The clash of civilizations narrative is a constructed frame, not a given fact

Evidence

In an essay titled “The Roots of Muslim Rage” published in 1990, he explained anti-imperialist resistance by Muslims through the framework of the “clash of civilizations” in which political conflicts were displaced onto the realm of culture and religion. Political scientist Samuel Huntington, who has done much to popularize this notion, published an essay with this title in the journal Foreign Affairs and then the book The Clash of Civilizations. He argued that in the post–Cold War world, conflict would be driven by culture rather than politics between the seven or eight civilizations he named. He wrote, “Western ideas of individualism, liberalism, constitutionalism, human rights, equality, liberty, the rule of law, democracy, free markets, the separation of church and state, often have little resonance in Islamic societies.” Culture was both the basis of conflict and a mode of racializing Muslims. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 256 (#expands, via linked claim)

The “clash of civilizations” rhetoric therefore became dominant in the aftermath of 9/11 and was the ideological basis for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well domestic attacks on Muslims and Arabs. For a while it appeared that the neocons were unstoppable—but they overplayed their hand. During its first term, the Bush administration built a “coalition of the willing” to invade Iraq, rejecting criticisms from allies it derogatorily labeled “old Europe.” The war on Iraq, however, did not go the way the neocons wanted it to. Instead of greeting US forces as liberators, the Iraqi people resisted and rejected US hegemony. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 421 (#expands, via linked claim)

At its heart, Said’s critique challenges the motivations of those, including Lewis and Huntington, who rely on a clash of civilizations paradigm to make sense of the world in general and the relationship between Islam and the West in particular. Such a paradigm feeds on conflict and division, thereby “increasing the rifts between people in order to prolong our dominance.” What we need is not conflict but community, not a clash but a coming together of people across cultural barriers to face the dangers that threaten the entire human race. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 233 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Clash-of-civilizations rhetoric ideologically legitimized both foreign wars and domestic attacks — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 421; Civilizational identity is fluid, not fixed or walled off — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 232; Emphasizing essential cultural difference feeds the clash-of-civilizations frame — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 256 (+9 more)

Related

• Grand civilizational rubrics invent false collective identities that enable deadly conflicts (similarity 0.89)
• Emphasizing essential cultural difference feeds the clash-of-civilizations frame (similarity 0.89)
• The War on Terror was ideologically framed as a civilizational clash (similarity 0.88)
• The clash-of-civilizations paradigm serves to prolong dominance (similarity 0.87)
• The clash of civilizations thesis asserts Western values are alien to Islamic societies. (similarity 0.86)
• The clash-of-civilizations thesis converted political conflict into cultural racialization (similarity 0.86)
• Orientalism supplied the pre-existing tropes that the War on Terror redeployed against Muslims (similarity 0.85)
• Post-Cold War conflict was framed by Huntington as civilizational cultural clash (similarity 0.85)
• The clash of civilizations theory rearticulated the Orientalist binary of Islam versus the West. (similarity 0.84)
• Even realist think tanks opposed the clash of civilizations narrative because al-Qaeda weaponized it. (similarity 0.84)
• Juxtaposing contending ideologies lets thrillers move beyond war-on-terror binaries. (similarity 0.83)
• Civilizational identity is fluid, not fixed or walled off (similarity 0.83)
• Huntington repackaged Orientalist binaries into a new lexicon of civilizational clash. (similarity 0.83)
• Clash of civilizations framing located terrorism’s cause within Islam itself (similarity 0.82)
• Culture clash rhetoric frames Islam as an immutable, biology-like mindset prone to barbarism (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Clash-of-civilizations rhetoric ideologically legitimized both foreign wars and domestic attacks #expands (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 421
• Emphasizing essential cultural difference feeds the clash-of-civilizations frame #expands (0.90) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 256
• The War on Terror was ideologically framed as a civilizational clash #expands (0.90)
• The clash-of-civilizations paradigm serves to prolong dominance #expands (0.90) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 233
• Civilizational identity is fluid, not fixed or walled off #complicates (0.85) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 232
• The East and West have coexisted in conflict and cooperation, not eternal clash #corroborates (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 97
• Clash of civilizations framing located terrorism’s cause within Islam itself #expands (0.85) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 266
• The rise-of-the-middle-class narrative is a fabricated historical impression, not fact #corroborates (0.75)
• Orientalist scholarship constructs narrative order over the Orient’s supposed nonhistory. #corroborates (0.75)
• Orientalism is studied via its internal consistency, not its correspondence to a real Orient #exemplifies (0.75)