الإسلام والغرب: نحو عالم أفضل

C IVILIZATIONAL OR P OLITICAL : T HE R EALITY OF THE P RESENT T ENSION BETWEEN THE M USLIM W ORLD AND THE W EST Basheer M. Nafi

Three main assumptions underlie the argument presented in this paper:

1- Civilizations are perhaps effective conceptual instruments for understanding the pre-nineteenth century world. With the introduction of the self-propelled engine and steam shipping, the progress in printing and the production of papers, the invention of telegraph communication and railway transport systems, and the spread of West-European imperialist armies and administrations throughout the world, borders between civilizations were effectively blurred. 2- Even in the pre-modern world, civilizations that evolved from China to the Atlantic were never self-contained. Conscious and subconscious traffic of ideas, exchange of influences, and incorporation of foreign social and cultural elements were permanent features of relations between civilizations. 3- In the contemporary world, if we understand civilization as the manifestation of socio-economic and political systems, of industry and manufacturing, and of modes of communication and consumption, there exists only one civilizational environment. Differences between peoples and nations are mainly related to the spheres of culture, religious beliefs, and value orders, as well as to the questions of power and domination. These assumptions are perhaps more applicable in the relations between western and south-western Europe, on the one side, and the Muslim World, particularly the area extending from Iran to Morocco, on the other side, than

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