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9/11, American Liberty, Benjamin Barber, Big Mac, Christianity and Islam, Civilisation, Counter-Jihad, Counterjihad, Defend the modern world, Jihadism, Lexus vs the Olive Tree, Multiculturalism, New York, New York holidays, NYT, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, Terror, Thomas Friedman
It’s been a full ten years since the publication, originally to much derision and apathy, of American political scientist Benjamin Barber’s book ‘Jihad Vs. McWorld: Terrorism’s Challenge to Democracy’.
Seen by some as a dumbed-down popularisation of Samuel Huntingdon’s ‘Clash of Civilisations’ thesis, this slim volume (and especially its title) has always seemed to me a more accurate framing of the same struggle.
The struggle with/against Islam is a clash of civilisations (in that Islam is a civilisation and that there is a ‘clash’ involved) but not entirely in the way Huntingdon predicted. The war is not Islam pitched against the West specifically, but Islam versus the modern age and all who aspire to dwell in it. Muslims are as hostile to Kenyans and Japanese as they are to Brits and Americans. The Jihadi elite correctly identify the modern ideal of globalisation as a lethal threat to the integrity of Islamic culture. This is not then a clash between ‘East and West’, but a battle between progress and the 6th century, between Starbucks and the Mosque, the Lexus and the Olive Tree (to quote the title of an excellent book by Thomas Friedman).
Islamism derives it energy from the same place as neo-Nazism. Those who pine for ancient castles, Germanic runes and maidens milking cows are one and the same with those who pine for the tent-life of ancient Arabia. Though officially opposed to one another, Islamists and Nazis alike share a burning disgust at the golden arches of McDonalds, at the white tick of Nike sportswear, at the homogenisation of the global high street and of national cultures. Both long for a misty utopian past; an older, simpler way of living that was cruelly interrupted by industry, but that is recoverable if only the capitalists (Jews) can be brought down from their dominant position.
This is what Barber meant by ‘Jihad’ – the poisonous ideas that appeal to those ill-equipped to compete in a meritocratic world. This is broader and more interesting than the crude differences Huntingdon presented us with. As Barber’s definition allows us to see, we have our own Jihadis in the West, and not all of them are Islamic.
The modern world needs to be defended from all its enemies, whatever they look like and whatever language they speak. We would be fools to presume, like Huntingdon, that the battle lines will fall neatly on the borders of cultures and languages.
D, LDN.
Defend the Modern World 
The best and most humane solution for such misty-eyed 7th century Utopians is to create a pre-modern territory of their own, somewhere in their ‘sacred’ territory of the middle-east, (ISIS territory could be a good idea) and send all the Utopians there and make sure that they REALLY live in the seventh century with NO benefits of modern life:No modern weapons, no modern medicine and no modern technology. Let them live exactly like their prophet and his companions lived.
(They will then realize that a pre-modern world is hell compared to the modern world, but, hey you wanted to go to an eternal paradise, why do you crib about a few hellish years on earth?)
Ultimately, the best way to deal with the Utopians is to give them their Utopia.
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That would be fine if they weren’t a threat to the rest of the world. ISIS will eventually cause chaos in Europe. That may be useful to us in the long term, but it will be terrible all the same. In the end, Europe will have to act against them, hopefully that will include the disposal of ISIS supporters resident in the EU.
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Pingback: Jihad vs. McWorld.
Personally I can’t stand either Jihad or McWorld, the two of which are not in opposition in any case. Of of the 7/7 suicide bombers stopped off for his last meal in McDonald’s, the jihadis themselves have been showing off their (lack of) culinary skills in their love of fast food. They are fully Westernised right down to wearing American designer clothing. McWorld is that of shitty low-paid insecure jobs and junk culture. England deserves better than that.
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I think what Barber meant was more the extent of American culture over the rest of the world. I personally like American culture, and don’t begrudge Britain becoming more like the US.
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You’re certainly right about Islamists being hypocrites.
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A glimmer of hope is that Ihsan Bashir, whose brother was murdered by the IRA during the bombing of Canary Wharf, spoke out last week:
http://www.wharf.co.uk/news/20-years-canary-wharf-bomb-8827455
‘And we have to ask ourselves has rewarding other people in the past who have committed terror impacted this?’ Quite.
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