From Osman Bakar
Together, believers in Confucianism and Islam account for more than 40% of the world’s present population.
This demographic alone is already sufficient to warrant many good-willed initiatives at bringing them together through intercultural dialogues and constructive engagements in various sectors of societal life and international relations.
In his controversial book The Clash of Civilisations and the Remaking of the World Order, Samuel Huntington foresaw a future clash of civilisations between Islam and China on one side and the West on the other.
In military terms this scenario is very unlikely for many good reasons. In the words of contemporary Muslim scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Muslims are still conscious of Islam’s traditional role as the civilisational bridge between the East and the West.
As such, the Muslim world today would hardly be interested in fomenting sectarian civilisational conflicts between the East and the West.
But it is quite possible for Islam and China to forge closer economic, political, and socio-cultural relationships, particularly in the fields of education, science, and technology.
It is also possible that they would arrive at some common understanding between them on an alternative new world order that is founded on a global ethic as articulated, for example, by the German Catholic theologian Hans Kung and upon a common spiritual humanism.
However, such a scenario presupposes a certain level of prior engagements and achievements in many areas of bilateral and multilateral relations. Intercultural dialogue would be a basic prerequisite.
In fact, such engagements in inter-civilisational relations have already taken place in our times. More extensive ones are expected to follow.
But these should not be viewed as attempts at promoting a clash of civilisations agenda such as through the creation of new power blocs in fierce competition with existing ones.
On the contrary, such engagements are imperatives for a peaceful and prosperous global order.
From the global perspective, there is nothing more urgent today than the need to address the present civilisational disorder that is characterised by increasing bloody conflicts between and within nations.
There is glaring poverty of ethical observance in governance at all levels, international relations, conflict resolutions, technological pursuits, economic development, and business dealings.
In short, our contemporary world is experiencing an acute civilisational crisis, which mainly results from its pursuit of material civilisation at the expense of moral-ethical values and human development.
A civilisational renewal is thus called for. The key to this renewal is moral rejuvenation and ethical observance, which itself could only materialise if there is a prior awareness of the severity of moral-ethical challenges the present humanity is facing and the readiness to find answers to these challenges.
Since these moral-ethical challenges are global in nature, it is necessary that responses to these challenges be global as well.
Societies and countries with great ethical traditions or legacies are more duty-bound than others to take the lead in articulating responses to these challenges.
A global response would mean the necessity of some form of intercultural dialogue on the issue in question.
A key element in a multinational and multicultural global response to contemporary moral-ethical challenges would be the search for common ethical principles and values that would bind and strengthen the international community together in a firm resolve to overcome the challenges.
Given the rich ethical traditions in Islam and Confucianism that are civilisational in scope, the two geo-cultural regions and civilisations are logical stakeholders in the foundation of a new global ethics for the 21st century.
This new global ethics, which is to be strengthened by ethical wisdom in other civilisations, would help serve as a fundamental pillar of the envisaged new world order.
Tu Weiming, a former Harvard professor in Chinese history and philosophy and now founding director of the Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies at Peking University, who is also a leading advocate for Islam-Confucianism dialogue, contends that a sustained dialogue between the two traditions would augur well for the future of humanity.
He sees convergence between Islam and Confucianism in many areas of civilisational thought that could prove crucial to the creation of the desired new world order. These include the idea of benevolent government, the inseparability between political leadership and moral authority, the emphasis on collective over individual rights, and the idea of a social order based upon collaboration and distributive justice.
In his view, although Islam belongs to the same Abrahamic family of religions as Judaism and Christianity, it bears closer affinity with Confucianism in social and ethical philosophy.
He considers the combined ethical resources of Islam and Confucianism as being rich enough to be able to significantly influence future global ethics discourses.
Dialogues between Islam and Confucianism had occurred before centuries ago. But these happened only within China, which is understandable, since it was then the only meeting ground between them in the world.
There is no reason why in our own times such dialogues could not take place outside China given the fact that Muslims and Confucians are found to be living together in significant numbers such as in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.
In fact, we are aware that in our own times Islam-Confucianism dialogues have happened before in this country. But these are fewer in number.
What is needed now is more enlightened dialogues between Islam and Confucianism on the important theme of global ethics and the world order.
It may well be possible for Malaysia to position itself as a leading centre of Islam-Confucianism dialogue in the world in the years ahead given the favourable national demographic and international profiles that it is currently enjoying.
Osman Bakar is a rector at the International Islamic University Malaysia.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.