BY IBRAHIM KALIN
TODAY’S ZAMAN - When the Cold War ended and the Soviet threat disappeared, there was more fear and anxiety than hope and joy in the air. Yes, the free world has defeated its ferocious, century-old enemy. But who was going to replace it now? It quickly became clear that the red enemy of communism would soon be replaced by the “green threat” of Islam. We all took a sigh of relief. We have found another enemy and now can continue our lives like normal.
Islam, of course, is one among many enemies the global system keeps producing. And one should put the emphasis on the system here. Asked individually, no particular country (Germany?), political leader (Sarkozy?), conservative group (Tea Party Republicans in the US?) or political association (Zionists?) would say that they see Islam as the enemy. Instead, they would provide some interesting reasons for their feelings: integration, loss of national spirit, unemployment, economic crisis, domestic politics, the “spirit of Europe” (which means keeping the euro strong) and national security. How these issues are bundled together with Islam as the enemy requires some explanation.
Islam is now the most common enemy on a global scale. It is all over the place. Despite decades of imperialism, forced Westernization, wars, invasions and internal fights, it remains deeply rooted in the belief and collective consciousness of its 1.5 billion followers. It has a long history, a sophisticated (and admittedly obscure) culture and a global reach. Worse, it keeps coming back to challenge the basic assumptions of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, secularization and modern capitalism-cum-individualism.
Islam is a dangerous yet convenient enemy. It is convenient because it explains away all of our problems, from immigration and integration to unemployment and national security. It comes in handy when we need an enemy in national or domestic politics. It pays off when we make Islamophobic remarks and get a few extra points in the polls. It justifies our otherwise illegal and immoral actions such as spending hundreds of billions of dollars on armament, invading countries, occupying others’ land and forcing them to live in humiliation with the hope that they will one day give up resistance.
But Islam is not the only enemy. There are many others, and they come in different sizes. We Turks, for instance, have concocted many smaller enemies in the past. Greeks were our deadliest enemies because we needed to strengthen our new ethno-secular identity at the beginning of the 20th century. The Kurds, too, were convenient enemies because they were useful in covering up autocracy in the name of protecting our national unity and solidarity. Islamists, leftists and Alevis all became convenient enemies of the state when they were needed.
Then there is the West as the convenient enemy of the Muslim world. For everything that has gone wrong over the last couple of centuries, we can put the blame on the West and its imperialist policies. Don’t get me wrong; imperialism, in its domestic and international forms, is real and its toll on Muslim societies has been gruesome. The story of the modern West is not just about reason, freedom, democracy and human rights. But there is a difference between confronting a problem and making excuses.
Since there are always big and small enemies and all nations have a use for them, the question is this: Can we establish a global order in which the need to have enemies will be kept to a minimum (I dare not say zero). The current global order, just like the one during the Cold War, is designed to produce enemies. The current members of the UN Security Council cannot remain the same without an enemy to justify them. NATO will run into an identity crisis if it does not produce a list of real enemies soon. The right-wing political parties in the US and Europe cannot speak to their constituencies without pointing their fingers at the enemy nearby.
Who will lead the way in reducing the need for an enemy in the 21st century? The best thing to do is to lead by example. The nations and communities who believe in themselves without needing to see an enemy in the mirror can lead the way. They can show their neighbors as well as the world that one can have freedom, security, prosperity and integrity without churning up enemies.
Most of the emerging nations, including Turkey, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Africa as well as older giants, such as Japan, have already established this as a rule for themselves: wanting to have enemies does not make you safer, more free or prosperous. So they look around and embrace anyone who is ready to embrace them. This could be the beginning of a new global culture, one where hopefully the need to have enemies will be minimal.