Civilisation Clash of Various Cultures

The rise of the ISIS in the context of civilisation is of great concern and hence needs to be looked into keenly. In this case, the knowledge gained can help establish whether Islamic state bolster or erode the concepts which are presented by the Huntington’s thesis of the shift from ideological and economical to cultural perspective. Civilisation trends in various parts of the world are shifting from the economical perspective or the ideological point of view to the cultural activeness and dynamics of the various groups of the west and the east. Culture is thus becoming the major cause of conflict between the major groups of people of political divide world over. This is the basis of the Huntington’s thesis in the clash of civilisation in the world. This kind of clash is different from the initial forms of class involving various nations as the direct actors in the world affairs and brings to the forefront different civilisation groups like the ISIS involved in such civilisation clash.

Evidently, the conflict between the Islam and the West is due to civilisation identity and this is the root cause of the Muslim rage that is witnessed in various parts of the world. It can thus be said that culture and identity remains the main cause of the conflicts that are witnessed in various parts of the world. In this case, a group, like the ISIS group, tends to identify itself as distinct from others, something that results into civilisation clash (Huntington, 1993). Identity and culture is related in this process since, at the same time, culture is all about ways of life of a group of people. In fact, it is due to the fact that it is not easy for one to accept the cultural practices of the other group that various civilisation groups end up clashing. This reasoning is indeed in line with the school of thought of Huntington’s take on conflict being caused by the cultural differences.

Moreover, the individualism approach to issue in which the West is themselves and Islam too has contributed to the rise of the conflicts in the civil groups. This is so since there is no togetherness but each considers itself as unique in its operation mode compared to the other group. This paradigm of the West versus others is something that has persisted for quite some time in history. The planned attacks that have been happening by various groups resulting into suicidal attacks or mass slaughter has of late been the proof to the Huntington thesis when he said that it is due to cultural difference of diverse groups (Huntington, 1993). In fact, the fact that superiority contest tends to take over, especially in the West, is also an indication of how people hold their cultural beliefs to the high esteem. The unedifying labels of Islam and the West have thus been a problem since the two mislead and confuse the mind hence the reality becomes disorderly in a way.

Another reason for the persistence of such civilisation clash is due to the increased presence of the Muslim community in various parts of Europe as well as the United States of America. Islam is no longer at the fringes of the West but right at the centre so that clash is caused by the ideological and cultural differences of these groups of people. This is brought out by the collective cultures and memories of ancient times, especially of conquest of the Arab-Islamic which began way back in the 7^th century. This is what shattered the unity of the Mediterranean while at the same time destroyed the Christian-Roman synthesis while also causing the new civilisations that dominated the powers of the North. The mission of these northern countries was to resume the defence of the westerners against the cultural enmities of historical nature.

In addition, there is the persistence of the monotheism legacy and the Abrahamic religion as they are called by the Massignon Louis. From Judaism to Christianity, each is believed to be successors and so either of them is being haunted by things that happened before their existence. On the other side, the perception of the Muslims is that Islam fulfils and makes the end to the prophecies. At the present, there is lack of demystification of the take by the various groups of followers. In fact, not even one of them is unified as monolithic or of a jealous god. Both the Muslims and Christians readily talks of the jihads and crusades which is one and the same thing but against the Judaism concepts (ISH‐SHALOM, 2007). This might be reassuring that there comes a time when the two groups will not be involved in clash in terms of civilisation in the near future. The trend may not point towards the Huntington’s thesis of civilisation clash due to cultural differences since the same cultures seems to be evolving with time to be more accommodative.

However, there are a number of reasons why the conflicts may still prevail. For instance, as a result of the West trying to control everything that happens in the world, there is no doubt that the West might put pressure on Israel to accept the state of the Palestinian having Jerusalem as its capital. However, this might not guarantee Palestinians a chance to continue with the war on terrorism from a strategic position which is favourable to it. At the same time, the Arab and Muslim world made an attempt to resuscitate the coalition of the world in the year 1970s. This attempt is what branded the Zionism as racism (Tickner, 1999).

Moreover, the fact that Israel is a democratic country that is surrounded by dictators who violates the freedoms of human beings, the authority of the Palestinians becomes a swamp of repression and corruption. Through taking different paths of civilisation, and therefore beliefs, these two are like extremists and hence they cannot easily be in unison since their perspective in terms of their cultural belief is totally different. This is what results into clash as each tries to express their views as the proper ones as a way of protecting their identity. At the present, the prevailing mode of hatred and hostility towards Israel and United States of America is what might have led to the American massacre which might have been a consummation of the demonisation of this kind, as per the view of Muslims (Tickner, 1999).

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In conclusion, the Huntington’s thesis is very applicable in explaining the emergence and conflict between the various civilisation groups like the ISIS, there is still a lot of confusion to its application. One of the weaknesses of the civilisation clash and the presentation of Huntington is that it left out the concept of humanism, philosophy, science, and sociology of the Islam in the creation of the new line of defence. Other scholars have maintained that Huntington is an ideologist whose intention is to make civilisation and identities what exactly they are not in reality. This is the challenge to the western policy makers whose aim is to see the west getting stronger so that it might fend off others and especially the Islamic states. Despite this fact of omission, Huntington’s perspective cannot be brushed off when it comes to understanding civilisation and its impact on the formation of the various groups like the ISIS.