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Behind the news: Visions
for peace - Voices of faith
Issue no. 14
14 February 2002
A monthly bulletin providing
church, ecumenical and interfaith information, resources, and analysis
on issues of current global concern
(…)
5. Editorial analysis:
The cultural dimension of the current crisis
by Reda Benkirane
Among the many reflections
on the events related to September 11, two of the most profound insights
come from Christian thinkers who have focused their analyses essentially
on the cultural aspect of the crisis.
René Girard, a French anthropologist from Stanford University,
known for his Scapegoat Theory and his anthropology of violence and religion,
sees in these events a "mimetic (mirror image) rivalry" of an
unprecedented scale. According to Girard, the resistance to the current
globalization process emerging from different parts of the world and the
various Islamist armed actions against the US and the West are motivated
not because of their intrinsic differences but because they are similar
to what they fight against. "They fight us because they look more
and more like us" René Girard would say. According to Girard,
Bush and Bin Laden are "mimetic twins" who both want to have
a global impact and reach a global audience. Both use the same religious
terminology based on binary logic (Crusades/Jihad, Good against Evil,
etc.). Yet even the profile of the terrorists who perpetrated the attacks
against New York and Washington attests that they were totally assimilated
into Western culture. Girard's insights, as an anthropologist influenced
by Christian eschatology, alert us to the risk of uniformity and homogeneity
rather than the risk of differences and divergence. The world is in danger
of uniformity not of diversity… The same simplistic and Manichean
logic is used by both Bush and Bin Laden in order to attract the attention
and the support of Christians and Muslims worldwide. But humanity deserves
a real alternative vision which reflects its plurality and which can overcome
the current polarization of religions, civilizations and cultures.
Konrad Raiser provides a complementary analysis of the same events. In
his presentation at the WCC meeting on "Beyond 11 September: Assessing
Global Implications" (29 November-2 December 2001), he argues that
a "symbolic conflict" of a new nature has emerged. What we are
seeing is a confrontation over "symbolic power," rather than
a struggle for natural resources, trade routes or territories. The particular
nature of this conflict is especially reflected in the very symbols used
and destroyed on September 11. The way in which the conflict has been
presented and justified, and the fact that it is happening in an Information
Age, amplified and distorted by the mass media, explain partly why "our
traditional analytical models are inadequate to understand the conflict
and why theology and religious insights are needed". Raiser concluded
his presentation by highlighting the need to develop "new tools"
for a better understanding of the religious dimension of the present confrontation
and also "to resist the tendency to turn religion into an ideology
for struggle."
On the war of civilizations
In order to address the crucial question of cultural diversity and the
need to integrate "non-Euro-centric" models of "creative
thinking," the success and the relevance of the concept of "war
of civilizations" should be questioned. One of the most quoted theories
proposed during the last decade to explain the current cultural challenge
is Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilizations, first introduced in his
Foreign Affairs' article (1993) and later published in a book (1996).
While many have heard about this theory of war of civilizations, very
few observers know that the concept did not originate with American political
scientist Samuel Huntington. He is not even the person who first coined
the term "war of civilizations". The first explicit mention
of this concept came from Mahdi Elmandjra, a former Assistant Director
General of UNESCO, President of the World Future Studies Federation and
of Futuribles International (Paris), and member of the Club of Rome. Elmandjra,
who teaches International Relations at the University of Rabat, published
"the First Civilizational War" in 1991 referring to the Gulf
war and the new "post-colonial" situation created after the
end of the Cold War. The book was published in Arabic (1991), English
and French (1992), and Japanese (2001). During the Gulf war, Elmandjra
gave a seminal interview to the German newspaper Der Spiegel (allusively
quoted in Huntington's book) where he introduced his own theory of the
war of civilizations. In this interview, Elmandjra essentially stigmatized
the Western fear of Islam, population growth in the South, and the growing
importance of Confucianist societies. All these ingredients of Elmandjra's
theory of "war of civilizations" were later included as basic
assumptions in Huntington's thesis. It is instructive to know that this
theory of "war of civilizations" initially was formulated as
a "non-Euro-centric" point of view which denounced the bellicose
perception of cultures and civilizations and which advocated increased
recognition of the world's cultural diversity.
The problem with the application of Huntington's theory is that cultures
and civilizations are now portrayed as playing the roles that nation-states
played during the Cold War. Cultures and civilizations are seen as monolithic
blocs acting on the geopolitical scene rather than as living and evolving
organisms that need constantly to exchange and interact with their environment.
A related concern is the political perception of religions, civilizations
and cultures: even Islamist as well as Christian and Jewish "neo-fundamentalist"
movements see themselves primarily as political actors rather than as
spiritual movements. This brings to mind Girard's mimetic rivalry which
is also denounced by Raiser in his concluding remarks on the "symbolic
hegemony." Religions, civilizations and cultures should not be reduced
to political entities and confrontations. Instead of "policing civilizations"
as implied in Huntington's thesis, the world needs to "civilize politics".
Political and economic analyses are not sufficient to comprehend the complexity
of the world. Better understanding of the cultural and religious components
could more adequately address the problem of present international disorder.
Furthermore, the fear of the Other is often based on the ignorance of
the Other. Perhaps it is time in the West to learn more about Islam, about
its spirituality, its arts, its poets, writers and scientists, and about
its tolerance which has been demonstrated so many times - for example
in Spain for 700 years and in the Ottoman empire until the beginning of
the 20th century. There are also some universal issues - on political
violence, arms race, poverty, illiteracy, pollution, pandemics, etc. -
that transcend cultural differences and national borders and which must
now be taught, learnt, discussed and shared by every citizen of the world.
As stated by the Spanish writer Rodrigo de Zayas: "We must teach
humanity to humanity".
Reda Benkirane
Communications Officer, Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance
Further readings
:
Konrad Raiser, Beyond 11 September: Implications for the Churches,
Beyond 11 September. Assessing Global Implications, Geneva, 29 November-2
December 2001.
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/symbolic.html
René Girard,
What Is Occurring Today Is a Mimetic Rivalry on a Planetary Scale,
Interview by Henri Tincq, Le Monde, 6 November2001, translation Jim Williams
http://theol.uibk.ac.at/cover/girard_le_monde_interview.html
Mahdi Elmandjra, Der
erste Weltkrieg der Kulturen (This is the first civilizational war),
in: "Der Spiegel", Hamburg, 11 February 1991.
http://www.elmandjra.org/der110291.jpg
Mahdi Elmandjra, Première
guerre civilisationnelle, Casablanca, Toubkal, 1992.
http://www.elmandjra.org/livre1/Tablematiere.html
Samuel P. Huntington,
The clash of civilizations, in: Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993, v72,
n3.
http://www.alamut.com/subj/economics/misc/clash.html
Samuel P. Huntington,
The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order, New
York, Simon & Schuster, 1996.
"The conflict
which broke out in August 1990 announced the advent of the post-colonial
era. The beginning of hostilities set the stage for the first civilizational
war. The Gulf war is but the first episode of a North-South conflict where
the fundamental issue is basically of a cultural nature.
(…) I have said and written on many an occasion since September 12th,
1990 that what is taking place in the Gulf was not only a political, economic
or military conflict, but above all, a cultural confrontation. Being a
researcher in the prospective field, I have never ceased, for 15 years
now, to warn the West against its socio-cultural ethnocentrism and the
dangers it involved on the eve of the 21st century."
Mahdi Elmandjra, Futurist, The First Civilizational War (1992)
Book available on the Web at: http://www.elmandjra.org/Contents.htm
(…)
Behind the news:
Visions for Peace - Voices of Faith is a joint initiative of:
World Council of
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in all continents from virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic
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Alliance - a global action network of 62 churches and church-related
organizations who have pledged themselves to change unjust policies and
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to speak out with one voice against injustice and structures which deprive
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