An anti-US wave is now sweeping across West Asia and North Africa, with protests breaking out in one country after another. The fury started on September 11, when Libyan protesters stormed the US consulate in Benghazi, killing four US diplomats including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Outraged Egyptians also laid siege on the US diplomatic mission in Cairo. All of this have been triggered by the online circulation of a US-made video mocking the Islamic prophet Mohammad. Also in the media was the news that an unknown small church in the United States had plotted to mark the anniversary of the September 11 incident by burning the Koran. While the attacks on diplomats in open violation of international law should be denounced, what commands our equal attention is to reflect on the root cause of the conflicts between the US and the Islamic world and the fundamental solution to prevent the reoccurrence of similar events.
An overview of the development of current events has brought this author to believe that confrontation and contest between the United States and the Middle East (and the Islamic world in particular) will remain a major feature dominating the overall development of the world for quite some time to come. In the eyes of Muslims, the United States is a successor to the old Western colonialists. They believe it has continuously stepped up its political suppression, military invasion and even occupation of their native land, and rendered its unswerving support to Israel while intensifying suppression of Palestine. All these have disgraced and infuriated the Islamic world, and Arab states in particular. What is more, it has spared no efforts in culturally invading these nations through voluminous trafficking of Western values to sabotage social traditions nurtured by the core value of Islamism. Far disadvantaged, the radicals in these nations cannot do anything but go to extremes in their asymmetrical resistance under a religious banner, thus becoming the main source of terrorism in the Middle East.
In the eyes of many Americans, meanwhile, the Islamic world stands as a symbol of fanaticism, ignorance and backwardness. After the end of the Cold War, some US scholars came up with the theory about the clash of civilizations, alleging that the biggest threat to their country would come from the Islamic world. After September 11th, in particular, they have gone even farther to equate Islamism with terrorism and called loudly for ‘democratic transformation’ of the Middle East, arguing that the never-ending turmoil in the Islamic world will spread to other parts of the globe, and the strive by Islamic extremists for weapons of massive destruction will pose a hideous threat to the free world.
On the one side, the all-powerful United States with its strong sense of mission is dreaming of bringing the whole human race under its unified banner of values, culture, thinking and system; and on the other side, the Islamic states, extremely self-conscious and rebellious, are trying their utmost to resist transformation. This fuels the rise of disputes and explains the easy development of a little spark into a great fire. Is there any sure solution to this issue? Yes, but it should start with the acknowledgement of the diversity of civilizations and promotion of mutual respect between different civilizations. Seeing the great upheaval and changes in West Asia and North Africa, the United States and some other Western powers have lost no time in imposing neo-interventionism in these regions. It has even forced the change of power in some countries through military intervention. ‘We side with the people,’ it often trumpets. Everyone knows, however, what it is truly going on.
Complicated and changeable, the current situation requires us to deepen our understanding and study of the Middle East and the Islamic world, with particular attention given to the study of their mode of thinking, social status, religion and culture so as to know and esteem their real religious claims and tolerance while keeping extremists from becoming terrorists and using violence under any religious excuse. Politicians, in particular, should face the reality with courage and look into the future with an open mind, with key efforts devoted to balancing immediate and long-term gains and losses, coordinating the relationship between ethnic, national, regional and international peace and development, promoting multiple-manner dialogue between different civilizations, and boosting mutual understanding and trust.
The international community, meanwhile, should heighten its political judgment, step up mediation and appeasement of hot regional issues, devote concerted efforts to the creation of a proper climate, and always try to solve thorny issues plaguing a region such as the Middle East or the world as a whole. Given that the destiny of the human race has gotten even more closely interrelated today, cooperation has become the mandate for settlement of disputes with a new mode of thinking and through peaceful measures.
Wu Sike is a member on the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and member on the Foreign Policy Consulting Commmittee of the Ministry of Foreign Afairs
