In the interest of upholding imperative cultural values, people from diverse cultural backgrounds have often clashed. Sometimes, issues emanating from the clash of cultures have led to the eruption of wars between regions all over the world. The prominent zones that depict huge cases of cultural clashes engross the Western and the Arab worlds. In this regard, the Western nations want to influence the interpretation of democracy in the Arabic countries; something that the latter states have not taken lightly in the recent decades. Due to the clash of cultures between the two regions of the world, a lot of animosity has developed over the years. In particular, this has originated from the way religion influences the political scene in both parts of the world. The understanding of this condition can be enhanced by reviewing the situation within the realms of sociological theories. Interactionism and conflict theories embody aspects that can be used to expound the context of cultural clashes. The cultural clashes between the Western and the Arabic world can better be understood from the perspective of conflict theory compared to interactionism because the former contains aspects that bode well with the clash of cultures.

Islamic culture versus Western culture presents an enormous clash of cultures that can be expounded within the bounds of sociological theories. Due to the need to remake the new world order, cultural clashes have been predominant subjects. Understanding the critical differences between Christianity and Islam can enable an individual to understand the basis of cultural clashes in the Western and Arabic world. The reality is that religion influences any form of civilization as evidenced in both Islamic and Western parts of the world. In this regard, Western civilization is rooted in Christianity whereas in Arabic countries, their culture is based on the Islamic religion. According to Christianity, political authorities are established to maintain the social order by resolving any conflicts that arise among civilians. From the perspective of the Bible, people are supposed to show compliance with the national authorities. On the other hand, there is a sharp contrast since the Arabs believe that their religion has an ultimate goal of bringing all nations under Islamic laws. Even if it means bringing down some governments, their aim is to make all the nations operate under the Islamic religious laws.

Since it is not easy to accomplish their belief of bringing all the nations under Islamic religious laws, some radical fundamentalists engage in the use of suicide bombs alongside other forms of terrorism in a bid to fulfill this objective. According to Islamic cultural beliefs, this is a holy law and all people have to obey it in a bid to obtain salvation. Some issues that are resolved in the Western culture by the use of compromise, negotiation, and laborious work cannot be tolerated by Muslim religious figureheads. Based on do my assignment Christian beliefs, believe that Christ will come in the future to restore peace in the entire world. They term him as a king who will come to rule the world. Over the years, the sharp contrast between the Western and the Arabic cultures has led to many instances of wars leading to the deaths of innocent people. For instance, the 9/11 incident in which a terrorist group attacked the United States led to the deaths of many innocent Americans. The incident manifested two different worlds, one dominated by religious fundamentalists and the other by Western democracy.

Within the realms of the religious fundamentalism, the world comprises of Abode of war and abode of submission. In this case, countries that are largely dominated by Islamic religion constitute to abode of submission while any other nation is categorized as the abode of war. Thus, these non-Islamic nations are supposed to be subjected to coercion, oppression, infiltration, and attack by Islamic religious believers. All this is done to compel them into submission. In countries that are not largely dominated by Muslims, they try to cooperate and leave peacefully. As their population increases, they start finding means through which they will advance Islamic religious laws. These Muslims believe that their cultural values embrace better moral values compared to the Western civilization. There might be an element of truth according to them because the Western culture is based on tolerance, democracy, freedom, and human rights. As a consequence, the high level of tolerance and freedom might have been responsible for moral decay in most Western countries. Therefore, Muslims believe that they have a better alternative and this is coercing all nations to submit to Islamic religious laws.

In contrast to what Islamic law allows, Western countries allow too much freedom such that each person has the mandate to decide between right and wrong. The Western nations want to ensure that they embrace political correctness at the expense of what is morally right. On wholly, the Arabic way of governance is heavily based on Islamic religious laws. To them, religion determines how the people should collectively govern themselves. They do not allow the element of liberal secularism to gain dominance in their way of governance. In the Western countries, euthanasia, abortion, and marriage break-ups all aimed to fulfilling personal whims are much common. In these quarters, the number of those who subscribe to the traditional Christian values has been declining over the years due to the culture tolerance and freedom. A raise in the number of Christian atheists shows that many people in this religion are questioning the existence of God. In the recent years, secular inquisition has been on the rise which gives hope to the devout Islamic followers. A decline in Christianity makes Muslims feel strong and think that they have the best culture in the world. Since people in the Western world will not accept to submit to the Islamic way of life, a clash of cultures remains unavoidable.

In the Western world, prejudice and ideology have been replaced by reasoning and truth. Both Israel and the United States are keen on the war against terror. Western countries are ardent to tackle real issues that are facing the modern world such as global warming and terrorism. From the Islamic perspective, an emphasis on such issues might be seen as a way to stop associating with religious values which lack moral clarity. Striving for personal glorification might be the reason that Christianity seems to be on a decline. Such personal traits have been the leading causes of bad leadership in the Western societies. Some people are self-centered and have grown their culture of self-centeredness which does not augur well with the moral point of view. Muslims are seeing many loopholes in Christianity and take every opportunity to discredit them. From their view, the solution is to coerce them into an Islamic political and social way of life which does not bode well with a wide population of Christians. Therefore, a clash of cultures will always be an inevitable circumstance between the two sections of the world.

Conflict theory can be used as a tool to advance the understanding of the clash of cultures between the Western and the Islamic world. According to this theory, conflicts and tensions will always arise when status, power, and resources are not equally shared. Such conflicts and tensions become instrumental tools for a change in social order. In this case, culture can be underscored as a tool used by nations from both the Western and Arabic world to impact the change that they want in bringing a new world order. Muslims want to raise tension and conflicts with the sole objective of finally using the culture to change the way the world operates. Mostly, they are more concerned about the high level of dominance given to the Western world regarding the world’s order. By use of oppression, suicide bombs, and other forms of terrorism, they believe that they will coerce non-Islamic believers to submit (Ahuvia et al., 2015). If they ever find themselves in a world where all the nations use Islamic religious laws, they will be happy to have brought a new world order. Then this shows how conflict theory can be used to explore clash of cultures.

Again, the clash of cultures can be explained from the perspective of interactionism. In the course of social interaction, people assign meanings to symbols. Social processes such as identity formation, cooperation, and conflict are all a result of human interaction. From interactions, people can shape the society and vice versa. Interactionism is concerned with the way each person reacts to a social condition. In this regard, the values of an individual, attitudes, beliefs, and culture are pretty important. Every person is supposed to react based on his/her interpretation of the meaning of the world in which they live. People have subjective meanings that they impose on behavior, events, or object among many more others. Through human interpretations, a society is socially built. There is no objective truth in the way people offer an interpretation of a condition but ultimately, this leads to the construction of social bonds. The same can be seen in the clash of cultures between the Western world and the Arabic nations. Based on objective truth, it is hard to judge which culture is the best between the two. The interpretation of either of the cultures is merely subjective and this explains the level of rivalry between the two sides.

From the concise analysis, it can be seen that conflict theory helps to understand the clash of cultures in a better way compared to interactionism. In essence, interactionism reveals that social constructions help people to understand the meaning of a phenomenon. Sometimes, these social constructions are incorrect and this presents a circle of conflict. If they are correct, then this leads to the creation of a social bond. Looking at the situation between Western countries and the Arabic nations, it is difficult to understand which social construction bonds them. The situation between the two cultures can only be best explained and understood through the lens of conflict theory. Primarily, the idea of remaking a new world order starts with making conflicts and keeping tensions alive. The same is the clash of cultures seen between the Western and the Arabic world. Muslims are raising conflicts and building tensions among the non-Islamic people. They want to coerce all the nations to engage in the use of Islamic religious laws. According to them, tension and conflicts are bound to be the tools of social change.

To conclude, sociological theories can be used to explain the idea of a clash of cultures. However, some sociological theories can explain the concept better than others. For instance, conflict theory can help an individual to understand the clash of cultures in a better way compared to interactionism. By use of conflict theory, it is possible to understand how the creation of tension and conflicts leads to a change of social order. Islamic believers are known to use tension and conflict to engineer social change. Based on Islamic religious values, they believe that all nations should be forced to use Islamic religious laws in governing their societies. Oppression and suicide bombs among many other forms of terrorism have been used to compel non-Islamic believers to subscribe to their cultural values. Thus, conflict theory can be utilized to explain the clash of cultures because it contains elements that align with the aspects of cultural conflicts.