The Civilizational Conflicts of the Twenty-first Century

Karl Marx

The history of humanity is not just the history of class struggle, as Karl Marx has posited. It is also the history of conflicts, competition, and struggle between races, tribes, religions, nationalities, and civilizations. 

Individuals unite to form tribes; the tribes unite under the banner of religions to form nationalities; the nationalities unite to form civilizations. While the history of humanity can be moved by any number of causes, including the Marxist class struggles, the ultimate mover of history is the conflict between civilizations. 

In the Indian subcontinent, the civilizational conflict between polytheism (Hinduism) and monotheism (Islam) has been raging for more than 1300 years. Though the two religions seem to coexist peacefully (for much of the time), there has never been a time when conflict, competition, and struggle have not been simmering beneath the surface between them. 

A reading of history of Islam from its founding in the seventh century till today shows that Islam does not bring conflicts, competition, and struggle to an end. Instead of uniting people, it provides additional motivation to compete, struggle, and wage war. Some of the most destructive wars that Muslims have fought were not against non-Muslims but against other Muslims. 

In the middle of the nineteenth century, there was a rise of Hindu nationalism in the Indian subcontinent. These Hindu nationalists could have taken advantage of the divisions within Islam to win the civilizational conflict. But the leftists joined hands with Islam to form a formidable coalition which outfoxed and stymied the Hindu nationalists. 

The coalition between the leftists (the sons of Marxism) and the Islamic movements was not restricted to the Indian subcontinent. It was a global phenomenon. Islam and leftism completed each other—to their common political movement, the leftists brought intellectualism and political activism, and the Islamics brought their medieval spiritualism and fundamentalism.

The union between the left and Islam, developed in the twentieth century, continues to be a formidable political force in the twenty-first century—this political force is capable of capturing the superpower states of Western Europe and North America.  Once they control the superpower states, it would be relatively easier for them to conquer other democracies—so they think. 

In the twentieth century, the leftists could not capture the world; in the twenty-first century, with the help of Islam, the leftists think that they could. But there are too many contradictions in this unholy coalition between atheists and fundamentalists and it is likely that they will fail to achieve their political objective.