Reanalyze the Relationship of the West and Islamic...

Samuel P. Huntington thesis has been in center of debates for many years. Moreover, his prediction that main conflicts in near future is between the West (the United States and allies) versus Islamic Civilization has triggered controversy among International Relations scholars. This paper tries to analyze three main supportive arguments from Huntington thesis in the West v. Islam conflict. Democracy System v. Islamic Laws Samuel P. Huntington stated that Muslims unable to accept democracy because of the nature of Islamic law and this situation potentially lead to the virulent clash between the West and Islamic countries. He argued that Islam is the exclusive religion which is not flexible to adopt another political idea. This situation is†¦show more content†¦For comparison, the West accepts blasphemy as one of the manifestation of freedom of speech while Muslim rejects it. Democracy is the system with multi-interpretations. How the U.S. interprets democracy will be different from the rest of the world interpretation. The basic idea of democracy is government which is ruled by the people. Yet, the implementation of democracy is different in each country; it depends on historical and cultural factors in the country. Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia are Muslim dominated countries that prove their ability to maintain democratic system sustainably. Based on this fact , it is my hypothesis that Islam country fit with democratic system as long their Islamic values still be respected by the West. In the future, the intensive conflict between the West and Islamic countries is avoidable if both parties maintain relationship with a deep mutual understanding. The Resurgence of Islam In his hypothesis towards the rise of Islam, Huntington stated that Arabs in the Middle East passion in defending Islam arise when Saddam Hussein had attacked Israel, the country which is considered as the West’s agent in the Middle East. He urged that this incident has triggered Arabs initiative to unite and build Islamic civilization triumph. Previously, Muslim empire lasted for nearly 1,000 years and at that time Muslims gain