Salam to all,

Westernization and modernization are not the same thing. There are so many issues in western society that we dont. I think that would make us more modern. However, we have so many issues that west has eliminated in their society. In fact, modernization means to adopt or to change for the sole purpose of improvement. By definition, it’s a progressive system and therefore not completed in either society. Therefore, we can consider one to be modern over the other based on certain elements. However, I think we can’t generalize because West has some issues that we don’t and vice versa.

I believe society is set in two ways. 1) One where behaviour controls society like west. No doubt they have profitable economic system but then there are a lot of bad things about such system. I like their education system but there is no moral education in it. They are very advanced in technology and numerous other good and bad qualities.

2)Second one where society controls behavior like ours. However, our youth has deviated from the teachings of our society. Due to globalization and media’s role, our youth has started to adopt some features of the west because it appeal to us and feel right for various reasons. Here we forget that what feels right is not necessarily always right if taken in large context where we consider balance of society.

There are good and bad things about both societies. What should happen is we learn good things from west and they learn good things from us. What must not happen is any of the two societies impose itself on the other. Then we will definitely have a clash. It has to be passive approach to preach our admirable qualities and let each other see to adopt and reject as they wish.

I personally think that there are some elements in global affairs that do point towards a clash or imminent clash unless we realize these issues beforehand. For example, desire to capture oil resource to meet America’s energy needs, to change books in muslim world so it won’t produce terrorist or call muslim countries to be terrorist states. On the other hand what good is organizations like Al Qaeda doing in our society by killing innocent people of the west.

Now, if you consider this issue from political and economical perspective, it becomes even more complicated. I think that would be a good topic for another thread and the question should be: Is it possible for West and East to share economical, technological and social assets for improvement of over all humanity out of their generosity and no personal intentions of economical or technological gains? Please consider all economical, political and technological aspects to answer this question. Please don't hesitate to reword this topic to be more precise and logical.