“A Clash of Civilizations”
In 1998 Harvard Political Scientist Samuel Huntington released a book entitled “The Clash of Civilizations.” His premise was that the previous world order of the Cold War which was based on the identity and conflict of political ideologies would be replaced in the 21st century by new primary identities of culture and religion that would lead to conflict.
While severely criticized and debated at the time (that’s what academics do for a living) I believe his thesis has been borne out in Afghanistan. I have seen it and experienced it every day in my ten years here. Afghanistan is on the front lines of the clash of civilizations.
The intense and expensive development effort carried out in Afghanistan by the western nations since 2001 has inevitably been shaped and driven by western cultural values. These are assumed to be “universal” values that are now the globalized “norm” that all people aspire to. These are so embedded in our western worldview that we don’t even think of them, kind of like the unseen wood frames that hold up the houses (and civilization) we live in. I’m talking about things like democracy, elections, constitutions, legislatures, individualism, gender equity (and now choice), basically the freedom to choose and define who you will be apart from any constraints, and above all secularism.
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines “secularism” as,
“The belief that religion should not play a role in government, education, or other public parts of society. Indifference to or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious considerations in public life.”
Sound Familiar?
The Afghan culture and people by and large are not secular and the clash of civilizations here is between secularism and theism. Again, defined by Merriam-Webster as,
“The belief in the existence of one God viewed as the creative source of the human race and the world who transcends yet is immanent in the world.”
I can’t think of two more fundamentally opposed belief systems that motivate such radically different attitudes and behaviors that result in the “clash.”
The Taliban fight to restore God’s law as represented in the Sharia in Afghanistan. It’s a complete social, political, and moral order ordained by God as revealed through His Prophet and preserved in the Quran. Elections, parliaments, individualism, humanly concocted laws and conventions are not part of the deal. Who wants to argue with God! Apparently the designers of western aid and development schemes do and they are paying the piper, so perhaps they can call the tune? But, it’s not working. After all 62% of Afghans say that religious scholars should be involved in politics and 67% say that they should be consulted on what’s acceptable change.
This clash plays out daily among the Afghans who themselves are sometimes divided between the two world views, and their western co-workers in the many international aid organizations working in Afghanistan.
When I served as the Country Director of a large international organization here there was some polarization among the Afghan and international staff along the “civilizational” fault line that was interesting to observe. One of my senior Afghan Program Directors in the office was a former Taliban government official and a former “Mujahedin” resistance fighter from the time of the Soviet occupation in the 1980’s. He had lost part of his right hand while making bombs for the “Jihad.” He was also a trained religious scholar (Alim) and prayer leader (Imam) who served as our connection into the world of religious leaders and scholars with whom we were attempting development programming. Being an older man who dressed in traditional fashion with turban and a long beard who carried himself as a religious leader, he naturally became the symbol of Islamic propriety in the office which is where the clash erupted.
The “Imam” and the like-minded staff who coalesced around him took it upon themselves to reprimand other staff for not dressing in an Islamic enough fashion at the office and some of the women for not wearing “hijab” the traditional head covering. In one case, he convened a “Jirga” a traditional council (comprised of men) to reprimand a female and male staff member for working alone in an office together with the door closed. Islam has a deeply embedded principle of “commanding good and forbidding evil” which gives people license to critique others on the perceived correctness of their religious observance and zeal. Islam is very much about group salvation. If you wander off the path it affects us all.
This is where it ended and the “Imam” was let go along with some of his followers. We were an international (read secular) organization working in Afghanistan not an Afghan organization, and therefore governed by western conventions of employee behavior. In this instance secularism won out.
It’s unfortunate, because I understood him and what he represented. I don’t know what happened to him. The last I heard he had travelled to Cairo, Egypt to attend the world-renown Islamic University of Al Ahzar for advanced training in religious studies. Others have said that he re-joined the Taliban in a political role, but has long since given up bomb making.