Iran and the ‘Clash of Civilisations’

SOME THOUGHTS inspired by the latest edition of World Affairs, Journal of International Issues, Volume 11, Number One, which is centred on Iran and the ‘Clash of Civilisations’.

The reality we see about us certainly indicates that a major shift is being prepared in the distribution of power across the globe, but what the true nature of that shift might be is what has to be pondered deeply.
We see Iran emerging as a major world power enhanced by its potential to acquire nuclear weapons. But we cannot ignore that an ‘Islamic Bomb’ has existed for almost two decades, yet Islam did not come to occupy a leading position on the world stage just by this fact. Something else is required, and that is the thrust of the Time-Spirit. What is the direction the evolution of consciousness on this planet is taking, and what is driving it onto that course?

Iran is being used by Sunni Islamic leaders to foster what appears to be a common agenda. However, it is not at all ‘common’. Sunnis and Shiites are worlds apart; and at root they loathe each other more than what they feel about infidels. For a Muslim there is nothing worse than an apostate, – witness the Salmon Rushdie case as an example. For the mainstream Muslim that is what Shiites are: apostates. Their belief in the return of the Messiah, the Mahdi, can never be accepted by the main body of Islam. This is being displayed for us daily by the violence in Iraq. It is not so much against the allied forces as between these sects. The target of terrorism in Iraq is the Shiite rulers, and it will go on and on until somehow the Sunni minority regains power and is able to subjugate once more the majority sect.

Perhaps intellectuals and political analysts are not sufficiently aware of the schism that exists in Islam. It is brushed aside for the moment because it serves all parties to do so and to put a face to the world of a unity that actually does not exist. Iran appears to be gaining the position of leadership of the Islamic world. But this is merely until a critical threshold is passed, perhaps the extinction of Israel by an Islamic Bomb coming either from Iran or Pakistan, or both.

Once the hour of truth arrives the episode from the Bible, the building of the Tower of Babel, will play itself out. Divide and rule has always been the tactic to control the process of evolution in order to secure that the movement continues and does not exceed itself, that it is not arrested prematurely. In the current context such a situation would mean the destruction of all civilisations, Eastern and Western, and possibly of the Earth itself.

There is an immensely important process playing itself out at this vital crossroads of history. What the world is experiencing has little to do with the obvious such as a struggle for energy control, military dominance to further a certain economic system and the lifestyle it encourages; or even neo-colonialism of sorts. It is true that what is transpiring is a clash of civilisations; but we must be more explicit and describe it as it is, and particularly as it is surfacing today with an ever greater clarity. The clash is between the two Orthodox Religions both of which arose in the Age of Pisces (234 BCE – 1926 CE).

The civilisations in question were each founded on one of these religions, Christianity and Islam. This is indeed the struggle that is transpiring today. Both Islam and Christianity are losing their hold over the minds and hearts of the people; but above all, they cannot manage to regain a hold over the reins of power as they operate today. The Time-Spirit has turned the corner definitively and does not look back at what it left behind.

Islamic leaders believe that the past two millennia witnessed the ultimate dominance of Christianity, in spite of their own rise and many victories which almost carried Islam to the position Christianity holds today. They further believe, because of their God-given possession of a significant portion of the most important and coveted energy source, that this new millennium will witness the rise and definite imposition of an Islamic world order. Their time has finally come, they believe.

On the other hand, in view of the undeniable factor of a looming Islamic dominance, the head of Christendom has openly appealed for a united European front, but reasserting its Christian roots above all else, in order to counter the Islamic threat. Never before in the modern age have we seen religion declared the basis for unification of forces as we see today.

It is to be noted that the German Chancellor, who presently heads the European Union, has openly sided with the Pope in the call for a new Europe to emerge under the banner of Jesus Christ. Where have the gains of the last century gone? Where is our hard won secularism in the face of such a retrograde demonstration of despair and a paucity of ideas and strategies? We are not to revert to the Holy Roman Empire. A new world awaits us.

The plan of the Time-Spirit for this current Age of Aquarius is quite different than appears on the surface. In its initial stages the focus is on what might be called a ‘cleansing of the slate’. The dominance of either one of the religions of the Piscean Age is not the goal. What we are seeing today – and indeed what lies at the basis of the Iraqi conflict – is to hasten and aggravate the internal conflicts between the sects on both sides of the spectrum. But the time will soon come when the majority force of Islam will rear its head and turn on its ‘saviour’ Iran. These two forces will destroy whatever pretense either of them has for world domination. This will happen not because one is good and the other bad, one the true faith and the other the false, but simply because the Time-Spirit has moved on. The new world it fosters, and whose moment has come, is a world based on a reality that is not structured on divisive perceptions. It is a world where true unity prevails. But for that to be perceived one has to have the courage, even if in just a small portion of humanity, to accept that the dominant forces of the Age of Pisces are fast fading to clear the slate, be this in the realm of orthodox religions, imperial post-colonial domination, or whatever would pose a threat to the survival of the new world order of unity and truth.

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology
21 July 2007