ?

Will it be divided into two worlds: orient and occident, north and south, Muslim and non. Muslim? Will it be multipolar with six regional civilizations: U. S. , China, Russia, Japan, Europe, and India? Will it be a one-world order: U. N. , WTO, WHO? Will it be a world of 184 independent and sovereign nations?

The definition and history of civilizations is the starting point to answer this question. Civilizations are the broadest grouping of people based upon common bloodline, language, religion, and culture. In the history of civilizations, a life-cycle of seven stages re-occurs in each: 1. mixture (colonization and immigration) 2. gestation (internal growth) 3. expansion 4. conflict (civil war or wars of aggression) 5. empire 6. decay 7. invasion

Of the twelve historic civilizations in history, seven no longer exist and five remain. These five are Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Islamic and Western. Civilizations are not political entities, but rather cultural entities. The key elements of culture are language and religion. Of the world’s population, 30% are Christian, 20% are Muslim, 15% are Hindu, and 35% are “all other” or no religion (atheist). The growth rates trend toward Muslim because it spreads by both conversion and population growth.

Religion gives people identity between believers and non-believers, which then becomes the significant definer and divider between peoples of different civilizations. The distinguishing characteristics of the Western civilization are as follows: 1. Christianity-Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant 2. Multi-lingual-English, Spanish, French, etc. 3. Separation of spiritual and temporal authority 4. Rule of law based on the concept of natural rights 5. Social pluralism, not based upon blood or marriage

6. Representative bodies 7. Sense of individualism with rights and liberties Muslim societies want none of these characteristics. These characteristics define Westernization by values, beliefs, practices, and institutions. What many Muslims want is modernization , which the West has, including wealth, education, technology, science, military might, and strong financial and monetary systems.

Islamic resurgence is becoming more visible to the West and is caused by several factors: 1. end of Soviet influence 2. population growth-1. 4 billion Muslims 3. social migration-urban vs. rural, into the West 4. rapid communication and transportation 5. oil wealth-Wealth is proof of virtue. 6. resentment of second-class status 7. unemployment (15%) causing unrest and civil strife

Political ideological differences can be debated and resolved. Economic interests can be negotiated and settled. Cultural differences seem not to be resolvable except by “yes or no”, win or lose, zerosum choice. Historically, geography separated Islam from the Christian West. Europe ended at the Pyrenees in Spain, at the water’s edge of the Mediterranean Sea, and at the borders of the Balkans in Bosnia and Kossovo.

Today, immigration to Europe and North America removes geographical separation and introduces Islamic culture into the societies of the West. This presents the problem that allegiance to a Western nation-state is secondary to the unity and precepts of Islam to most Muslims. The future holds the potential for a clash of civilizations between the universalism of the West and the intolerance of Islam.

The U. S. has always been a missionary nation believing in the rightness of its values of democracy, free markets, limited government, human rights, individualism, freedom of religion, and the rule of law, which should be exported to the non-Western nations. Islamic countries, except Turkey, reject these values and practices as well as the notion that the West is superior morally, culturally, legally, socially, or spiritually. They only acknowledge the West’s superiority economically, technologically, and militarily.

In foreign policy, the West has used containment and non-proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons as keys to its strategy for peace and stability. Islamic countries resist this in two ways. First, by attempting to acquire these weapons, and second, by using terrorism to compensate for conventional weapons’ inferiority. Regarding the superiority of Western values, Muslims generally reject our values and institutions and view our culture as materialistic, decadent, and immoral. Muslims do not respect the power of the West, but rather resent and fear that power. We are, to them, the godless West.

The West views Islam as a threat due to nuclear proliferation, oil dependence, terrorism, unwanted immigration, and corrupt regimes. Of the six nations classified by the U. S. as terrorist states, four are Muslim (Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan). (Cuba, North Korea) Just to underscore the lack of friendship by Muslim countries to the West, it is well to remember that the U. S. and western Europe intervened in Bosnia and Kossovo in the 1990’s to save and protect Muslims, yet not one word of praise was issued by any Muslim government for our actions on their behalf.

Is there a connection between Islam and militarism? 1. From the Koran, Islam glorifies military virtues. 2. During the 700’s, 1100 -1300’s Crusades, and the 1400 -1500’s of the rise of the Ottoman empire, Islam sought to conquer and convert the West by force. 3. Islam by belief is an absolutist faith and intolerant to other religions. 4. Islam is unstable because there is no central, dominant, core nation-state as leader.

5. Moderates within Islam do not attain limited goals through negotiation and are replaced by radicals who achieve extreme goals through violence. 6. Younger Islamic leaders, who are more radical, are emerging to challenge the more pragmatic traditional older religious leaders. The West faces problems which are symptomatic of decline and decay in any given civilization. These factors include: 1. low economic growth rate 2. low birth rate

3. increases in crime, violence and drug use 4. family decay 5. a weakening of the work ethic 6. decrease in actual learning levels 7. rejection of immigrants to national assimilation 8. promotion of diversity rather than unity, emphasizing the rights of groups rather than individuals.

In contrast, what needs to be promoted to counter these factors are: 1. defense and security 2. the rule of law 3. free-market capitalism 4. political democracy 5. individual liberty 6. human rights 7. cultural and religious freedom

We should not confuse culture and morality. Culture is relative. Morality is absolute. We should resist making America like the world. Western culture is unique and should be preserved for America. On the other hand, we should not try to enforce our culture on the world, universally, because the reality is that the world is multicultural. May God bless America and preserve her as a beacon to the world prompting as many as will listen to respond that “Jesus Christ is Lord. ”

In my view, the pressures will increase on America to side against Israel. We will be pushed by all Islamic nations, by the European Union, by the Pope, by the United Nations, by the communist countries to side with them against Israel, and to enjoy the world’s goodwill, unrestricted oil, foreign trade, and freedom from terrorist attacks on the U. S.

But remember what Scripture tells us: 1. Genesis 15: 18 – “In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. ” 2. Genesis 12: 3 – “I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall the families of the earth be blessed. ” (God’s covenant people)