The riots and violence in France aren’t merely about the death of a Muslim teenager. This isn’t a spontaneous reaction to this incident by a section of the outraged Muslim community. It is too simple an explanation. As this isn’t an isolated incident, from Norway to the UK and from Germany to the US, the Western world is witnessing a rapid increase in violence by Muslim fundamentalists over the last few years.
All those civilisations who will overlook the deep implications of this phenomenon will suffer in the years to come. But first about the West. The whole West is facing an onslaught from Muslim fundamentalism and as Samuel Huntington had predicted in the 1990s that it is the ‘Clash of Civilisations’ between the West and the radical version of Islam. The latter is at war with the West and after it conquers the West, it will focus on China, India and the rest of the world. It has already conquered large parts of Africa, almost complete West Asia and to some extent Central Asia also. Islamic radicalisation has also made deep inroads in South Asia also.
In a nutshell, this is a global civilisational war between Muslim Fundamentalism and the rest of the World.
Huntington published a bold and provocative work in the 1990s, titled “The Clash of Civilisations and the remaking of World order”, in which he had predicted what we are witnessing in France and several other Western countries. He explained the fundamental contradictions between Islam and the West because of which there would be an inevitable clash.
“The structure of political loyalty …among Muslims generally has been the opposite of that in the modern West. For the latter, the nation-state has been the apex of political loyalty. Narrower loyalties are subordinate to it and are subsumed into loyalty to the nation-state. Groups transcending nation-states — linguistic or religious communities, or civilisations — have commanded less intense loyalty and commitment. Along a continuum of narrower to broader entities, Western loyalties thus tend to peak in the middle, the loyalty intensity curve forming in some measure an inverse U. In the Islamic world, the structure of loyalty has been almost exactly the reverse. Islam has had a hollow middle in its hierarchy of loyalties. The ‘two fundamental, original, and persisting structures’, as Ira Lapidus has observed, have been the family, the clan, and the tribe, on the one hand, and the ‘unities of culture, religion, and empire on an ever-larger scale’, on the other. (Huntington; The Clash of Civilizations; Pp174)
Europe and Islam
Jean-Paul Garraud, a veteran French politician, raised this issue in the European Union’s parliament on August 27, 2020. He indicated that the situation seems to have gone out of hand and Europe might be reaching almost to the point of no return. Garraud warned the member countries of the EU about a potentially explosive situation as he said, “Lax European immigration policies, which mostly benefit Muslim countries, have shown these countries’ populations how weak the EU Member States are and encouraged them to come to Europe in increasing numbers. This explosion in the number of migrants has caused widespread disorder and even chaos in a number of Member States.”
He further added, “Belgium, France, Germany and Sweden, in particular, have been affected by this Islamisation process. According to a 2020 report by France’s General Directorate for Internal Security, some 150 French neighbourhoods are controlled by Islamist fundamentalists. National law is no longer being applied in these neighbourhoods. Sharia law, factionalism and radicalisation hold sway instead.”
Growing Muslim Population
The rapid growth in the Muslim population across the world and especially in Europe is also a major factor whose global implications are yet to be assessed.
Houssain Kettani published an interesting research paper titled ‘Muslim Population in Europe: 1950-2020’ (International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, Vol. 1, No. 2, June 2010). The paper said, “The presented data show that the percentage of the World Muslim population with respect to the total World population has increased steadily from 17 percent in 1950 to 26 percent by 2020. While the total European population increased from 548 million in 1950 to 744 million by 2020, the percentage of Muslims in Europe increased from 2 percent in 1950 to 6 percent by 2020. Since the 1950s, the continent’s annual population growth (APGR) has been decreasing constantly, from 1 percent to 0.1 percent in the 2010s, which is the lowest among all continents. The corresponding APGR for the Muslim population in this continent is currently ten times the continent’s APGR. Thus, the percentage of Muslims is expected to continue to rise.”
Christianity vs Islam
As we are aware that the Western world predominantly follows Christianity and hence the clash between the West and Muslim fundamentalism seems to be inevitable unless radical Islamists back down, that seems to be a remote possibility. Bernard Lewis explained this aptly in ‘The Roots of Muslim Rage’ (Atlantic; September 1990), “The struggle between these rival systems has now lasted for some fourteen centuries. It began with the advent of Islam, in the seventh century, and has continued virtually to the present day. It has consisted of a long series of attacks and counterattacks, jihads and crusades, conquests and reconquests. For the first thousand years Islam was advancing, Christendom in retreat and under threat. The new faith conquered the old Christian lands of the Levant and North Africa, and invaded Europe, ruling for a while in Sicily, Spain, Portugal, and even parts of France. The attempt by the Crusaders to recover the lost lands of Christendom in the east was held and thrown back, and even the Muslims’ loss of southwestern Europe to the Reconquista was amply compensated by the Islamic advance into southeastern Europe, which twice reached as far as Vienna. For the past three hundred years, since the failure of the second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 and the rise of the European colonial empires in Asia and Africa, Islam has been on the defensive, and the Christian and post-Christian civilisation of Europe and her daughters has brought the whole world, including Islam, within its orbit.”
“For a long time now there has been a rising tide of rebellion against this Western paramountcy, and a desire to reassert Muslim values and restore Muslim greatness. The Muslim has suffered successive stages of defeat. The first was his loss of domination in the world, to the advancing power of Russia and the West. The second was the undermining of his authority in his own country, through an invasion of foreign ideas and laws and ways of life and sometimes even foreign rulers or settlers, and the enfranchisement of native non-Muslim elements.”
“The third — the last straw — was the challenge to his mastery in his own house, from emancipated women and rebellious children. It was too much to endure, and the outbreak of rage against these alien, infidel, and incomprehensible forces that had subverted his dominance, disrupted his society, and finally violated the sanctuary of his home was inevitable. It was also natural that this rage should be directed primarily against the millennial enemy and should draw its strength from ancient beliefs and loyalties.”
Clash of Civilisations
There have been many analysts and political scientists who have challenged the theory of the ‘Clash of Civilisations’. But the experience on the ground and the present developments in France and some other Western countries clearly indicate the ‘clear and present’ danger to their very existence from Muslim fundamentalism. The only solution to this problem is a global realignment of forces where all those who feel threatened from Muslim fundamentalism. To save their civilisations, they must join hands and fight back.
The writer, an author and columnist, has written several books. He tweets @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed are personal.
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