A professor in Middle Eastern History once warned against embracing theories like Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations". He said the clash of civilizations did not yet exist, but it was a potential self-fulfilling prophecy: By thinking in those terms, both sides were increasingly making the theory a reality. Extremists want nothing more than to ensare an entire civilization in their struggle, and one of the best ways to prevent that is to marginalize their efforts.

I think of this as I read about the riots in France (Phronesisaical and Donklephant have good analyses). I am reminded of the Rodney King riots in the U.S. a little over a decade ago. A minority population that was frustrated by perceived racism and economic hardships has been set off by an publicized instance of police brutality. Yes, a portion of the population is Muslim, but these riots are a combination of national, racial, religious, and economic problems. This is not the great clash of civilizations that pundits fear.

Yet in virtually every media report, we are reminded that France has 5 million Muslims, that France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. Pundits and journalists hint that the embers of these riots are being stoked by Islamist extremists.

What started out as the United States versus a clandestine organization of extremists is morphing into a clash between the West and Islam. People all over the world are being engulphed in this demented worldview and are forced to pick sides. Every crime and every global event is critiqued through the clash-of-civilizations lens.

This has been Bin Laden's goal from the start, and terrorists have actively pushed this worldview in the Muslim world. But the U.S. has played its part in making this clash a reality by taking the war to Iraq. If the fight is between extremists and the U.S., the world asked, then why is it being fought in Iraq, which had no definite connections to either? Even if Iraq had WMDs, it was obvious that the war had expanded beyond Al Qaeda. The war in Iraq did more to convince Muslims that this was a clash of civilizations than Bin Laden ever could.

Bush has painted this as a global War on Terror to appease hawks who would not be satisfied the less grandiose (and less patriotic) "police action" or "military operation". It is those same hawks who trumpet the clash of civilizations theory and compare the war to World War II. Their polarized worldview is slowly being embraced by larger and larger populations. We should be careful about comparing the present to one of the darkest periods in human history, because the more we say it is true, the closer we come to making it so.