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September 16, 2004
I have suspected that Samuel Huntington's clash of civilizations thesis is what underpins Australian conservatism these days. They hold that the Islamic terrorists attack Australia because they hate our highest values, our freedoms, our way of life, our civilization. They hate our democratically elected government with its freedom of religion and speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.
This is the ideology of the Australian political establishment as it wages its "war against terror." The radical Muslims attack Australia because they hate who we are. They want to destroy us because they hate our freedom, our opportunities, our democratic institutions, our way of life, our Judeo-Christian heritage. It is a hatred that is civilizational. It is rooted in the illiberal, intolerant, misogynist, anti-modernist, and anti-scientific culture of Muslims and their religion.
What then is the clash thesis? Huntington says:
"It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new worldwill not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will be the battle lines of the future."
His thesis is that the fault lines between civilizations are replacing the political and ideological boundaries of the Cold War as the flash points for crisis and bloodshed.
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