CHALLENGING SAMUEL HUNTINGTON'S THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS': THE SHARED TRADITION OF EUROPE AND ISLAM

Naz Wasim

Naz Wasim is currently a candidate for a PhD in
International Politics at the University of Hull. Her doctoral thesis is
entitled "Reconceptualizing Panregions at the turn of the 21^st
Century: A Case Study of Pakistan."Her MA thesis, entitled "The Development
of the Sikh Community Identity: 1971, A Step Towards Extremism?" was
completed at the University of Chicago. She has published works on the
economic and defense situation in Pakistan and
Afghanistan.

This paper challenges Huntington's argument of an impending
clash of Civilizations between Christianity and Islam. It suggests that
Huntington's argument is in fact strategic. It seeks to identify Islam as threat
in order to maintain the unity of the Atlantic alliance NATO and driving a wedge
between Europe and the Muslim Middle East.

This paper argues that Europe has in fact had a long history of
interaction and interchange with Islam. Both have learnt from each other. Islam
even shares the cultural inheritance of the Greeks and has a secular tradition
within it. While there has been historic conflict between Europe and Islam, it
was not a clash between Civilizations. For example the North African Moors and
the Turks never co-ordinated their attack on Europe. There was as much
infighting between the Muslims as there was within Christianity. Thus Islam,
Christianity and Judaism share the monotheism of the Abrahamic tradition and are
sister Civilizations with no inherent conflict. The Muslims consider the Jews
and the Christians as Ahle Kitab; they believe in their prophets and Divine
Books.