In 1993 American Political Scientist Samuel Huntington published an article in the Foreign Affairs titled The Clash of Civilizations later republished as a book The Clash of Civilizations? This seminal work would greatly effluence American conservatives who would become known as Neo-Cons who believed that America should use its economic and military power to remove those governments considered hostile to U.S. interests. William Kristol and Robert Kagan two prominent Nonconsecutive's founded The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) whose members guided the policy decisions of the George W. Bush administration.
Osama Bin Laden on the clash of Civvilizations
Osama bin Laden, perhaps unsurprisingly, is an ardent believer in the “clash of civilizations” theory elaborated by Samuel Huntington. Consider his response in an interview with al-Jazeera correspondent Taysir Alouni, a month after the September 11 attacks.
Alouni: “What do you think of the so-called Clash of Civilizations? You always keep repeating crusaders and words like that all the time. Does that mean you support the Clash of Civilizations?”
Bin Laden: “No doubt about that. The Jews and the Americans made up this call for peace in the world.The peace they’re calling for is a big fairy tale. They’re just drugging the Muslims as they lead them to slaughter. And the slaughter is still going on. If we defend ourselves, they call us terrorists.”1
This interview never appeared on al Jazeera, but was translated and aired on CNN a few months later.
Why do you think bin Laden supports the idea of a clash of civilizations? Does Huntington’s theory lend credence to bin Laden’s worldview?
1 Peter Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of Al Qaeda’s Leader (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006), 322.
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