Global Intifada

Perhaps one of the greatest ironies of history is that it was the “Islamic threat” which first gave rise to European identity.

The rise of European identity has been given an extensive study by Mr. Norman Davies, author of “Europe: A History.” He astutely points out in this seminal work that the formation of European identity is instrinsically related to the rise of Islamic civilizations.

“Islam’s impact on the Christian world cannot be exaggerated. Islam’s conquests turned Europe into Christianity’s main base. At the same time the great swathe of Muslim territory cut the Christians off from virtually all direct contact with other religions and civilizations. The barrier of militant Islam turned the Peninsula in on itself, severing or transforming many of the earlier lines of commercial, intellectual, and political intercourse. In the field of religious conflict, it left Christendom with two tasks - to fight Islam and to convert the remaining pagans. It forced the Byzantine Empire to give lasting priority to the defence of its Eastern borders, and hence to neglect its imperial mission in the West. It created the conditions where the other, more distant Christian states had to fend for themselves, and increasingly adopt measures for local autonomy and self-sufficiency. In other words, it gave a major stimulus to feudalism.” (p 257)

“Islam affected Eastern Europe even more directly than it affected Western Europe. Its appearance set the bounds of a new, compact entity called ‘Christendom’, of which Constantinople would be the strongest centre for some time to come. It set a challenge to the pagans on the eastern fringes of Christian-Muslim rivalry, who henceforth faced the prospect of choosing between the two dominant religions. Above all, it created the cultural bulwark against which European identity could be defined.” (p 258)

If what Mr. Davies writes about sounds familiar, it is because many of the same conditions that assisted in the construction of European identity can be said to exist today — albeit with regards to Islamic civilization. It could be argued that the perception of a “Western threat” that, in effect, has cut off Muslim lands from other civilizations, may very well be in the process of precipitating the formation of a new global Islamic identity, one that had collapsed at the conclusion of the 19th century.

Given the conditions that existed with regards to Western civilization, it makes me wonder, not whether we are going to witness the rise of an Islamic culture or an Islamic state or an Islamic system, but more importantly, are we on the cusp of the rise of an Islamic civilization?

This may seem somewhat hard to believe; an Islamic civilization spawning out of the chaos and instability that exists all over the Muslim world?

As implausible as this sounds, it should be noted that various Islamic civilizations at different times and places in history have arisen exactly in this manner:

“As a result of these far-flung conquests, autonomous Islamic states, paying no more than a nominal service to the distant Caliphs, emerged in Spain, in Morocco, in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Persia, and in Transoxiana. Islam progressed as far in one century as Christianity in seven.” (p 257)

Furthermore, the very instability we witness today is very similar to the type of instability that gave rise to European civilization.

“Movement caused uncertainty and insecurity. Uncertainty fed a constant ferment of ideas. Insecurity prompted energetic activity.” (p xviii)

I am not trying to argue that Islamic civilization will develop in a manner that is identical or similar to the way that both Western and Islamic civilizations devloped in the past. I am merely pointing out that the rise of a new Islamic civilization is not impossible, although highly improbable. If it can be done in the past, it is possible that such radical changes can arise again in the future, especially when similar conditions exist today.

If the combative nature that Western civilization has adopted towards Islam is ultimately responsible for the revival of a Muslim identity that gives rise to an Islamic civilization, this will be, perhaps, one of the greatest ironies in human history.

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