The War for Globalization?

Globalization has created many struggles between people along certain lines and religion is one of them. These struggles are seen as isolated and not united. But is it possible that these outbreaks of tension along social, cultural, and religious lines are actually all part of a grater war on the everyday level of IR to combat ignorance and division that we could call the war for globalization? During our class discussion yesterday the issue of the Islamic Student Center at Lehigh University was brought up. I did a little research of my own on the issue and discovered that in fact there are many who oppose such a center because it “supports terrorism” or because if “Muslim do not respect our way of life, why should we respect theirs?” This first thing I thought when I looked at this debate is that it is a good example of IR in everyday practice. An effort by a leading US educational institution to promote awareness about a predominantly foreign religion is under attack by citizens who are afraid of the implications. Normal people are displaying the divide that exists on a global level between West and East in their everyday practices. How do you correct this? With an Islamic Student Center! By having such a place on its campus, Lehigh is moving forward in spreading awareness of Islam in a country that obviously needs it. Before I came to Lehigh I was also ignorant of Islam. No Muslims live in my hometown in Massachusetts and so all I really had to base my view of Islam on was what I got from the media after 9/11, some of it good and some of it bad. I am in ROTC with Gabe and his Muslim roommate is in my military science class. Meeting him and interacting with him has defiantly given me a great opportunity to learn about Islam. I think that the ignorance of Islam on the part of many Americans is something that needs to be corrected if we are to win the war on terror. It is ignorance that got us to the point of having to fight this war, so why would we not fix that state of ignorance now? Also I have to address this issue of Muslims not respecting our way of life. Who does “our” represent? It better not represent “Americans” because religion does not determine if someone is a citizen of the US. An example of this is Gabe’s roommate. Like I said, he is an ROTC cadet who is looking at contracting and becoming a doctor and an officer in the United States Army. Whether or not he contracts, he is still one of the best cadets in the program. I have no doubt that he could make a great officer. Going back to IR, ignorance on the part of people is not something that can be fixed by a government and ignorance of Islam is what got the US attacked on 9/11 and into this war. So there is nothing that the state can do to fix the root cause of this war (sorry realists), but there is something that can be done by the people themselves. IR in everyday practice comes into play here because it is people who must fix their ignorance through meaningful experiences and interactions that they create for themselves, for example by making an Islamic Student Center at a major American university. A major front of the war on terror must be fought at home to battle existing social norms and beliefs. This struggle reflects that on the everyday level, globalization is in some ways a battle to bring down social, cultural, and religious barriers that separate people and limit their ability to come together and expand globalization. Perhaps globalization is the third world war and the battles that take place between people along social, religious, and cultural lines are just battles in the greater war to destroy these barriers and peaceful globalized world.