الإسلام والغرب: نحو عالم أفضل

T HE C LASH OF C IVILIZATIONS : A C RITIQUE Murad Hofmann

It is now 16 years since Francis Fukuyama, former planning chief of the State Department, startled the world with his seminal article about the "end of history", predicting total globalization of the Western model of civilization. And it is 13 years now that Samuel Huntington, in contradicting Fukuyama startled the Muslim world even more with his veiled prediction of a "clash of civilizations". Yet, social anthropologists, cultural sociologists, historians, orientalists and political scientists continue to respond to both these theses . Huntington insists that he did not make a self-fulfilling prophecy, and indeed, a Civilizationary clash has yet to occur. But--to speak with Mohibur Rahman the American professor has certainly provoked a "clash of ideas" or--if that sounds better-intellectual cross-fertilization . Speaking of self-fulfilling prophecies: if we want to counteract that possibility we should not entitle lectures, like this one, The Clash of Civilizations, because that implies inevitability. Instead we should speak of "A Clash of Civilizations ." Samuel Huntington received a lot of flak and hardly any praise, even within Western scientific circles. In fact, all seven commentators in the very next issue of Foreign Affairs, the autumn issue of 1993, violently disagreed with him. Since then, Huntington was able to clarify his position and dispel certain misconceptions. These points are important : a) In contrast to Fukuyama, Huntington is a pessimist as far as the world-wide triumph or Western culture is concerned. The Occident may swamp the world with Bill Gates' wonderful gadgets and make

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