The inauguration of the new US President, Donald Trump, confronts us directly with the new world created by the propaganda by ‘Western’ governments on ‘Islamic terrorism’. Recently, American philosopher Andre Vltchek responded to various questions on this phenomenon[1]. He is the author of the book (with Noam Chomsky) On Western Terrorism. Trump’s discourse on terrorism is the continuity of a reality imposed by the West European powers, beginning with Spain and ending with England and her transatlantic daughter, the United States.

According to Vltchek, "For several long centuries, the West has been plundering the world militarily and economically. In order to ‘legitimize’ its crimes, it also manufactured extremely complex and effective propaganda system, imposing its ‘logic’ and cultural dogmas on the rest of the world. It was done with such persistence and skill, that basically all other narratives disappeared.”

"It is actually a tremendous tragedy, because several conquered cultures were clearly superior and much more humanistic than the West. The result is: natural, logical development of the world has been derailed, even crushed. Only Western dogmas prevailed, bringing imbalance, confusion, anger and frustration to the world."

Vltchek was asked what he thinks of the revival of the “war on terror” speeches by western leaders.  He replied that "Terrorism is essentially what the Western empires and now the American Empire have been using against the rest of the world.  Look at the Muslim world: historically, Islam has been very progressive and socially oriented, even ‘socialist’ religion. The first public university, the first public hospitals – everything was in the Muslim world."

"Even after the WWII, Muslim countries were leaning towards socialism. Therefore, they had to be derailed, ruined and ‘radicalized’ by the West!  The West basically wrecked the three most important Muslim socialist states: Iran, Egypt and Indonesia. Then it used Afghanistan and Pakistan as proxies in its war with the Soviet Union, basically shattering these two countries as well."

Vltchek proposes that we should look back at the colonial past in order to understand the neocolonial present. The West has been directly manufacturing "Muslim terrorism". Borrowing, apparently, from Edward Said, he recalls that the West cannot exist without enemies. “And so it created one really mighty one out of nothing, and royally screwed all Muslim countries in the process. Recently, in Tehran, two top philosophers there told me, that the West actually created, in many places, a totally new religion, which doesn’t have anything in common with Islam”, he recalls.

The philosopher refers to the so-called "clash of civilizations", a figure employed by the American extreme right. With the arrival of Trump in the White House, have these political sectors achieved their goal? Yes, it is happening”, according to Vltchek, “but the guilty are not only the neo-conservatives, but also so-called liberals… There is and will be huge clash of civilizations, but it will occur under different banners and with different logic than what is being promoted by the Western idéologues.”

Vltchek was also asked how progressive forces deal should deal with issues concerning cultural identity and ethnic-entered conflicts in the XXIst century?  Is the Eurocentric view a big trap for those who try to understand and change the world?  "The Western left lost squarely and patently”, responded the philosopher. “The hope is now in Latin America and Asia, and some very few countries of Africa. The Western left, I think, should stop being ‘purist’ and support what we still have in this world, instead of defining ‘who is a true Marxist and who is not’, etc.  The main struggle now should be the struggle against Western imperialism. I know the world, and I am convinced that if Western imperialism were defeated, the rest of the world would find a way to coexist peacefully, and to build a humane, much gentler and compassionate world.”

In spite of Vltchek’s discourse against Euro-centrism and his denouncement of imperialism, he appears to forget that from the beginnings of the XIX century, Western expansion has been based on the exponential growth of capitalism. This system, at the present time, faces a crisis. Some think that this crisis is terminal, others that it is structural.  Capitalism gave birth to the (wage-earning) working class that has also grown (exponentially). In the last instance, the ‘final solution’ will be produced in the struggle between those who produce wealth (workers) in the capitalist system and those who appropriate it (capitalists).

09/02/2017

(Translated for ALAI by Jordan Bishop)

 - Marco A. Gandásegui, Jr., Professor of Sociology with the University of Panama and researcher associated with the Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos Justo Arosemena (CELA).

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