The Clash of Civilizations as a Discourse for Interpreting Treatment of Arab Americans by Law Enforcement Agencies
Introduction
The treatment of young Muslims by the FBI agents and their subsequent conviction for concocted terror charges in the Human Rights Watch’s video represents a quintessential clash of Western and Arab civilizations due to cultural, racial and religious identities.
According to the video by the Human Rights Watch (2014), the FBI responded to terrorism made by the Islamic terrorist groups by rounding up and prosecuting people who are suspected to be terrorists. It is like any person of Arab descent or from the Muslim community have been labeled and generally branded as being potential terror suspects. This video shows that the FBI agents took advantage of young men from the Muslim community who are vulnerable, in trouble and sick and then use them to help them turn in people they think are terrorists. It is like the FBI are turning people into terrorists merely based on their race, religion and culture; individuals who would otherwise not commit a terrorist attack in the first place if it is not for the FBI’s concoction of evidence against them.
The clash of civilizations is an old school of thought in political science that was used to predict the possibility of a conflict occurring after the Cold War period due to the differences in religious and cultural identities of states and individuals. This discourse may thus be used to interpret the FBI practices as described in the video by arguing, as Lynch (2015) claims, that the “anti-Islamic discourse is promoting a clash of civilizations.” According to this author, though political scientists have previously come up with a way of “understanding the nature of Islamist movements” (Lynch, 2015), today, Islam is considered as a religion of violence, and this is further fueled by political and media statements. Thus, it may be interpreted to mean that even the law enforcement agencies like the FBI have developed that mentality that all those who profess Islam are terrorists and need to be sent to prison by all means. For, from the video, a group of Muslim faithful is specifically targeted by the FBI agents through informants.
One benefit associated with such a practice by security organs is that they gather crucial evidence if used appropriately, for implicating genuine terror suspects and hence enhancing national security. However, such practices can be counterintuitive and counterproductive as they may end up dueling ethnic or religious hatred towards Americans both Muslims locally and globally. Such a practice may thus be costly both economically and socially when they promote terrorism by turning people into terrorists. Also, they undermine human rights.
Conclusion
In summary, the practice by the FBI fits the clash of civilizations theory or discourse as it shows how the Islamic and Western cultural identities clash when it comes to national security issues.
References
Human Rights Watch. (2014, July 21). FBI entraps Americans in terrorism sting operations. [Video file]. Retrieved August 26, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1dvjsBf7XM
Lynch, M. (2015, November 20). Anti-Islamic discourse is ‘promoting a clash of civilizations. The Washington Post Business Insider. Retrieved August 26, 2016, from http://www.businessinsider.com/anti-islamic-discourse-is-promoting-a-clash-of-civilizations- 2015-11
