E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

16 Contextualising Gandhian Thought1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity andrights.2. The basic subject of society is the human person, and thelegitimate role of government is to protect and help to foster theconditions for human flourishing.3. Human beings naturally desire to seek the truth about life'spurpose and ultimate ends.4. Freedom of conscience and religious freedom are inviolablerights of the human person.5. Killing in the name of God is contrary to faith in God and isthe greatest betrayal of the universality of religious faith.and claim that they fight to defend themselves and to defendthese universal principles. The signatories further affirm that“we are not your enemies but friends….In hope, we wish tojoin you and all people of good will to build a just and lastingpeace.” 11Islamic responses to Huntington’s clash theory and theabove letter have been both extensive and devastating. One cansummarise them as follows: The West is cultivating enemystereotypes on the basis of alleged civilisational difference forthe sake of advancing their (vested) economic and politicalinterests which they euphemistically term as “New WorldOrder”. The typical case today is the stereotyping of Islam as‘the most dreaded’ threat to Western civilisation and its newmission of democratizing the rest of the world. As pointed outby several Islamic scholars ‘xenophobic tendencies in Europeand in the United States are being amalgamated withideological perceptions of the Western heritage, revealing akind of cultural and political paranoia in regard to Islam’. Inshort, Huntington is trying to provide a theoreticallegitimization of American-led Western aggression against theworld's Islamic cultures and also against China.Responding to the American letter “What We’re FightingFor” one hundred and fifty Saudi intellectuals issued a