The Dangerous Ideologies by Sikander Salahuddin

Mind of man is a double-edged sword. If it, on the one hand, enabled man to live a civilized life, then it also led him to untold miseries and troubles. Animals live by instincts and though their lives in some cases are marked by violence but they live an even and smooth life since the beginning. Kinds of massive upheavals and murderous strife witnessed in human history are totally absent in their lives, and though animals don’t have spectacular achievement to their credit but then they also don’t show the darker streak seen only in man. The thing that creates this vital difference between animal kingdom and the world of man is thinking ability, only man’s prerogative and privilege.
The same thinking ability shapes the contours of human societies, and of larger units like states. At social level men live and act according to a definite code they mutually agree upon. This code of conduct, social ethos, and belief or ideology whether divinely inspired or man made becomes the binding force and identity of that community. All this leads to some positive ends but then some trouble also begins to brew up. People outside the system are considered wayward, errants and are denied full acceptance. The class leading the community become the self-righteous guardians and is always on the look out for possible signs of subversion threading the system. People following an ideology set themselves at a high pedestal, consider themselves better human beings and with a proselytizing zeal try to convert others outside the system.
If the states are founded on ideologies then the scope of potential danger coming out of it magnifies manifold because state is after all a far bigger an entity than a social unit. Such an ideological state gains an aura of infallibility and has an uneasy relationship with the differing views and ideologies. In past states were dynastic or some were formed on the basis of religion but in 17th century modern nation state system began to take shape. The Western countries by a slow growth came to believe in liberal democracy as the ultimate panacea for mankind and saw their form of government ultimately challenged at the start of the 20th century by other competing ideologies. The clashes between competing ideologies gave birth to conflicts, both external and eternal and could have led further to cataclysmic wars of global proportions. These dangerous ideologies from the west’s point of view were communism, Nazism and Fascism and since their emergence the resources energies and manpower of the Western world began to be consumed in annihilating these creeds and their supporting state systems.
Soviet Union embodying the idea of Marxist ideology was founded in 1917. But prior to that the Western powers tried unsuccessfully to subvert founding of the Soviet state by organizing resistance against the Communists. But the Communists defeating the White armies established the Communist state. There was no love lost between the Soviet government and the Western powers. Lenin stated, “We don’t need any parliamentary republic; we don’t need any bourgeois democracy. We don’t need any government except the Soviet of workers, soldiers and farmhand’s deputies”. Soviet state was a Dictatorship of the proletariat and hence incompatible with the Western democratic model and added to that Soviet state showed interest to spread communism through revolutions across the globe. Lenin anticipated socialist revolution overtaking Europe and destroying its capitalist system. In 1919 in preparation of world revolution the Comintern was created as an association of the Communist parties of all lands.
But then the real danger to the West for the time being didn’t come from Soviet Union but from other creeds and ideologies originating from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Both Nazism and Fascism with their totalitarianism and rejection of the Western liberal democracy, individualism etc repudiated Western way of life and its political ideology. Mussolini predicted” a Fascist Europe drawing inspiration for its institutions from the doctrine and practice of Fascism.” “Fascism is bund to become the standard type of civilization of our century for Europe—the forerunner of European Renaissance.” Similarly Adolph Hitler’s Third Reich, supposed to last for a thousand years, with its racism, anti Semitism and its dream of world domination posed serious threat to the Western powers and things at last came to such a pass that the war machinery of the entire the Western powers in a “strange alliance” with the Soviet Union were geared up to defeat the Fascist threat and Fascist ideology. World war 2nd was fought and the allied won and Axis powers lost.
Fascist powers lay defeated but the old foe Soviet Union was still there and in the wake of 2nd world war was rapidly bringing Eastern Europe in her sphere of influence. Sensing the Soviet threat Churchill sounded the warning at Fulton, Missouri on 3 March 1946 in words that have become immortal, “From Stetting on the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across continent.” Churchill wasn’t off the mark about the impending danger and soon the world saw the advent of the Cold war
The cold war was an era of ideological confrontation between the two Super Powers and both tried to outmaneuver each other in gaining worldwide influence and their rivalry and competitions took them even to space race. In this struggle for gaining world wide military and political dominance both the sides resorted to massive propaganda. Soviet Union was dubbed as evil empire. But at last cold war came to an end in late 1980’s and Soviet empire crumbled and curtain finally fell on East West conflict.
Now The West led by the United States enjoys worldwide military and political dominance but its obsession and fear of dangerous ideologies hasn’t faded. The West’s political ideal of liberal democracy is the final destination of mankind as Francis Fukuyama in his book "The End of History?" argues"What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold war or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of The Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government."
However, rest of the world is lagging behind the Western model and hasn’t yet arrived at the liberal democracy as the final frontier and those parts of the world might be carrying some ideology in conflict with that of the West. But the threat to the West could also come from within .It is common in the West to see right wing political parties and politicians voicing extreme views but such elements always encounter serious opposition from the Western governments and media. In Australia Pauline Hanson who founded One Nation party was hushed up as she started gaining serious attention for her anti immigration and racist views. Jorg Haider, ,a right wing Austrian politician met similar fate at the hands of the Western media and governments when he praised Hitler’s employment policy. Haider died recently in a car accident

But the West has found a threat much larger than the one posed by the fringe of right wing within the Western society and an ideology far more dangerous than the dead ideologies of Fascism, Nazism and communism: It is the threat of militant and radical Islam fighting and challenging the Western dominance and hegemony. Various terrorist attacks on the Western military targets and tourist culminating in 9/11 convinced the West of the inevitability of the conflict. To counter the threat the battle lines were again drawn and West launched war on terror. The war isn’t against Islam as a religion because the West can co exists with Islam as a religion. Millions of Muslims live in the Western countries and practice their faith, even buy churches and convert them into mosques. Rather it is the militant radical Islam establishing its foothold in the Muslim word and targeting the Western troops and interests that worries the West. But again the West doesn’t want and allow Islamic parties wining elections and establishing governments in whole of the country or in some of its parts. The example of Algeria, a part of Malaysia governed by an Islamic party , Somalia, Nigeria and Palestinian territory of Gaza will prove this point quite well. Such type of popular democracy is an anathema to the West. Quite recently Hamas led Gaza strip was bombed by Israeli air force and later invaded by IDF though Hamas was popularly elected into power.
The West is waging this war on militant Islam with military means but to wean the larger Muslim populations from the message of radical Islam it is resorting to more subtle means. West always supports liberal and the Westernized sections of the Muslim populations. It is attempting to win the hearts and minds of Muslims. Just as during the cold war it had radio stations like Radio Free Europe targeting the Eastern Europe, now it has radio and other means of propaganda targeting Muslims, mostly young people of countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East. This is an attempt to inculcate in the young Muslims the taste for the Western culture and the Western values. Any young reared on such values will be definitely closer to the West and further away from radical Islam and perhaps from Islam too.
What will be the outcome of The West’s obsession with radical Islam and its ideology of radicalism and militancy? But it will be unlike the West’s earlier wars with other dangerous ideologies and their supporting systems. At that time the enemy was visible and the battle was mostly external. The hostile ideologies came to an end once their supporting system was annihilated. But this time the targets are not clearly defined. Enemy is invisible and illusive and the ideology standing up to the West has its root in God and religion. The next epic battle between the West and the hostile ideology of radical Islam will be fought on plains, hills and mountains but also its battlefront will be the mind of man.