Clash of Civilizations: Nostalgia for the Cold War?

I agree that it is a very different culture and as a woman I fear Islamic culture. I fear all that it represents in its extreme as shown by some countries. It is not that long since the Western countries changed their attitudes to women and I still remember what it was like to be suppressed and treated differently. I see Islamic people in my country acting towards women in ways that I find absolutely unforgivable and the clerics justify their behaviour as being a different culture. There was a case a few years ago where a young girl of 15 was pack raped. They waited until she was home alone and then called their mates on mobile phone. When she answered the door they broke in and raped her. The men were arrested and imprisoned as rape is illegal in my country. The clerics said that the men had done nothing wrong and that it was allowed in their culture. This was a premeditated rape and there is no justification and in my view any man who does this is scum. For them to claim that there is nothing wrong with it makes me despise their entire culture. They see women as nothing more than objects to be used as they see fit and that can never be acceptable. I do not want to live in a world where half the population are treated this way by the other half. I do not see it that way at all. I see it as a culture where men still brutally suppress women because they can and want to make the rest of the world go back to that. Women fear that. We do not want to go back to being worse than slaves with no rights. So yes I fear Islam and everything it stands for. I hear what they say and I hear lies, the same lies the Christians used to say and I want nothing to do with it. How is it possible to coexist when one culture treats women like this. It makes women all over the world vulnerable.

YOUR QUESTION 1 : What do you think about this? Thanks for providing eclectic type of question for me to make an answer on this historical or retro value and the current value on religion matters and the issues therein. Of course, it is an undeniable facts that there are ups and downs to any religion in this world since long long time ago till now. The thing is that in every 50 years there is a huge provocation among the follower or believer from one side to the respective religion or internally that caused the break-up. Matter-of-fact, no religion's doctrine and teaching layout any notorious element in it. The only confusing part is defense and defendant once rival factor exists. YOUR QUESTION 2 : Where do you stand on this issue? My standing on this issue, respect to each other belief and belonging towards making the world as the safest planet for human to make living. Religion is a personal touch and embrace. Choose for humanitarian beneficence without promoting who the belongs to one religion. Promote harmonious understanding to benefits all human kind from, either; invention or exploration or discovery. That is why make me stay as an agnostic and not belongs to any religion.

I'd usually say it all started with Mikimoto's cultivation of pearls when he put Kuwait out of business, and they started diggin for oil... that's when it all started :)

I think that the responses which point out that there have been times when the two systems have co-existed relatively peacefully are correct; but there have also been times when the two systems have diverged greatly, and today is one of them, when war has been the norm. I also believe there has been a long-held fear and hatred of Islam in the West for several centuries, since the Crusades in fact, and that this colours the thinking of some Western politicians. The current crisis has blown up since the end of the cold war. If I may quote from a fascinating book, Michael Klare (1995) Rogue States and Nuclear Outlaws: America’s Search for a New Foreign Policy New York: Hill & Wang The end of the Cold War provided an enormous shock for American military leaders. Not only did it deprive them of an enemy against which to train and equip their forces, but it also eradicated the mental map that hitherto had explained world events and governed US policymaking. …For planners at the Department of Defence .. the end of the Cold War proved devastating. Without the Soviet threat to guard against, they had no basis on which to develop contingency plans, train troops, design weapons, or test their combat skills. As MIT professor and former Pentagon advisor William W. Kaufman observed at the time, American military officers plunged into a severe ‘identity crisis’, leaving the Defence Department mentally ‘rudderless’ at this critical juncture in history. Klare also argues, compellingly I think, that the economic demands of US militarism made a search for alternative enemies crucial, and a list was drawn up comprising North Korea as the major threat, with four Islamic nations on the next level, Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria. These five nations were then described as "rogue" nations, and to confirm the threat they posed, anti-Islamic rhetoric was emphasised in the latter four cases. All four Islamic states have been categorised as hostile to the United States and its allies, as sponsoring or condoning terrorism, and as having pursued the acquisition of chemical and/or nuclear weapons (and we all know how accurate that one was). All four, moreover, are said to be ruled by authoritarian leaders who espouse militant anti-Western beliefs, and are prepared to threaten fundamental US interests in their region There is, of course, a kernel of truth some of those things, but critics of US foreign policy point to the economic and military policies of the US in the Middle East for decades prior to this as being a prime cause for Islamic distrust and dislike of the US. The terrorist bombings in Britain brought out an interesting fact: the Underground bombers were not religious fanatics, there were educated Islamic Brits whose anger at what they saw as the damage caused their ancestral countries by Western economic and military Imperialism radicalised them. Yet nobody in mainstream media sees the Islamic threat as anything but religiously motivated. I would suggest that just as America uses the concept of rogue states to justify its actions to its own people, so do the militant Muslims (to differentiate them from the peace-loving Muslims) use religion as their justification. In both cases the justifications create support for the opposing policies. The real issue is economics and the maitainance of US hegemony on the one hand, and an attempt to get a fair share of the pie on the other. Lash

Absolutely I believe we can all exist peacefully. It's been done, and can be done again. Many countries have peoples of several faiths and ideologies all co-existing peacefully. It's not the differing faiths that cause the difficulties...it's the misguided leadership of a few who incite the many into these unfortunate conflicts.

Whatever their differences, Islam and the religions of the west teach peace and harmony, so it should be possible to coexist with confrontation. It is certain people's interpretations of the teachings that cause war. The human condition is to be creative, which throws up different ideas and belief systems. All it takes is a few charismatic fanatics with warlike ideas, to throw things out of balance. This has happened over and over again, and is still happening today. What bothers me is that the deities involved seem unable, or unwilling, to put a stop to it. it makes me question my faith in anything.

I have read a lot on these Abrahamic religions to try and understand them. I’ll enumerate what I know and hopefully you will add to them. Abraham is their joint Patriarch and both religions acknowledge so. His first son Ishmael is from his wife Sara’s Egyptian maid Hagar. His second son Isaac is from his true wife Sara. Ishmael and Hagar were banished into the desert by Abraham Ishmael’s descendents are supposed to be the Arabs who are the ancestors of Muslims Isaac’s descendents are the Jews and Christians Now, this is my personal opinion of course that from the very beginning itself there was a clash of values between Ishmael and Isaac, with Isaac being always shown in favour of Abraham. This discrepancy by Abraham towards both his sons and his favour for Isaac may have had an effect on separating the two races and a major cause of discontent between the two. Secondly, Islamic civilization was way ahead of Western civilizations in the middle ages. Gradually however, it slipped (various reasons) and the West emerged as the undisputed leader of the world, colonizing vast areas and ruling over many parts of the Islamic world. This was not acceptable to the Muslims who are descendants of the free-spirited, proud and brave Arabs. Subjugation is still not acceptable to them. Thirdly, their religion and Muhammad has always spread this belief that Allah has given the entire world to the Muslims…it is for them to claim their legacy. This automatically rules out any scope of peaceful coexistence. Fourthly, though Islam recognized Jesus as a prophet and believes in this return, they are against the West for worshipping the image of Jesus as in Islam, idol worship is banned. There are other economic reasons as well, but those are in different leagues. The above are my realisation on some religious differences between Islam and the West and why the two can never meet.

It is always possible to coexist for as long as they could tolerate each other and respect each others faith, tradition and culture. The only thing that hampers is when one sector would push that their faith is the only one to follow their culture and enforce it. If they sow terror to to one another is just one of the things that make things complex.

I'm not sure. It seems alot of places want to be at war these days and some of them do not ever want peace.

Islam isn't the problem, violent people are the problem. Islam isn't incompatable with the West, but they do have a rightful fear of the West because of previous history. It is those "radical fundimentalist" members of Islam that think attacking people is going to do - what? What do they think they are doing? all they do is bring violence down on to their heads, and on the mostly innocent people they use as shields. (Mostly because most of them are innocent, but not all.) Not to say that there aren't violent people in other faiths, there are, but they aren't out killing hundreds or thousands of people. I know good people who are members of Islam, I have also meet fine people who do necessary jobs all over this country. I have no problem with them as co-workers, or neighbors.

Hi bantilesroger! I do believe that it is possible to have a harmonious relationship with everyone regardless of culture, religion, etc.. We just have to learn how to accept that each one of us have different individuality and that we have to learn to respect each other. I guess, it is easier said than done but i do believe that all of us want the same thing and that is peace. In order to achieve peace and harmony, we have to set aside first our differences and our own selfish desires. Just my thoughts. Take care and have a nice day! lovelots..faith210

Everything is possible in this world, and it's just that whether we wanna try or have the courage to do it.. Islam is just a religion and religion is supposed to be believed in the heart.. SO what has it got to do with wars?? I believe alot of ple are using religion or even abusing it to get what they wanted, and thus starting the 'cold war'.. ANd since there are history of them co-existing peacefully, so why spoil them and spoil everything?? Isn't that stupid??

Of course peaceful co-exist and partnership between Islam and western civilization is possible judging from history; the tension and conflict between the two in today world mainly is the result of political ideology instead of religion and civilization. Unfortunately, religion is such an useful tool for militant organizations to use for recruitment purposes to achieve political goal, it is basically being hijacked by terrorists to advance their cause.

I think the first thing people need to come to grips with is that God is a human concept, created by humans to serve human needs. As human needs have evolved, so has the nature of the idea of God and the role He plays (or not) in our lives. If we accept this paradigm of "God" and recognize that globalization and communication technology will continue to force vastly different cultures to collide, then we can also have faith that eventually the idea of God will also necessarily evolve to meet the needs of this new global society. Values and practices of the various cultures will merge as we emphasize the beliefs and philosophies they have in common. Those beliefs will grow and become the principle components of the evolved idea of "God" and a new global society. My opinion is that this will take a few generations to occur. Technology, throughout history, has driven human evolution, so the first task is to bring 3rd world societies up to date technologically and continue to open doors to information so citizens can have access to different ways of thinking.

I think it depends upon the people involved! Are they able to be tolerant and look for common ground? Or are they arrogant and, or worse yet, murderous?

I do agree that the values and ideologies are different between the east and west, and that applies to all religions, not just islam, but I believe with a healthy respect and cooperations for both sides we can make it work.

yup its possible to co exist. BUt one has to stop trying to pour down the others throats that one way is better than the other!

The problem is fundamentalism. When Islam is conservative, there is definitely a clash of civilizations between Islam and modern civilization aka the West. There is no way that conservative Islam can be acceptable in todays world. That being said, I think Islam is perverted this way for political or economic gains in times of hardship or revolution. I still believe Islam is a fake religion founded by a murderous greedy fake prophet and followed initially for greed and power.

Hi bantilesroger, While I realize the differences I think that the two can, indeed must, learn to co-exist. The problem lies with fundamentalist groups within Islam, because this is the group that will accept nothing that is nor written in the Koren. They treat their holy book just as such Christians treat the Bible. All Muslems are not like that and they are I believe, the majority. While it is very difficult to reason with such people, I believe that it is possible because as leaders change ideas change, maybe not easily or quickly but, eventually they will agree on a way to at least cooperate. Blessings.

It is entirely possible to co-exist . However; one has to shun greed and Ego and start respecting and loving each other . One should stop supporting elements of hate .Then; we can look forward to a good time . Regards