الإسلام والغرب: نحو عالم أفضل

Islam and the West… for a better world @

the Muslims’ perception of the USA and the UK which is completely different from their perception of Switzerland and Sweden. Similarly, the Greeks or the Germans’ perception of Turkey is different from that of the Britons or the Canadians. Peace scientists define conflict as “a relation between two or more parties (individuals or groups) who have, or think they have, incompatible goals”. The goals may be at the level of positions (what you say you want), interests (what you really want), or needs (what you must have), or values (what you believe in). But contrary to the general belief in the Arab and Muslim world, a conflict is not necessarily negative. Differences, disagreements and conflicts between individuals and groups are a fact of human life that should be acknowledged. They may contribute in re- establishing the balances in human relations and interests and tend in general to improve the situation of the parties involved. According to conflictologists, peace is not the absence of conflict but rather its good management. In fact what should be prevented is that a conflict ends up in a violent (sometimes bloody) one. Violence is defined as consisting of “actions, words, attitudes, structures, or systems that cause physical, psychological, social or environmental damage and/or prevent people from reaching their full human potential.” The conflicts between the Muslim world and the Western world that are attributed to the “clash of civilizations” can be easily analysed using the three basic components of the conflict (7) : a) context, structure or contradiction; b) attitude; c) behaviour. Consequently, after the detailed analysis of the structure, dynamics, and context of a given conflict, its management must go through three processes: 1) conflict settlement (ending the violent behaviour);

(7) Johan Galtung. Cultural Violence. Journal of Peace Research 27(3): 291-305 (1990).

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