The Different Threats Posed by ISIS to the Cultural Diversity of the Planet

From President Hollande's speech, some of his thoughts align themselves with those of Huntington in the Clash of Civilizations. Huntington already stated that we have a reached a point whereby conflicts will no longer be political or economic but rather the main source of conflict will be the different cultures[Sam96]. Hollande agrees that this was an attack against France's culture and diversity but a difference in thoughts becomes evident because in Huntington's work he clumps together all of the world's different people and cultures into 8 larger groups namely the, Islamic, Western, Orthodox, Japanese, Hindu, Confucian, Slavic Orthodox, African and Latin American Civilizations.

Going from Huntington's work, we would look at the attacks in Paris as a war between the Islamic and Western civilizations, but President Hollande refuses to look at these terrorist groups as representing any known civilization at all. The attribution error Huntington makes is assuming that we can group all the people in the middle east as part of the Islamic civilization and assume that they have the same values and beliefs; This isn't true however as we already know that not all Arabs are Muslim and even within Islam there are different denominations that have different values.

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Hollande does not make the same attribution error that Huntington does and he notes that this isn't Islamic culture or the Islamic civilization but rather a result of fanaticism, fundamentalism and radical Islam[FRA15].

Hollande looks at ISIS as a whole different entity that is against any sort of civilization even the Islamic civilization that most assume it belongs to.

UNESCO [Uni01] states that, “Culture is at the heart of contemporary debates about identity, social cohesion, and the development of a knowledge based economy." Culture is clearly a very important if not the most important part of the Paris attacks and many other issues around the world today. According to Immanuel Kant, and also agreed upon by the universal declaration on cultural diversity, the common heritage of humanity is cultural diversity i.e. the only thing the human race has in common is that we have nothing in common[Imm84].

The big question now becomes why cultural diversity is so important and why is it so important that it is preserved? President Hollande continued through his speech and said UNESCO has already established the promotion of diversity of cultures and it is his wish that the work with the entire world to continue to do so. He stated that culture brings men and women together, links people to their territory and history and diversity promotes the plurality of opinions and beliefs, He went on to say that it is this cultural diversity that turns education into a call for universal emancipation The only way to achieve cultural emancipation would be when all cultures are viewed as having equal dignity and equal importance regardless of religion, language or geographical factors [FRA15]. In this way we now start to realize why preserving our cultural diversity is so important, it not only gives us our sense of identity, it also gives no one culture dominance over another. If we lost our cultural diversity and all shared the same culture and ways of life, for example if ISIS won and we all subscribed to their ideologies, there would always be one group of people with perceived superiority over the others. This is because they came up with the culture and it will be seen as theirs while the rest of the world becomes only followers.

Terrorists and some radical fundamentalists seek to destroy the diversity and enforce their own ideas on the world in a way where they end up being superior and all those who do not subscribe to their school of thought are inferior. During his speech, Hollande also states that cultural assets are reflected value and thus they must be protected in order to maintain our diversity[FRA15]. Values are generally standards of behaviour or standards of what is important to one's life. Different cultures have different values but to come and work together cohesively with the rest of the world then we must have some shared values or rather universal values. There is however a debate on whether or not we really do have universal values and if such a thing can exist. In some texts, human values such as the right to life, freedom, safety, nature, health and respect are listed also as universal values [Hum]. UNESCO [Uni01]article 4 under cultural diversity and human rights states that, "The defence of cultural diversity is an ethical imperative, inseparable from respect for human dignity.

It implies a commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the rights of persons belonging to minorities and those of indigenous peoples. No one may invoke cultural diversity to infringe upon human rights guaranteed by international law, nor to limit their scope.” This is a good example of what universal values should be, however some of these values such as freedom and respect are open to interpretation by people depending on the different cultures. This is known as cultural relativism and this is the position to which cultural traditions determine the existence and depth of rights given to the members of that culture. It is built on the principle that all cultures are equal and so their standards of interpretation are essentially equal. [Pat10]. With the concept of cultural relativism we must really ask ourselves if it is really possible to have any universal values and is it possible to exist without cultural conflicts if we have no universal values?

I will end this paper saying that the current conflicts and terrorist attacks around the world are as a result of a clash of cultures almost as Huntington had predicted. It can be argued that ISIS have their own form of culture and it is their culture against that of the “west”. I agree with President Hollande's approach and would urge other world leaders to take the same steps France is taking to protect its culture and the cultural diversity within France and the world. This is a conflict that can only be resolved through cultural emancipation that comes about from cultural diversity.

However in protecting cultural diversity, mustn't we also recognize ISIS' culture and their right to practice this culture? The reason we view ISIS and their culture as an evil that must be destroyed is because according to UNESCO[Uni01],” No one may invoke cultural diversity to infringe upon human rights guaranteed by international law, nor to limit their scope." It is clear that ISIS has been violating the universal human rights but as I discussed before, universal values are relevant according to the culture interpreting them. ISIS does not share these values so does that still make them universal?

Another major threat that ISIS poses is a threat to our cultural diversity. Our cultural diversity, as Kant put it, is the only thing that we have in common and if we fail to embrace it and preserve it then we may end up with particularist value systems that will send the entireworld into a state of chaos making it much easier for the terrorists to win using divide and conquer methods. In my opinion value systems aren't either universal or particular/ limited, instead they fall on a spectrum and while we may not have any real universal values, we do have values that come close to being universal with very few exceptions.