1) What do you identify as the most divisive current issues affecting Muslim cultures and Western cultures?
The most divisive issues currently are primarily political in nature. The memory of Western colonial occupation and the humiliations suffered during that period is still painful for Muslim-majority cultures today. The obvious economic inequities visited upon countries of what used to be called the Third World, a number of which are Muslim, as a result of Western-generated economic globalization is a source of resentment and frustration. Virtually unqualified support for Israel on the part of the West and American support in particular for tin-pot dictators in the Islamic world in the name of realpolitik while publicly espousing democracy has led to an erosion of trust between the West and the Islamic world. More recently, specific issues such as the US led war effort in Iraq and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in which disproportionately higher rates of Iraqi and Lebanese civilians have died brutally have severely undermined Western credibility in the Muslim world. Arab and Muslim lives, runs the perception, are valued far less than non-Arab and non-Muslim lives. Unless these basic political injustices and socio-economic disparities are addressed, I do not foresee any appreciable change in the situation, except for further deterioration and continuing violence.
2) What are the issues on which Muslim and Western cultures tend to come
together?
First of all, this assumed dichotomy between Muslim and Western cultures is rather arbitrary and historically questionable. Richard Bulliet, a professor of Islamic history at Columbia University, has recently coined the term “Islamo-Christian civilization” as a conscious rejoinder to the notorious “Clash of Civilizations” thesis proposed by Samuel Huntington. Bulliet underscores in particular the intellectual and cultural commonalities which have historically existed between the two world civilizations. Interestingly, in Muslim-majority societies, Huntington’s dichotomous world-view resonates most among hard-line Islamists, who similarly imagine a fundamental civilizational divide predicated on irreconcilable values and world-views. For mainstream Muslims and Westerners, a common concern for eradicating extremism and violence tends to bring them together. A basic Muslim and Judeo-Christian regard for the dignity of every human life and a belief in the right of every human being, lovingly fashioned by the Almighty, to live in justice and beauty (also stressed by other faith traditions) unite us. Thus Westerners and Muslims in general can agree that it is important to keep working to eradicate mass poverty worldwide, to protect our environment, to increase educational and employment opportunities for all. Working toward these common goals would be the most effective way to put an end to social upheaval and terrorism.
Dr. Asma Afsaruddin
Associate Professor
Arabic & Islamic Studies
341 Decio Hall
University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN 46556
