الإسلام والغرب: نحو عالم أفضل

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The Clash of Civilization: A Critique

Let me add that I was present in Riyadh, in 1996, when Prof. Huntington visited Saudi Arabia for the first time - three years after writing about the "Clash of Civilizations." It was obviously that he realized the compatibility of modernity and Islam on that very occasion, a bit belatedly. c) There is a third point that emerged during discussions: Huntington's thesis-in spite of talking of bloody borders and clashes - is not aggressive but defensive. As a matter of fact, he not only sees Western culture in retreat and American hegemony receding. His concern is the protection of that culture against the background of phenomena like the resurgence of Islam. 5 Strikingly, his 1997 interview with the German newspaper" Die Welt" appeared under the heading: "The West 'is not yet lost." Does that sound like an offensive? Huntington's West is fending off the entire Rest. Having elucidated all this, I propose to let the Huntington case rest and to proceed to the basic issues of the debate initiated by him and Fukuyama's cartoon version of history. The first question requiring an answer is: Islamic civilization, is there such a thing at all? And if so: Is it essentially different from other civilizations? a) I am the last one to deny the existence of common features typical of the Muslim world in its entirety. It may not be easy to define what makes Islamic art Islamic. Yet even a child can pinpoint Islamic artifacts. Clearly, Qur'an, Sunnah, the Arabic language, and the existence of Hajj make of all Muslims horses of the same color (or smell), as Americans are want to say. Nevertheless, it is equally true that this civilization is heterogeneous and not monolithic. When in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Morocco, Turkey,

5 same article. pp. 37. 40. 41.

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