A number of Moslem mullahs want sharia law (a law of Islam) to be introduced in Australia, a secular Western nation in which religion and law are kept separate. The bulk of Moslems in the country are relatively recent arrivals. Since Islam has no separation between religion and law, are these mullahs seeking a separate legal and cultural existence for members of their religion in a modern, multi-ethnic, multicultural, cosmopolitan nation?
Way back in history, it would have been normal for a tribe, which is a collection of extended families bound by blood, to find itself living in proximity to another tribe with different cultural traditions. They may even co-exist, especially if they were nomadic. Indeed, it is also likely that some nomadic tribes camped on the outskirts of agrarian settlements. The normal pattern of human conduct – contest or co-operation or tolerant co-existence – would no doubt have then applied.
However, with the creation of modern nation-states with implicit tribal boundaries, the entry of ‘outsiders’ or foreigners would be subject to control by the rulers of such states. Border control now applies universally. Normally, immigrants with divergent cultural values and traditions would remain on the fringe of the host society, as ‘them, not us’! As long as religion-derived cultural differences are upheld by both host and immigrant communities, co-existence (hopefully peaceful) is all that can be excepted.
In a migrant-collecting nation such as Australia, which offers equal opportunity to all immigrants irrespective of origins, cultural traditions, or religious affiliations, separate and parallel ethno-religious legal structures need to be avoided. Official policy is integration (as in a fruit salad), not total assimilation or absorption (as in a blended soup). Immigrants (first generation Australians) may, in order to access the prevailing equal opportunity (known as the ‘fair-go’ ethos), give up certain practices (such as wife-beating or spitting) or even amend some of their cultural prejudices.
The second-generation (the local-born) would unconsciously be bonding closely with the host people. The latter would themselves have evolved over time through the integration of earlier immigrants. The third generation would, without any divisive interventions by priests or politicians, now become part of the host people.
This is the first part of one of my articles in www.ezinearticles.com. My core question is as follows.
Has the war of civilisations commenced? Prof. Huntington of the USA prophesised that, in the foreseeable future, the great civilisations of mankind are likely to engage in war against one another. It does not need much imagination to realise that cultural wars will not need armaments of the traditional kind. The wars, ideologically-driven, will be tactical. The first of such wars will probably be between the West and Islam, probably because of the way Western colonisers treated the Moslem peoples over the last two or three centuries.
Read Part Two.
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 