On the Conflict of the End of History between Islamic Caliphate and Global Liberalism: From the Perspective of Thought and Public Opinion Leaders in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Abstract

This study aims to explore the opinions of thought and public opinion leaders in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, regarding the conflict of the end of history between Islamic caliphate and global liberalism. These two schools of thought were recently represented by the revolutions of the Arabic Spring in a number of Arab countries as well as the rising of political Islamic movements and the calls for overthrowing the so-called non-Islamic regimes. The uprisings of the Arab Spring started in Tunisia in 2011, calling for the return of the Islamic caliphate. To this end, the researcher conducted 9 interviews with a group of thought and public opinion leaders in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a country which lies at the heart of the Arab Spring events. The researcher used a historical approach and analyzed the interviews using an analytical descriptive approach, calculating the frequencies in the participants’ responses. The results show that as far as the end of history is concerned, all interviewees agreed that there is a recent conflict between the model of Islamic caliphate, on the one hand, and the model of democratic liberalism represented by the dissertation of Francis Fukuyama, on the other. Since the conflict exists but relies on the interpretations of the concept of caliphate and the liberal perspective, there are some thinkers who believe that there is no contradiction between these two schools of thought. Their beliefs depend on the way by which each school of thought perceives its model, since there is no standardized Islamic model or standardized liberal model. Conversely, some thinkers believe that the conflict is Islamic-Islamic, rather than Islamic-liberal; thus, closing the door for diligence could be viewed as one reason for this internal conflict. Additionally, because variation rather than similarity is to be expected, conflict does follow. The participants also believe that the perception of caliphate is different from one political trend to another and is not within the religious sense of jihad among the armed political Islamic movements. Therefore, one of the most important recommendations suggested in this study relates to activating the role of the mosque and the church in society in a manner that surpasses the media which has the greatest effect on people’s values, while taking into consideration modernism in all the fields that may contribute to the interest of the society, the necessity of respecting people’s religious and ethnic backgrounds as well as national freedom. This is because plurality does not mean partition, rather it involves the enrichment of national unity, developing national culture, appreciating the efforts of people, rather than overlooking them, and finally exerting all efforts to make use of the experiences of others in all the domains that may benefit the interest of the society.