Politics not religion cause of divide between Muslims, west: Maleeha
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr. Maleeha Lodhi has said that politics, not religion, is at the root of the growing divide between the Muslim world and the West.
Speaking to officers at the Army auditorium in Rawalpindi, Dr. Lodhi said that in a context of cascading globalization, the apparent tension between civilizations is not over religious or cultural differences, but a reflection of the unequal distribution of world power, wealth and influence as well as perceived historical and contemporary grievances.
"There is no clash of values but of politics and interests," she categorically stated.
Dr. Maleeha Lodhi's lecture was titled 'Islam and the West: Confrontation or Cooperation?' in which she dealt with the historical context of current issues that lie at the heart of the present divide and mutual misperceptions that characterize the gap in understanding between West and Islamic world.
About relations between West and Muslim world, she said this marked a pivotal or defining moment in world history.
She stressed that this reflected, in part, the complex dynamics of the contemporary era. In the past, different religions, cultures and civilizations occupied or inhabited separate geographical space. Today, the phenomena of international migration, communications and information technology, have, in many ways, blurred the geographic and other fault lines where specific faiths and cultures encounter and interact with each other.
She said such close contact and interaction now takes place in the street, the workplace, the living room, on television and the Internet. Increased migration has meant the presence of significant Muslim Diasporas in the West, thus sharpening the encounters.
This greater engagement can serve to enhance understanding and accommodation. Or it can be a factor for friction and rejection.
These developments, she explained have coincided with the rise of significant asymmetries in power - economic and political, where some enjoy greater privileges and advantages as compared to others.
Against this backdrop, Dr. Lodhi said, negative images of each other continue to influence perceptions in both the Muslim world and the West. And these negative mutual perceptions have provided a basis for the growing gulf between the two.
Dr. Lodhi said narrowing this gap is perhaps the greatest challenge of our times and averting a future confrontation requires serious and sustained efforts, by both sides to address very substantially the issues of perception as well as reality.
She underlined that it would be a grave error to minimize the challenge by viewing it only as a question of public relationing or simply better communication by both sides.
A key area where divergent views must be harmonized is on the conceptualization of the "root causes" of terrorism. She said generally Western nations and Muslim countries mean different things when they talk of addressing the underlying factors responsible for terrorism.
The West, she said, generally takes a behavioral approach, while Muslim nations have a structuralist view. For many in the West, "extremist" ideology, lack of democracy in the Middle East and socio-economic stagnation are among the principal factors conducive to terrorism.
Muslim nations and peoples, she said, identify as "roots causes", foreign occupation, denial of right of self-determination and political and economic injustice.
These polar views, Dr. Lodhi said obscure areas of agreement but it is where the prime emphasis is laid in policy actions that the divergences become apparent and feed into the Islam-West polarization.
In her talk, she dealt at length with the experience of Muslim Diasporas in the West, and warned that fear, ignorance and prejudice against Muslims in Europe now risked fuelling a vicious circle of isolation and increasing radicalization, especially of youth.
Dr. Lodhi said clearly the Muslim world has a great deal to do to reform itself to become contemporary, embrace modernity and to reclaim our knowledge - producing heritage; but she underscored that this cannot work in isolation.
Reforms in the Muslim world must be accompanied by a meaningful review of policy by the key Western powers. Visible steps and concrete results are required in resolving the unjust situations and disputes where Muslims find themselves victims of historical injustice.
She called on Western nations to evolve a new strategy to engage with Islam. In conclusion she said that the terms of encounter between the West and the Muslim world must change fundamentally. More than even before, security and prosperity at the cusp of the new millennium depends on the promotion of accommodation and cooperation between different civilizations and forging the collective will to address the world's imbalances.
Courtesy Geo
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