Huntington's thesis on Islam is too simplistic: Expert

Huntington's thesis on Islam is too simplistic: Expert

JAKARTA (JP): Samuel Huntington's theory on the potential "clash of civilizations" between Islam and the West is too simplistic, an American academic said.

Robert W. Hefner told a conference on Islam that he believes Huntington's belief that Islam poses a great danger to the West and that the two will clash to be misguided.

The three-day conference also featured American professor Peter L. Berger and discussed the development of Islam and modernity in Southeast Asia, the various challenges it is exposed to, and its future.

Hefner and Berger, both professors at Boston University, agreed that process of secularization, depoliticization and pluralism greatly affect Moslem communities.

Hefner pointed out that Huntington's thesis was founded on mistaken assumptions and that he was intellectually ill-equipped to draw such a conclusion on Islam and the West.

It would therefore be irrelevant to respond to him with the fervor that many Moslem communities have so far shown, he asserted.

He pointed out that Huntington had mistakenly clumped various Moslem communities under the word "Islam", and the heterogeneous Western cultures under the "West".

The diverse communities of both Moslem and the West may engage in a "clash of civilizations", but not Islam as the divine revelation, Hefner was quoted by Antara as saying.

Furthermore, he said, Huntington did not have the capacity to engage in "intellectual exploration".

"He's too old for that...(the thesis was) a product of a post power syndrome," he said, adding that Huntington has a limited background on Islamic.

He added that many experts on Islam don't agree with his overly simplistic thesis.

Hefner, who presented a paper entitled Modernity and the Challenge of Pluralism: Some Indonesian Lessons, said the real challenge Islam faces is pluralism.

"Modernization brings pluralism, and pluralism presents believers with difficult but important choices," he said.

"In an era when certain Western and Moslem leaders speak of a clash of civilizations, it's useful to remind ourselves of the challenges we face, and that there are people working for civic tolerance and pluralism."

Hefner and Berger discussed at length the various impacts of modernity and pluralism, as well as social and political development, on religions.

Berger told the conference that "the primary challenge of modernity to religion is not secularization but pluralism."

"Pluralism produces a lot of cognitive dissonance," he said. "Religion, for obvious reasons, is particularly prone to the psychological tensions that this brings about."

The process is beneficial in the sense that "the challenges of modernity make possible a reassessment of one's faith" which can lead to a fresh understanding of matters.

Berger said he believed that "Islam will occupy an increasingly important place in the confrontation between religion and modernity." As to the challenge of pluralism, "Islam had previous experiences with it and had found ways to confront it in very creative ways," Berger said.

The three-day meeting concluded yesterday. One of the last speakers was Mohammed Ariff, a professor of economics at the University of Malaysia. He spoke about the role of the market in the Islamic paradigm.

Ariff said that the Islamic economy is essentially a market economy, which respects individual rights to engage in economic activities. "The role of the market in the Islamic economy, however, differs from that in secular system," he asserted. (swe)