Dare To Inquire: "The Bloody Borders of Islam"
by Bruce Kodish
Political scientist Samuel Huntington has made some interesting
comments on the current state of international politics in which he
trys to explain the disproportionate world-wide involvement of Muslims
in violence and terrorism, what he calls the "bloody borders of
Islam."
Huntington has noted that:
"While groups from all religions have engaged in various forms of
violence and terrorism, the figures make it clear that in the past
decade Muslims have been involved in far more of these activities than
people of other religions. One of the things that attracted a lot of
attention in The Clash of Civilizations was my use of the phrase "the
bloody borders of Islam." But if you look around the Muslim world you
see that in the 1990s Muslims were fighting non-Muslims in Bosnia,
Kosovo, Macedonia, Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kashmir,
Indonesia, the Philippines, the Middle East, Sudan, Nigeria, and other
places. Muslims have been fighting one another also. The International
Institute for Strategic Studies surveyed the armed conflicts going on
in the world in 2000, and its figures show that twenty-three of the
thirty-two conflicts under way involved Muslims.
Why is this?"
For Huntington's complete comments, read Religion, Culture, and
International Conflict After September 11
http://www.newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v256/__show_article/_a000256-000091.htm