The Clash of Cultures

If there is anything that I have learned from my time here in the Eastern Mediterranean is that civilizations do collide, and sometimes they can collaborate with each other to create something that is new, beautiful, and unique; but, sometimes this can also result in the destruction of one culture for the dominance of another. We have see the former take place here in Crete, especially in Chania where the lone minaret that still stands is attached to an orthodox Greek church that was initially a roman church, then a mosque, and then a Greek Orthodox church. There are elements of all three in the structure and you can see the influence from all of their periods (the Venetian, Ottoman, and Greek periods respectively). In Chania in general you see elements of all of these traditions and cultures being built upon themselves because the buildings and structures are still standing. But sometimes elements of culture and history can be lost when civilizations and cultures collide.

Last night when I was doing some reading I received a New York Times notification to my phone informing me that Great Mosque of al-Nuri (famous for its leaning minaret and for the fact that it was constructed in 1172) was destroyed by ISIL. It made me sad to see that this beautiful piece of culture and history was destroyed through hateful forms of violence but it just brings to fruition so much of what we have learned, especially in reference to statecraft. We see what happens when states are not able to properly and reliably allocated the necessary resources to its citizens: people get put under strain and competition arises to ensure that people have what they need. Competition breeds conflict and can create power vacuums to the point that civil wars break out and states collapse. And this is the primary reason for the destruction of Iraq and Syria. During my time here I have listened to numerous professors say that they do not ever believe that Iraq and Syria will be able to restructure themselves and become viable states again, but how can that be the case when places like Crete exist that shows that states can survive clashes of civilizations and cultures? Crete has witnessed numerous empires and cultures collide with each other, it has witnessed more than its fair share of conflict and atrocity and it has still been able to remain strong and viable through it all. So, maybe there is still hope for Iraq and Syria, and maybe there is a chance that something new, beautiful and unique can be constructed from the rubble of the history that has been destroyed.