today's problem on the global scale
is the coexistence of our occidental renunciation of religion and the societies which have yet to recognize such renunciation
islam posits as a particular problem because they're our neighbors
they possess a particular familiarity on our culture
all the while holding a trauma against the occidental presence
which poses as a menace against their collective identity
which led to the resurgence of fundamentalism we see today
there is approximitely one billion person who abandoned religion
whilst there is another seven billion person whom, in some sort, are coerced to live with our abandonment of religion
by the means of cultural products which it has led to
science, techniques, economic reasoning
while living in an essencially different culture
we, to a great extent, can't understand their societies
those which we named "third world"
and refer to it today as the "south"
without understanding the phenomenon of hierarchy
yes! they are hierarchal socities
just as how our aristocratic societies
were during the 17th and 18th century
wherein the patronage system between superior and his subordinates who depend on him
is still omnipresent
westerns have a hard time understanding it
despite its necessity
we also have to understand the rest of the world
based on the history from which we departed
and it's no easy task
because it leads to a future rife with conflicts
are these societies that still haven't detached from religion
undergoing an anthropological dynamic which will lead them to leave religion
like us or are they going to remain stagnant
i believe that it is has in fact embarked on such transition
amid very conflicitve conditions
because such change arrived from the west
this took us... some centuries
and a history of conflicts
but we did it internally
relying on our own means
whereas they've received the product of our own abandonment of religion
from the outside
and they're obliged to adopt it
some people could tell us:" you are who you are, and we are who we are"
we're not interested in the manner of your thinking and how you manage
figure it out on your own
no! occidental modernity is a proposition that can't be refused
rather, such change is imposed externally
leading to a collision with their profoundly inherent cultural and civilizational identitites
in other words, it suggests another process of leaving religion
a very difficult one
more difficult than the one we underwent
some societies appear to have prevailed in doing so
until this very moment
take for example : japan
an extraordinary case
an ultra-modern society
economically and scientifically
at the same time, extremely traditional
where apparently, buddhist and shinto religiosity will remain alive
so there has been a japanese miracle where it hasn't taken a dramatic turn
unlike for many socities, particularly muslim ones, the process proves to be very dramatic