Capitalism, Multiculturalism and the Global Identity of Islam

The pattern of centuries old relationship between Islam and West has been chequered and has oscillated intermittently from a constructive dialogue to a negative symbiosis. Although a confluence between the two appears when both affirm the values of universal brotherhood and are conjoined by the same Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman heritage, yet, their shared history has been nothing more than a compendium of fierce inter-communal rivalry. This has mainly been due to Western envisionment of Islam as its prime enemy and on the basis of this, its subsequent publicisation of the cliche of clash of the Western and Islamic civilizations. Islam has also been essentialised as barbaric, bereft of rationality, humanism and civility, in pursuance of depicting the superiority of Western culture. The reaction of a section of Muslims who have radicalized Islam to this oriental castigation has also not been one of temperance, but that of violence and destruction emanating out of caprice. Through this, they have attempted to confront the politico-cultural challenge posed by the West to the Muslims. All this has posed serious questions regarding the validity of Western conception of multiculturalism and also engendered serious scholarly disputations regarding the global identity of Islam. The paranoid acts of some terrorists have vitiated the rich culture and heritage of Islam to such an extent that violence and Islam are imaged as inevitable confederates.