May 22, 2007

Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington

They seem to want it both ways.

On the one hand they argue that 'Muslim society', culture and civilisation is not capable of maintaining a modern nation state, with parliaments and the rule of law, and that what they really need is Balkanisation with their covert help. That all Muslim states should exist as little statelets based on tribal societies, with little more than village elders running the show presumably. That Muslims are incapable of running modern multicultural societies with sophisticated state institutions.

On the other hand and in the same breath these people argue that there is some kind of ' unitary Islamic civilisation' moving and thinking in the same direction, and thus theoretically present a threat to the 'West' in the form of a 'clash of civilisation' sometime in the future.

My question to them is, if these grass skirted things aren't capable of maintaining a modern nation state and are only good for running mini ethnic based statelets according to their theory, then how are they going to organise themselves into one unitary movement and pose a serious threat to the 'West' in the first place.

We only have to look at the pathetic/passive mutterings of Muslim states to the continued genocide in Iraq to see the reality.

Obviously the Clash of civilisation is not going to take place.

Yet alas these misguided and in some senses very dangerous individuals are touted as serious scholars of academia in the highest circles of Western society, when in fact they are no better than OBL and his ilk, wearing suits, and using well chosen words.

Let us then move from theory to facts. Of the top 15 economies of the world only one is Muslim, Indonesia at number 15----with a PPP measured economy of $935 billion approximately. Indonesia factually is a weak Third World society which has been 'managed' by the West since it's independence----USA/Australia. Even if it were really independent it would not pose any threat to the West, given the fundamental nature of the local people, made up of placid, passive Malay/Polynesian peoples. Really can't see them goose stepping around the world.

To be a serious threat to the world, you need a certain state of mind and a seriously developed economy like the USA, which has the largest economy in the world, and coincidentally also the most powerful nation on earth.