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The Clash of Civilizations in the Worldviews of Samuel Huntington and Osama Bin Laden History in the Making Volume 1 Article 6 2008 A Clash of Paradigms: The Clash of Civilizations in the Worldviews of Samuel Huntington and Osama bin Laden Eric Massie CSUSB Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/history-in-the-making Part of the Intellectual History Commons Recommended Citation Massie, Eric (2008) "A Clash of Paradigms: The Clash of Civilizations in the Worldviews of Samuel Huntington and Osama bin Laden," History in the Making: Vol. 1 , Article 6. Available at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/history-in-the-making/vol1/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Arthur E. Nelson University Archives at CSUSB ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in History in the Making by an authorized editor of CSUSB ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 44 CSUSB Journal of History A Clash of Paradigms: The Clash of Civilizations in the Worldviews of Samuel Huntington and Osama bin Laden Eric Massie Since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, the “Clash of Civilizations” theory has become an unavoidable aspect of academic debate between those scholars who either endorse or angrily reject its thesis of a conflict between Islamic and Western societies. During these academic debates, scholars have often compared the world views and beliefs of Samuel Huntington and Osama bin Laden in order to demonstrate the development of a similar intellectual trend in Western and Islamic 45 History in the Making societies.1 The comparison, however, is often made casually, without serious examination or analysis of the significant similarities and differences in their ideas. Due to the sensitive and often emotional nature of the debate surrounding the “Clash of Civilizations,” it is important to determine exactly what similarities and differences exist between the two viewpoints, so as to avoid incorrect generalizations. Whereas Samuel Huntington and Osama bin Laden share a common belief in a “Clash of Civilizations” and utilize much of the same historical evidence, they draw very different conclusions as to the nature and causes of the conflict. As a result, the vocabulary and terminology as well as the established conditions for termination of the conflict are radically different. The purpose of this paper is not to determine the validity of the claims of either Osama bin Laden or Samuel Huntington, but merely to examine and analyze their writings, interviews, and statements2 to compare the content and themes of their respective paradigms. 1 Examples of this tendency can be found in Francis Robinson, “Islam and the West: Clash of Civilizations?” in Islam and Global Dialogue: Religious Pluralism and the Pursuit of Peace, ed. Roger Boase (Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate Publicshing, 2005), 77‐90; and “Clash of Civilizations?” Canada and the World Backgrounder 68, no. 5 (March 2003): 5. 2 There is naturally going to be a certain degree of variation in the translations of Osama Bin Laden’s works due to the fact that many of them come from different sources and different translators. I have attempted to provide the greatest degree of consistency by relying primarily upon Bruce Lawrence’s compilation in his book, Messages to the World. Bruce Lawrence, Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden, trans. James Howarth (New York: Verso, 2005). 46 CSUSB Journal of History Paradigms of Power Political and historical events, when considered in isolation, are never self‐explanatory in that they never announce the underlying pattern or theme that might attach those events to a larger historical or political phenomenon. As a result, social scientists often develop paradigms within which they seek to interpret and explain events. Whether it is colonialism, globalism, nationalism, or other “ism’s,” these paradigms serve as reference points, allowing social scientists to explain historical developments within an interpretive framework from which they can make comparisons and predictions. Following in this tradition, Samuel Huntington and Osama bin Laden have established separate, but opposing, paradigms with which to interpret history and recent political events. With a belief in a “Clash of Civilizations” between Islam and the West as their central idea, both are paradigms concerning the distribution of global power among civilizations. The end of the Cold War brought an abrupt end to the bipolar military and political domination of world affairs long exercised by the United States and the Soviet Union. With the collapse and dissolution of Soviet communism, Samuel Huntington and Osama bin Laden both assert that the end of the Cold War has brought a renewal and intensification of conflict based upon cultural differences. As the person who originally 47 History in the Making coined the phrase “Clash of Civilizations” in his 1993 article of the same name, Samuel Huntington contends: “In the post‐Cold War world for the first time in history, global politics has become multi‐polar and multi‐ civilizational.”3 Defining a civilization as the broadest means of self identification in terms of “ancestry, language, history, customs and institutions,”4 Huntington suggests a post‐Cold War multi‐polar world in which civilizations instead of ideologies compete militarily, economically, and culturally. Identifying seven, and possibly eight, civilizations that include Sinic, Japanese, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox, Western, Latin American, and possibly African civilizations, Huntington’s paradigm predicts that because culture is now more important than any other distinction, societies of the same civilization will cooperate with one another against the others. 5 “In civilizational conflicts,” states Huntington, “kin stand by their kin.”6 Similarly, Osama bin Laden believes the end of the Cold War has precipitated a renewal of cultural conflict between the West and Islam. Identifying the United States as the leader of Western civilization, he states 3 Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 21. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid., 45‐47. 6 Ibid., 217. 48 CSUSB Journal of History that “after the end of the Cold War, America escalated its campaign against the Muslim world in its entirety, aiming to get rid of Islam itself.”7 For bin Laden, this assault upon the Islamic world by the United States is characterized by political, military and economic policies that are seen as specifically targeted at Muslims. These include wars fought against Iraq in 1991 and 2003 which have resulted in the occupation of Baghdad, one of Islam’s former capitals, by American troops;8 the imposition of a system of economic sanctions against Iraq from 1991‐2003, which bin Laden asserts has caused the deaths of “a million innocent children;”9 air strikes against Afghanistan10 and Sudan in 1998, the latter of which destroyed a pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum that produced half of Sudan’s medicines;11 bombing campaigns against Iraq in 199812 and 2001;13 and the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.14 7 Bruce Lawrence, Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden, trans. James Howarth (New York: Verso, 2005), 39. 8 Ibid., 180. 9Ibid., 104. 10 Ibid., 85. 11 Ibid., 67. 12 Ibid., 66‐68. 13 Ibid., 149. 14 Ibid., 134. 49 History in the Making By equating Islamic civilization with the religion of Islam, bin Laden is, by extension, equating these violations of Islamic territorial integrity as an attack upon Islam and, thus, upon all Muslim peoples. For bin Laden, Islam is more than just a religion; it’s an identifiable and contiguous territory, leading him to conclude that “any act of aggression against even a hand’s span of this land [Islamic territory]” makes it a duty for Muslims to defend it.15 The renewal of this conflict is interpreted by bin Laden as a “Crusade”16 by the Christian West against the Islamic “ummah [the global Islamic community],”which requires a civilizational response. 17 Although, bin Laden does not identify any other civilizations specifically by name, his identification of the West and Islam as separate cultural identities suggests the existence of other separate cultural identities that are neither Christian nor Islamic in nature. Since these two specific cultural identities do not encapsulate the entire population of the world, bin Laden is, in effect, recognizing that other cultural identities exist, such as Hindus and Buddhists who are in conflict with Muslims in Kashmir and Xinjiang. 15 Ibid., 49. 16 Ibid., 135. 17 The term “ummah” is often used by Osama bin Laden to refer to the global Islamic community, without consideration of national boundaries. For historians, it also represents an early period of Islamic history after Muhammad’s emigration to Medina but before its political and doctrinal divisions into Sunnis and Shias. 50 CSUSB Journal of History Thus, it is clear culture is the most significant and important object of self‐identification and loyalty in the post‐Cold War world for both Samuel Huntington and Osama bin Laden. Yet, each defines culture differently, attributing different processes and attributes to it, and emphasizing different aspects of it. Whereas Huntington identifies the central elements of culture as “language and religion,” of which religion is the most important, he also asserts that historical processes and legacies are also of significant importance in their contributions to the overall culture of a civilization. 18 In defining the attributes of Western civilization, Huntington identifies the Protestant and Catholic character of Western society by including within it those nations that have historically comprised Western Christendom as well as other European settler countries.19 However, he also attributes to it a historical legacy that includes the separation of spiritual and temporal authority, development of the rule of law, social pluralism, representative bodies, and individualism.20 These historical and social developments are also largely responsible for shaping Western institutions and cultural practices outside of religious customs and philosophical foundations.
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