The Story
George Mason Professor Speaks on the History of Anti-Westernism
On Wednesday afternoon, the Asian Studies Initiative hosted a lecture in Andrews Hall from Associate Professor of History and the Director of the Ali Vural Ak Center for Islamic Studies at George Mason University Cemil Aydin. Aydin’s lecture, entitled, "Anti-Westernism: A Global History" served as a summary and as a commentary on many of the points raised in his recent book, Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought.
Aydin began his lecture by recalling the question many Americans asked following the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001; “why do they hate us?” The answers used to explain the reasoning for anti-Western sentiments, particularly in the contemporary West, included such statements as the irreconcilability between Muslim and Western ideology. Aydin rejected all of these explanations, stating how many of the same anti-Western statements of Pan-Islamic thought are purported by those who subscribe to Pan-Asian and Pan-African ideologies.
“We do realize that these things cannot be reduced to just Islam versus the West,” said Aydin.
He continued by describing how there are still many problems raised when discussing Anti-Western thought, particularly how the broad categories of ‘East’ and ‘West’ are problems in themselves. The typical dismissive response that Anti-Westernism is a natural response to colonialism does not explain the full picture, and Aydin stated that this attitude often dismisses the contributions that the Anti-Western criticism can have for the West.
Aydin began his historical discussion in the early days of European colonization prior to the 1870’s. At first, many of the leaders of the subjugated countries accepted the dominant ideologies of the empires they lived in and many of the Asian and African colonies began to internalize these beliefs. These facts show that anti-Imperialism was not the initial response of the colonized nations as it is often believed.
The anti-Western sentiments rather began emerging in the 1870’s and the 1880’s, as the as the European empires began to get more aggressive in their assertions of cultural and racial superiority. This particularly became a problem when heads of the European states and intellectuals began to adopt these racist attitudes, such as when British Prime Minister William Gladstone declared that the Islamic faith was anti-humanity and that the entirety of Muslims must be destroyed if the Ottoman Empire was to fall.
“Muslims are always seen as a race,” said Aydin. “It’s never about their faith.”
As these attitudes began to emerge, Christianity increasingly became Aryianized and Muslims became semetized and Asianized. All prominent Muslim intellectuals tried to rebottle these claims and attempted to provide an alternate world view free of racial rankings. Aydin used the fact that the European empires began taking the same attitudes towards their African and Asian colonies to conclude that this was indeed not a Christian conspiracy against the Islamic faith.
Following the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, many of the occupied nations began to assert that they were equal to the West and to challenge the offensive Western Race Theories, attempting to take themselves out of the oppressed position.
“They do win in the long term,” said Aydin, “but with some compromises.”
Another event which shattered the previous European notions of natural superiority was the Japanese victory against Russia in 1905, the first time an Asian nation ever defeated a European power in war. Many anti-Western philosophers used this as proof that Race Theories were false, and from 1905 to 1914 the idea of an awakening of the East begins to take hold. However, in 1914 anti-Western sentiments began to take hold in national war policy with the entry of the Ottoman Empire into World War I and the Japanese entry later during World War II.
Aydin then discussed the League of Nations, which at its surface took many of the anti-Western sentiments of racial dignity and global membership to heart. However, as the European nations increasingly began to emphasize their control over their colonies, it became apparent that the League was primarily created as a way for Europe to unite in order to keep a firm hold over their colonies.
While colonialism began to dissolve following World War II, anti-Western remained relevant all the way through the modern day. The Cold War shifted the emphasis of global ideology away from East against West to Capitalist against Communist, which served only to distract the world away from the more prevalent issues.
After answering several questions on such topics as pan-Africanism, Zionism, and Arab nationalist movements, Aydin concluded his lecture by stating how people in the 21st Century should approach the still prevalent anti-Western ideologies.
“We need to look at the historical background to see how we can fix the problems we have in the world right now,” said Aydin.