What civilizations are to clash in the Great War?

“Conservatism does not stop society from progressing
but prevents it from falling backward into chaotic
darkness and the state of primitive man.”
– President Vladimir Putin quoting
the Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev.

The world is awash with news of wars in every region except North America and Europe. The Great War will be triggered by a group of nations in a desperate attempt to seek global hegemony.

I came across an article on 13 October 2016 in the Financial Post and which may’ve some origins in Dr. Huntington book “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order”. The cover of this book suggested a religious war and one of civilization dominance. Huntington and Robert Fisk’s book “The Great War for Civilization and the Conquest of the Middle East” have subtly suggested religion as a cause of the war but the FP article provides the details that the war will have its roots in religion. Are religions and civilizations going to collide in an area that has been the birthplace of both?

The Western Christians in the US and EU countries are dogmatically different from the Orthodox Christians in the European East (Russia, Greece and the Slavic nations) predominantly in moral values –the latter dominated by Russia and the former by the US. The FP article by Lawrence Solomon suggests a possible clash between the two Christians as much as that currently prevails among Muslims – one dominated by Iran and the other by Saudi Arabia.

Lawrence Solomon has lucidly detailed how those differences exist between the Christians. The reason the story appealed to me was in reference to a hadith (saying) of Prophet Mohammed in which he had said that Christians will unite with Muslims in a great war. The current geopolitical situation does not support unification between Christians and Muslims. There is a similar passage in the Bible’s Book of Prophecies about “the princes of the east leading an army 100 thousand thousand (million was unheard of as a number)”. Neither made any sense till I read the FP article in which the author pointed out many religious values of Orthodox Christianity concurrent with that of Islam but contradicting western Christianity. So there only exists the possibility of Orthodox Christians and Muslims- the princes of the east- combining forces with China to fulfil the biblical prophecy of 100 million.

Below are some religiously related points from the FP article In Russia’s Religious Rebirth, Putin Is A New Pope by Lawrence Solomon:

Vladimir Putin delivering State of the Union address, Dec 12, 2013

“Putin is a principled leader who protects his country from Western aggression, Western contempt and Western values. While we in the West see ourselves as paragons of enlightenment, the envy of the people who don’t enjoy Western-style liberal democracy, only one in 20 Russians wants to become more like us… The overwhelming majority hews to Putin’s vision of Russian exceptionalism and puritanism. Russians are undergoing a religious Renaissance. Putin, who is baptized, is arguably a greater defender of traditional Christian values than the Pope, who has been tolerant of divorce, abortion, gay marriage and the transformation of what was once an unabashedly Holy Christian Europe into a part-atheistic, part-Muslim continent”.

“Putin, in contrast, has repudiated the once-official atheism of Communist Russia and embraced the traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church. In diametric opposition to the trend elsewhere in the West, he penalizes divorce, prohibits advertising abortion services, outlaws pornography and campaigns against homosexual propaganda.” (Practices condemned by not only Christian, Judaic and Islamic teachings but by all other great religions in their holy books and in civilized society). Putin has reversed Lenin’s legacy by restoring almost 25,000 churches that had been abandoned or destroyed under communism. Putin contrasts a decadent West to a profoundly spiritual and moral Russia in his State of the Union address three years ago.”

“Russia’s Christian roots also inform its foreign policy, with the Russian Orthodox Church — allied with Syrian churches — in 2011 asking Putin to protect the Middle East’s Christian minorities. “So it will be,” Putin responded, in what would become a modern-day crusade of sorts.”

Putin was right on the counts above. Sunni Muslim countries, mainly monarchies, have promoted home grown terrorism in absolute contradiction to Islamic values which condemns tyranny and oppression. Iran is the only Muslim country which is fighting terrorism and permits religious freedom and protection to Jewish and Christian minorities.

“Putin’s Russia is not the soulless Soviet Union, but a major Western country that takes its religion seriously, and itself seriously, and is united in its appreciation for a leader who embodies both.”

Russia poses a significant threat for the American primacy and its (Eurasian) geopolitical imperatives, but not as an aggressor-only as a challenger. As per Brzezinski Zbigniew in his book “The Grand Chessboard” the sustained international primacy of the United States is central to the welfare and security of Americans (the neo-conservative architects) and to the future of freedom, democracy, open economies, and international order. Russia is a direct threat to those objectives.

I’ve attempted to answer the question of how the US and its NATO allies plan to contain the combined Eurasian (Russian, Muslim and Chinese) threat to the American objective of international primacy in my article The Elusive Peace And The Great Middle East Civil War .

Russia has recently been seeking close relations with Pakistan while China seeks a passage to the Indian Ocean through it. It is succeeding under cover of CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor). Both Eurasian countries will not remain sidelined while the potential Shia-Sunni civil war is ignited for one or the other reason as it has happened in both world wars. This war might just be the only remaining platform for America to attain its objectives of global primacy, welfare and security to defeat the princes of the east in what will certainly be a war of desperation.

The US and European allies are hopefully cautioned that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) consisting of Russia, China and Muslim countries Iran, Pakistan and five Central Asian nations are formidable adversaries of NATO as they make up large population and defense forces in Asia comprising three nuclear countries in the group with over 7000 nukes while Iran and Russia are ranked as countries with large energy resources. Russia and China both see the threats as inevitable and are preparing for the eventuality, not as aggressors but as defenders. NATO too sees its global economic and political domination on the decline and could prepare for the ultimate aggression leading to the Biblical Armageddon.

Incredibly in less than a century a communist, atheist nation has mutated to conservative Biblical Christianity while USA and Western Europe founded on Biblical Christianity have reverted to non-Biblical Christianity.