When Militancy Fights Quietism

However, the pressures of secularism on Islam are now growing. It's greater in countries like Turkey and lesser in, say, those like Saudi Arabia. All this is not necessarily a clash of civilisations. The ongoing struggle within Islam is not unique to it either. It's a struggle between militancy and quietism, between those with a militant view of religion and those with a passive view of it. Christianity, too, has gone through both militant and quiet phases. Even today, there is militancy in the Christian world. Take, for instance, some of the Evangelical sects in the US or the situation in Northern Ireland. The two poles exist within Judaism too. You have a reformed version in the US as opposed to the more extreme positions taken by groups in Israel.

Militants are always the rabble-rousers. This, however, doesn't mean they have the support of the majority, or that they are more powerful. Even within Islam, these people are but a small minority. Militancy in Islam is often a product of frustration arising from social or economic backwardness, or the lack of power. It also arises from a psychological feeling of defensiveness, that a way of life is under threat. This passive-aggressive divide can be found in many religions. When Protestants gather outside a Catholic school in Northern Ireland and shout at five- or six-year-old children, it is because they feel that their way of life is under threat. The same psychological basis can be found among Jewish elements in Israel.

Besides all this, there is now this larger feeling that Islam is under a cultural siege, that it must defend itself or die. That's why the US is a target. The Palestine issue is a lightning conductor, not the cause. The US is powerful, and for that reason it was a target of hate for many years during the Cold War.

In the post-Cold War scenario, however, the situation changed completely. For better or worse, the US became the cultural vanguard of modernity, a complete antithesis to what many thought groups believe. It's the greatest model now, not only of capitalism but also of secular society. Russia, as we all know, is not in a polar role anymore. It's just America. And if America has to be opposed, the feeling is, it must be targeted.

(Wasserstein, history professor at Glasgow University, is an authority on Islamic Studies.) As told to Sanjay Suri