From Carnage To Culture: Understanding The Current Arab And Muslim World

[Valin]

MEMRI:

Y. Carmon

Jan. 7 2015

 

For five consecutive years, the Arab and Muslim world has been descending into chaos. Storms of violence and mass-murder have engulfed the region, effectively dismantling its foundational structure. Numerous countries have disintegrated, causing the displacement of millions of people. Reports and images of the war-torn region seem to have been taken directly from World War II. As if all this weren't enough, 2014 witnessed the emergence of a new, horrific phenomenon, the Islamic State, whose beliefs and savage conduct emanate from the 7^th Century.

 

What is even more bewildering is the fact that all this erupted after a promising period of progress - the Arab Spring - which epitomized a fight for fundamental human dignity. Citizens of all religions and ethnicities, men and women, young and old, came together in a collective struggle to create a free and democratic future. Yet, this heroic expression of human unity degenerated into the total fragmentation of nations and states in which regional, ethnic, and religious groups turned against each other in war. How can such a contradiction be explained?

 

This article will attempt to make sense of that which seems so confusing about the Arab and Muslim world, and even to make future events, to a certain degree, predictable, by examining them through a historical perspective. Europe's evolution from carnage to culture throughout the past millennium can serve as a model to help explain the current events in the region, to assess potential future developments, and also clarify what cannot happen.

 

This article is not an attempt to foretell the future. Rather, it aims to show probable developments based on the historical precedent set by European history. Most importantly, this article will try to answer the current critical and urgent questions with which Western policy-makers are struggling: how long will this process take to conclude, and what can Western countries do to impact it in a meaningful and positive way?

 

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