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Clash of Civilizations

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Acknowledgements

Above all, we wish to sincerely express our deepest gratitude to our supervisor, Mr
OURABAH Lad, for his excellent guidance, caring, patience, and providing us with an
excellent atmosphere for doing such work. We would also like to thank all committee
members for accepting to judge our work.
We would never have been able to finish this dissertation without the help and
support of the kind people around us. Special thanks go to Amel, for her personal support,
help and friendship during the realization of this dissertation.
Last, but by no means least, we dont forget the generosity and encouragement of all
our classmates in the third year technical English classroom, we hope our God help them all
to finish their works.

Contents
1

Introduction
Chapter 1

History of civilizations
1.
2.

3.

4.

Chapter 2

Etymology
Early civilizations
2.1. Early Civilization in Mesopotamia
a) The Akkadian Empire
b) The Babylonian Empire
c) The Hittite Empire
2.2. Ancient Egypt
2.3. Civilization Centers in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean
a) Kush and Axum: Civilization Spreads in Africa
b) The Hebrews and Monotheism
c) The Minoans and the Phoenicians
2.4. Early Indian Civilization
a) The Harappan Civilization
b) The Vedic Aryan Civilization
2.5. Early Chinese Civilization
a) The Shang Dynasty (17661050 B.C.E)
b) Zhou Dynasty (1050256 B.C.E)
The Classical civilizations (1000 B.C.E 500 C.E)
3.1. The Persian Empire
3.2. The Greek Empire
3.3. The Roman Empire
3.4. The Rise of Civilization in the Americas
a) Teotihuacan
b) Classic Maya (300 900 C.E)
Early Modern Civilizations: Postclassical Period (500-1450 C.E)
4.1. The First Global Civilization: Islam
4.2. Byzantium and Orthodox Europe

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Clash of Civilizations
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New face of civilizations


The Next Pattern of Conflict
Clash of civilizations
3.1. Differences between civilizations (motivations)
3.2. Clash of religions as a part of clash of civilizations

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Chapter 3

Clash between Islam and Christianity


1.
2.

3.

Conclusion

Similarities and differences between Islam and Christianity


Islamic doctrine and the birth of Islam-West conflict
2.1. Conflicts in the Mediterranean Islands and Sicily (6521091)
2.2. Spain and France
2.3. Ottoman attacks on Europe form the Byzantine front
2.4. Crusades: European counterattack against Jihad
Modern face of Islamic-western conflict
3.1. Colonial era
3.2. Conflict in the 21st Century

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Introduction
The world is no longer characterized by the solitude of states with no connection
between them. It is rather one of the overlapping groupings of states brought together in
varying degrees by history, culture, religion, language, location and institutions. At the
broadest level, these groupings are what have been dubbed as civilizations which marked a
huge appetite for conflicts since early ages.
The idea of a clash between civilizations is a sort of electric spark that sets peoples
imagination alight, because it finds a fertile soil to proliferate. It cannot be denied that there
are several obvious signs for a clash of civilizations, for throughout the course of the history,
there emerged different civilizations which have been plagued by a series of conflicts that
constantly brought to the fore the shifting balance of power among civilizations.
Such conflicts continue taking different forms, the religious, the political, the social and
the cultural form, and it is under the rubric of the religious standards that the clash has
reached its highest peak of struggle. Indeed the climax confrontation which civilizations have
witnessed marked a stamp in the human history that it continues its legacies even in the
present day.
This work is divided into three chapters, the first one expose the history of the major
civilizations known in the past and the description of their cultures and religions in order to
emerge the collapse of civilizations under the influence of their cultural, religious or
economical differences, the second chapter sheds light on the reasons lead to the conflicts
between civilizations, and the interpretation of some of international politics that govern the
interaction between worlds societies nowadays. Finally, the conflict between Islam, known
as the only global civilization in the world, and Christianity, supported by the western
societies, is discussed in the last chapter.

Chapter 1
History of Civilizations
Scientists estimate that the earth may be as many as 6 billion years old and that the first
humanlike creatures appeared in Africa perhaps 3 to 5 million years ago, some 1 to 2 million
years ago, many historians have attempted to locate the evolution of world societies in order
to identify the world history, the first civilization supposed to exist was in the Paleolithic
(bronze) age, and then was spread to start an evolution in world history.
In the study of the evolution of civilizations, historians divided the time history into
periods, starting by the early era which precede 1000 B.C.E where civilizations were born,
followed by the classical period that ended by 500 C.E, where new era, the postclassical
period, started and finally come the last period, the modern civilizations period, that was
limited by 1400 C.E and 1700 C.E.
This present chapter will be sacrificed to the classification and the description of
civilizations that arose in the world during the previous periods, with the emergence of their
cultures and religions in order to distinguish differences and similarities which can be used in
the next chapters.
1- Etymology
Civilization as a term comes from Latin civilis (of or proper to a citizen) as a derivation
of civis (townsman). The emergence of civilization in human history by the development of
agriculture and sedentary way of life, dated back to about 6,000 years BC. The characteristics
of these early civilizations are: food production in permanent habitations, processing
metals and other natural sources, a division of labor in terms of occupational specialization
and the development of writing. More significant than all the establishment of a complex
form of organization, the state and the development of hierarchical administrative
bureaucracies are the central characteristics of all civilizations.

Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

Societies with the above distinctions appeared in several different parts of the
prehistoric world more or less independent from each other and at different time periods like
Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and India.
Civilizations in history had the following common particularities:
-

Intensive agricultural techniques, such as crop development and irrigation


permitted a surplus of food beyond the subsistence. This allowed the sustaining of a
group of population in other fields, such as administration, industry, war, science or
religion etc.

Those not in agriculture constituted the population of the cities. By time a government
and its bureaucracy in charge of coordinating the tasks of production and protecting
the whole community began to concentrate in the cities.

This institutionalized control of production by a ruling

class

became

more

complex in time and other formal social institutions such as organized religion,
education, permanent army and markets and money as forms of economic exchange
developed. More or less a similar organization appeared in all early civilizations which
continued to exist until today: The State.
-

A significant aspect of civilization is considered to be the invention of writing. The


distinguishing of pre-history and history is generally based on the appearance of
written documents. The invention of the first writing systems is in late 4th
millennium BC in Sumer and 1000 years later developed into cuneiform.
In A Study of History, Arnold Toynbee identified 21 major civilizations1; only six of

them exist in the contemporary world, while the rest lived and died a long time ago. The
earliest known civilization Sumer, is believed to have begun around 4000-3500 BC
in Mesopotamia (meaning land between the rivers in Greek) where Tigris (Dicle) and
Euphrates (Firat) flow in a valley and

finally meet before arriving to the Persian Gulf.

2- Early civilizations
Early civilizations introduced many important changes in human life. They made
patriarchal systems more formal, enshrining mens superiority in laws and art as well as
government structures. But each early civilization also put its particular stamp on basic
1

Arnold Toynbee, A Study of History, Vols I-XII, Oxford University Press, 1934-1961.

Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

aspects of life. This formalized a process in which major societies gained distinctive
characteristics.
2-1- Early Civilization in Mesopotamia
Sumer, the first civilization arose in the northeastern section of what we now call the
Middle East, along the great Tigris and Euphrates rivers that lead to the Persian Gulf.
Sumerian culture remained intact until about 2000 B.C.E. Its political organization was based
on a series of tightly organized city-states in which an urban king, who claimed great
authority, ruled the agricultural hinterland. Sumerian political and social organization set up
traditions that long endured in the region.
City-state government established a tradition of regional rule, which sometimes yielded
to larger empires but often returned as the principal organizational form. Writing, the most
important invention between the advent of agriculture and the age of the steam engine, was
introduced about 3500 B.C.E. The Sumerian invention of writing was probably rather sudden.
It was based on new needs for commercial property and political records, including a
celebration of the deeds of proud local kings.
Later Mesopotamian civilization was recurrently unstable as one ruling people gave
way to another invading force. The regions map (see Visualizing the Past) shows the
geographic framework for this process. The Sumerians, themselves invaders of the fertile
river valleys, ultimately proved unable to withstand pressures from other intruding peoples
who began to copy their key achievements.
a) The Akkadian Empire
Shortly after 2400 B.C.E, a king from Akkad, a non-Sumerian city in Mesopotamia,
conquered the Sumerian city-states and inaugurated the Akkadian Empire. This empire soon
sent troops as far as Egypt and Ethiopia. Its first ruler, Sargon I, is the first clearly identified
individual in world history.
The king unified the empire and integrated the city-states into a whole. He also added to
Sumerian art a new style marked by the theme of royal victory. Professional military
organization expanded because Sargon maintained a force of 5400 troops. The Akkadians

Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

were the first people to use writing for more than commercial and temple records, producing a
number of literary works.
The Akkadian Empire lasted only 200 years and then was overthrown by another
invading force. By this time, around 2000 B.C.E, kingdoms were springing up in various parts
of the Middle East, and new invading groups added to the regions confusion.
b) The Babylonian Empire
Around 1800 B.C.E, the Babylonian Empire arose and again unified much of
Mesopotamia. Large cities testified to the wealth and power of this new empire. This
Babylonian empire was headed by Hammurabi, one of the great rulers of early civilized
history. Rulers such as Hammurabi claimed great power, often associating themselves with
the gods. Artistic monuments celebrated rulers power in a tradition that has continued ever
since (even for rulers not seen as divine).
Babylonian scientists extended the Sumerian work in astronomy and mathematics. The
modern 60-minute hour and 360-degree circle arose from the Babylonian system of
measurement applied to earlier Sumerian numbering systems. Indeed, of all the successors of
the Sumerians, the Babylonians constructed the most elaborate culture, although their rule
lasted only about 200 years. The Babylonians expanded commerce and a common cultural
zone, both based on growing use of cuneiform writing and a shared language.
The Babylonian empire fell by about 1600 B.C.E, Middle Eastern society had become
so prosperous that it was beginning to attract recurrent waves of attack from nomadic peoples
pressing in from central Asia, and few geographic barriers impeded the incursions. The
invading Hittite (HIT eyet) people, one of the first of the Indo-European groups to enter from
central Asia, set up an empire of their own. The Hittites soon yielded, and a series of smaller
kingdoms disputed the region for several centuries between about 1200 and 900 B.C.E.
c) The Hittite Empire
In Anatolia, in the second millennium B.C, rose and fell the shortest-lived of all
civilizations. Known as the Hittite civilization, the Hittites were an Indo-European people,
speaking a language related to Greek and Sanskrit. By about 1500 B.C.E, they established a
strong, centralized government with a capital at Hattusas (near Ankara, the capital of modern
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Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

Turkey). Between 1400 and 1200 B.C.E, they emerged as a leading mil-itary power in the
Middle East and contested Egypts ambitions to control Palestine and Syria. This struggle
culminated in a great battle between the Egyptian and Hittite armies at Kadesh in northern
Syria (1285 B.C.E.) and ended as a stand-off.
An important technological change took place in northern Anatolia; This was the
discovery of how to smelt iron, along with the decision to use it rather than copper or bronze
to manufacture weapons and tools. Archaeologists refer to the period after 1100 B.C.E. as the
Iron Age.
2-2- Ancient Egypt
Civilization emerged early in northeastern Africa. Egypt moved fairly directly from precivilization to large government units without passing through a city-state phase, although the
first pharaoh (king), Narmer had to conquer a number of petty local kings around 3100
B.C.E. Egypt always had fewer problems with political unity than Mesopotamia did, in part
because of the unifying influence of the course of the Nile River. There were also fewer
invasions1.
The vast surrounding deserts acted to limit the kind of attacks that troubled
Sumerian civilization. Given the importance of royal rule and the belief that pharaohs were
gods, it is not surprising that each of the main periods of Egyptian history was marked by
some striking kings. Early in each dynastic period, where a new family line took power,
leading pharaohs conquered new territories.
The invasions of Egypt from Palestine near the end of the Old Kingdom period (about
2200 B.C.E.) were distinct exceptions to Egypts usual self-containment. They were followed
by attacks from the Middle East by tribes of Asian origin, which brought a period of division,
chaos, and rival royal dynasties. But the unified monarchy was reestablished during the
Middle Kingdom period.
During this period Egyptian settlements spread southward into what is now the Sudan,
toward what later became the African kingdom of Kush. After about 1150 B.C.E, new waves
of invasion, internal conspiracies, and disorganization, including strikes and social protest,
brought fairly steady decline.
1

P. N. Strearns et al, World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 6th Edition, Pearson Education, USA, 2011.

Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

2-3- Civilization Centers in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean


a) Kush and Axum: Civilization Spreads in Africa
The kingdom of Kush (kuhsh) is the first known African state other than Egypt. It
sprang up around 2000 B.C.E, along the upper (southern) reaches of the Nile. As Egypt
declined, Kush was strong enough to conquer its northern neighbor and rule it for several
centuries, the greatest period of the kingdom at its capital Mero lasted from about 250 B
.C.E. to 50 C.E.
Mero began to decline from about 100 C.E, onward and was defeated by a kingdom to
the south, Axum, about 300 C.E. Prosperity and extensive political and economic activity did
not end in this region but extended into the formation of a kingdom in present day Ethiopia
b) The Hebrews and Monotheism
The most important of the smaller Middle Eastern groups were the Hebrews, who gave
the world one of its most influential religions. The Hebrews were a Semitic people (a
population group that also includes the Arabs), they may have settled in the southeast corner
of the Mediterranean about 1600 B.C.E.
By 1100 B.C.E, the Jews began to emerge as a people with a self-conscious culture and
some political identity. At most points, however, the Jewish state was small and weak,
retaining independence only when other parts of the Middle East were disorganized, the Jews
distinctive achievement was the development of a strong monotheistic religion.
c) The Minoans and the Phoenicians
About 1600 B.C.E, a civilization developed on the island of Crete. This Minoan (mihNO-un) society traded widely with both Mesopotamia and Egypt and probably acquired many
of its civilized characteristics from this exchange.
Minoan navies conquered parts of the Greek mainland; these conquests eventually led to
the establishment of the first civilization there. Centered in the kingdom of Mycenae (mySEE-nee), this early Greek civilization developed a considerable capacity for monumental
building and conducted important wars with city-states in the Middle East, including the
famous conflict with Troy.
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Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

It reached its greatest peak in the century divided at 400 B.C, and finally culminated
in the Roman Empire. It was destroyed, as is generally known, by the Germanic "barbarian
invaders" in the fifth century of our era. From its wreckage emerged three civilizations:
(a) Western civilization, which may culminate in an American empire; (b) Orthodox
civilization, which seems to be culminating in the Soviet empire, and (c) Islamic civilization,
which did culminate in the Ottoman Empire, and was disrupted by intruders from Western
civilization in the first half of the present century.
Another distinct society grew up in the Middle East in what is now the nation of
Lebanon. Around 2000 B.C.E, a people called the Phoenicians (fih-NISH-unz) settled on the
Mediterranean coast, they benefited from the weakening of Egypt and the earlier col-lapse of
Minoan society and its Greek successor because there were few competitors for influence in
the Mediterranean by 1000 B.C.E. Phoenician sailors moved steadily westward, setting up a
major trading city on the coast of north Africa at Carthage and lesser centers in Italy, Spain,
and southern France.
By the 6th century B.C.E. Phoenicia collapsed in the wake of the Assyrian invasions of
the Middle East, although several of the colonial cities, such as Carthage, long survived.
2-4- Early Indian Civilization
By 2300 B.C.E, at least seventy Indus cities, the largest being Harappa and MohenjoDaro, had developed a sophisticated urban culture. Between 1800 and 1700 B.C.E., Indus
civilization disappeared for unknown reasons. In its place, Indo-European (or Aryan) invaders
established the Vedic culture, named after the ritual writings known as the Vedas. In turn,
Vedic culture evolved into a new Indian civilization that spread over the whole
subcontinent and laid the foundations for the subsequent development of Hindu traditions.
a) The Harappan Civilization
The Indus Valley Civilization is also known as the Harappan Civilization, as the first of
its cities to be unearthed was located at Harappa, it was mainly urban and mercantile.
Inhabitants of the Indus valley traded with Mesopotamia, southern India, Afghanistan, and
Persia for gold, silver, copper, and turquoise.

Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

Harappa declined gradually in the mid-2nd millennium B.C.E. But the precise causes of
that decline remain highly contested among both historians and archeologists. One theory
suggests that the Aryan people migrated into this area. Aryan religious texts and human
remains in Mohenjo-Daro suggest that the Aryans may have violently entered the area, killing
its inhabitants and burning the cities1.
However, another theory supported by more recent evidence suggests that this
civilization may have begun to decline before the Aryans arrived. The inhabitants of the Indus
valley dispersed before the Aryans slowly entered the area as a nomadic people. The Aryans
were then able to take over this area since most of the inhabitants had previously left.
b) The Vedic Aryan Civilization
The Aryans were originally herders who spoke one variant of a group of related IndoEuropean languages and lived in the area between the Caspian and Black Seas. The Aryans
mobility and military prowess made it possible for them to prevail over peoples who occupied
the lands into which they moved, the Aryan pastoralists may have consciously destroyed
or neglected the dikes and canals on which the agrarian life of the Harappan peoples
had once depended.
By the last centuries B.C.E, the Aryans had settled down in agrarian societies and
kingdoms, which provided the basis for the rise of a splendid new civilization in south Asia
and the emergence of two of the great world religions, Hinduism and Buddhism.
2-5- Early Chinese Civilization
Agriculture began in China about 4000 B.C.E. in the basin of the southern bend of the
Yellow River. This is the northernmost of East Asias four great river systems. The others are
the Yangtze in central China, the West River in southern China, and the Red River in what is
today northern Vietnam. The traditional history of China tells of three ancient dynasties: Xia
(22051766 B.C.E), Shang (17661050 B.C.E), and Zhou (1050256 B.C.E).
The names of kings on the bones fit almost perfectly those of the traditional historical
record. This evidence that the Shang actually existed has led historians to suggest that the Xia
may also have been an actual dynasty. Perhaps the Xia was a late Neolithic black-pottery
1

G. Peter et al, Columbia History of the World, Harper and Row, New York, 1972.

Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

kingdom; perhaps it already had bronze and was responsible for the earliest, still missing
stage of Chinese writing.
a) The Shang Dynasty (17661050 B.C.E)
The characteristic political institution of Bronze Age China was the city-state. The
largest city-state was the Shang capital, which, since it frequently moved, lacked the
monumental architecture of Egypt or Mesopotamia.
The three most notable features of Shang China were writing, bronzes, and the
appearance of social classes, bronze appeared in China about 2000 B.C.E., 1,000 years later
than in Mesopotamia and 500 years later than in India. The metal was used for weapons,
armor, and chariot fittings, as well as for a variety of ceremonial vessels of amazing fineness
and beauty.
b) Zhou Dynasty (1050256 B.C.E)
To the west of the area of Shang rule, in the valley of the Wei River, a tributary of the
Yellow River lived the Zhou people, they were less civilized and more war like than the
Shang. In the early centuries of their reign, the Zhou rulers exercised more power than their
Shang predecessors. Under Wu, the military commander who had defeated the Shang, and his
brother, the duke of Zhou, the empire was greatly expanded, especially to the east and south.
Ruled as warrior aristocrats from city-states that fought outsiders and each other; by the
fourth century B.C.E, as population and commerce expanded, rulers needed bigger armies to
defend their states and trained bureaucrats to administer them. The result was the
consolidation of many petty states into a few large territorial units.
By the 8th century B.C.E, Zhou power was in decline. Its control over its vassals had
diminished dramatically, and several of the vassals domains had grown powerful enough to
openly challenge the overlordship of the dynasty.
In 771 B.C.E, an allied group of northern nobles attacked Xian. The Zhou ruler was
killed in battle, and in the months that followed, most of the western portions of the kingdom
were lost to leaders of the vassal alliance or to nomadic invaders eager to take advantage of
internal divisions among the Chinese. Retainers loyal to the Zhou managed to rescue a young
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Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

prince and escort him safely to Luoyang. The shift to the eastern capital marks the end of the
early or western Zhou era.
3- The Classical civilizations (1000 B.C.E 500 C.E)
Classical period or classical age is a broad term for a long period of cultural history
centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient
Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world, new religion,
Christianity, was born in that era that finished by the decline of the Roman Empire.
3-1- The Persian Empire
After the fall of the great Egyptian and Hittite empires in the Middle East by 1200
B.C.E, much smaller states predominated. A great conqueror, Cyrus the Great, emerged by
550 B.C, and established the massive Persian Empire, which ran across the northern Middle
East and into northwestern India.
The Persian Empire embraced a host of languages and cultures, and the early Persian
rulers were careful to grant considerable latitude for this diversity. Persia was also the center
of a major new religion. A Zoroastrianian religious leader, Zoroaster (c. 630550 B.C.E.),
revised the polytheistic religious tradition of the Sumerians through the introduction of
monotheism. He banned animal sacrifice and the use of intoxicants. He introduced the idea
of individual salvation through the free choice of God over the spirit of evil.
Later kings expanded Persian holdings. They were unable to conquer Greece, but they
long dominated much of the Middle East, providing an extensive period of peace and
prosperity. Conquests also extended into North Africa and the Indian River valley. At its
height, Persia embraced at least fourteen million people.
Ultimately, the Persian Empire was toppled by Alexander the Great, a Greek-educated
conqueror, after the Hellenistic period, a series of Persian empires arose in the northeastern
part of the Middle East, competing with Roman holdings and later states1.

P. N. Strearns et al, World Civilizations: The Global Experience, 6th Edition, Pearson Education, USA, 2011.

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Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

3-2- Greek Empire


Slightly before the Persian Empire took shape, small Greek political units gradually
emerged. A key spur to Greek civilization was a general revival of trade in the eastern
Mediterranean. Trade allowed many Greek city-states to increase their wealth and their range
of contacts. By 700 B.C.E, several Greek centers had trading connections around the Black
Sea and in Egypt and southern Italy.
Soon after Cyrus the Great created the Persian Empire; he turned against wealthy Greek
colonies along the Asian side of the Mediterranean and conquered them by about 540 B.C.E.
In 499 B.C.E, the conquered Greek cities rebelled against the Persians and were aided by the
Athenian navy. The rebellion failed, and the Persian kings (Darius I, then Xerxes) moved
against Greece in punishment. In 480 B.C.E, a Persian army of 100,000 troops moved down
the Greek peninsula and captured Athens, destroying much of the city. Athenian and Spartan
cooperation led to Persian defeats on both land and sea. While Persia continued to
dominate the Middle East, Greek independence was preserved. The greatest age of Greek
politics and culture followed, including the perfection of Athenian political institutions and
the Age of Pericles.
3-3- Roman Empire
The earliest phases of Roman history occurred while Greece and then Alexander and his
successors held center stage to the east. It was during the 5th century B.C.E, where a new
city-state near the middle of the Italian peninsula began to define a separate existence. Soon
Rome took on the trappings of a regional civilization, complete with its own language and an
alphabet derived from the Greek alphabet, the Roman Empire served as a seedbed for one of
the great religious changes in world history: the advent of Christianity.
In the initial decades of the Roman Empire, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, a
new religion, Christianity, emerged. Much of the impetus for this new religion rested in issues
in the Jewish religion, including a long-standing belief in the coming of a Messiah and
rigidities that had developed in the Jewish priesthood. Whether or not Christianity was created
by God, as Christians believe, the early stages of the religion focused on cleansing the Jewish
religion of stiff ritualism and rigid leadership, which

resulted

from

the

orthodox

communitys efforts to preserve Judaism in the face of Roman oppression. It had little to
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Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

do with Roman culture at first. Christianity arose in a remote province and appealed
particularly to poor people.
Christianity did not spring directly from the mainstream principles of Greco-Roman
civilization, but it did use many of these principles selectively. In its spread and in its church
structure, it depended directly on what Rome had achieved.
In the 3rd century B.C.E, Rome twice defeated the North African city-state of Carthage,
By the mid-2nd century B .C.E ., Rome ruled Greece and the eastern Mediterranean directly,
although it never penetrated fully into the Middle Easts heartland. The Romans massive
empire flourished for four centuries and then limped through another 250 years in decline.
Roman Empire was destroyed, as is generally known, by the Germanic "barbarian
invaders" in the fifth century of our era. From its wreckage emerged three civilizations:
(a) Western civilization, which may culminate in an American empire; (b) Orthodox
civilization, which seems to be culminating in the Soviet empire; and (c) Islamic
civilization, which did culminate in the Ottoman Empire, and was disrupted by
intruders from Western civilization in the first half of the present century.
3-4- The Rise of Civilization in the Americas
Mesoamerica, which extends from the central part of modern Mexico into Central
America, is a region of great geographical diversity, ranging from tropical rain forest to
semiarid mountains. Archaeologists traditionally divide its pre-conquest history into three
broad periods: Pre-Classic or Formative (2000 B.C.E.150 C.E.), Classic (150900 C.E.), and
Post-Classic (9001521). The earliest Mesoamerican civilization, that of the Olmecs, arose
during the Pre-Classic on the Gulf Coast beginning approximately 1500 B.C.E. The Olmec
centers at San Lorenzo (1200 B.C.E900 B.C.E.) and La Venta (900 B.C.E400 B.C.E)
exhibit many of the characteristics of later Mesoamerican cities, including the symmetrical
arrangement of large platforms, plazas, and other monumental structures along a central axis
and possibly courts for the ritual ball game played throughout Mesoamerica at the time of the
Spanish conquest.
The two main centers of civilization, that Archeologists refer to classic period, were the
high central valley of Mexico and the more humid tropical lands of southern Mexico,
Yucatan, and Guatemala.
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Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

a) Teotihuacan
The city of Teotihuacan (tay-oh-tee-wah-KAHN), near modern Mexico City, emerged
as an enormous urban center with important religious functions. It represented a political
empire or a dominant cultural and ideological style that spread over much of central Mexico
and beyond.
The city developed slowly but by the first centuries C.E, it was flourishing.
Teotihuacans enormous temple pyramids rival those of ancient Egypt and suggest a large
state apparatus with the power to mobilize many workers. Population estimates for this city,
which covered 9 square miles, are as high as 200,000. This would make it greater than the
cities of ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia and probably second only to ancient Rome of the
cities of classical antiquity.
By the 8th century C.E. the city was in decline, and it was finally abandoned after
attacks probably from nomadic raiders from the north. But for centuries thereafter, the
memory of Teotihuacan lived on among the peoples of Mesoamerica as a golden age of
cultural achievements.
b) Classic Maya (300 900 C.E)
Between about 300 and 900 C .E., at roughly the same time that Teotihuacan
dominated the central plateau, the Maya peoples were developing Mesoamerican civilization
to its highest point in southern Mexico and Central America. While the Tang dynasty
ruled China and Islam spread its influence from Spain to India after the classical period had
ended in the Old World, this great civilization flourished in the American tropics.
The Maya culture extended over a broad region that now includes parts of five
different countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador. It included
several related languages, and it had considerable regional variation, as can be seen in its art
styles. The whole region shared a common culture that included monumental architecture, a
written language, a calendar and mathematical system, a highly developed religion, and
concepts of statecraft and social organization.

14

Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

During the 8th century C.E, Maya rulers stopped erecting commemorative stelae and
large buildings, and population sizes dwindled. By 900 C.E, most of the major Maya centers
had been deserted.
4- Early Modern Civilizations: Postclassical Period (500-1450 C.E)
The big changes in the period 5001450 did not involve political boundaries. They
involved the spread of the major world religions Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam across
political and cultural borders and the development of new, more regular systems of trade that
connected much of Asia, Africa, and Europe.
4-1- The First Global Civilization: Islam
Before the rise of Islam, Arabia was a peripheral desert wasteland whose once great
trading cities had fallen on hard times. The sparse population of the Arabian peninsula was
divided into rival tribes and clans that worshiped local gods.
By the 6th century C.E, camel nomads were dominant throughout much of Arabia. The
civilized centers to the south were in ruins, and trading centers such as Mecca and Medina
depended on alliances with neighboring Bedouin tribes to keep the caravan routes open, but
pressures for change were mounting. Both the Byzantine and Sasanian empires struggled to
assert greater control over the nomadic tribes of the peninsula.
In addition, Arab peoples migrated into Mesopotamia and other areas to the north,
where they came increasingly under foreign influence. From these regions, the influence of
established monotheistic religions, especially Judaism and Christianity, entered Arabia. The
prophet Muhammad and the new religion that his revelations inspired in the early decades of
the 7th century responded both to these influences flowing into Arabia and to related
social dislocations that were disrupting Arab life.
Islam was soon to become one of the great world religions, the beliefs and practices of
the prophet Muhammad were initially adopted only by the Arab town dwellers and bedouins
among whom he had grown up.
The courage, military prowess, and religious zeal of the warriors of Islam, and the
weaknesses of the empires that bordered on Arabia, resulted in stunning conquests in
15

Chapter 1________________________________________________________________History of Civilizations

Mesopotamia, north Africa, and Persia, which dominated the next two decades of Islamic
history.
4-2- Byzantium and Orthodox Europe
During the postclassical period two major Christian civilizations took shape in Europe.
Both developed close relations with the Islamic world and both played major roles in world
trade. One, centered on the papacy in Rome, encompassed Western Europe, but the other
radiated out from Constantinople.
The Byzantine Empire maintained high levels of political, economic, and cultural
activity during much of the period from 500 to 1450 C.E. It controlled an important but
fluctuating swath of territory in the Balkans, the northern Middle East, and the eastern
Mediterranean.
The real significance of the Byzantine Empire goes well beyond its ability to keep
Romes memory alive. The empire lasted for almost a thousand years, between Romes
collapse in the West and the final overthrow of the regime by Turkish invaders. The empires
capital, Constantinople, was one of the truly great cities of the world, certainly the most
opulent and important city in Europe in this period. From Constantinople radiated one of the
two major branches of Christianity: the Orthodox Christian churches that became dominant
throughout most of eastern Europe.
In the postclassical period, and due to the limitation of our work, we didnt enumerate
all civilizations even those of the late period (modern civilizations) because most of them are
an extend of previous civilizations which had undergone changes or development;
In this chapter we discussed a number of civilizations that appeared in the world over
the time (early, classical and postclassical periods), we focused here on civilizations where
religions were born especially Islam and Christianity that are the aim of the present work.

16

Chapter 2
Clash of Civilizations

In the summer of 1993 United States Foreign Affairs published an article entitled The
Clash of Civilizations by Samuel Huntington; He develops many new penetrating and
controversial analyses. In the article, he posed the question whether conflicts between
civilizations would dominate the future of world politics. In the book, he gives his answer,
showing not only how clashes between civilizations are the greatest threat to world peace but
also how an international order based on civilizations is the best safeguard against war.
Today, the critical distinctions between people are not primarily ideological or
economic, they are cultural. World politics is being reconfigured along cultural lines, with
new patterns of conflict and cooperation replacing those of the Cold War. The hot spots in
world politics are on the fault lines between civilizations.
In this chapter we will discuss those fault lines and the motivations that lead
civilizations to clash, then well try to emerge an important reason for the conflict between
international powers, which is the religion.
1- New face of civilizations
During the Cold War the world was divided into the First, Second and Third Worlds.
Those divisions are no longer relevant. It is far more meaningful now to group countries not
in terms of their political or economic systems or in terms of their level of economic
development but rather in terms of their culture and civilization.
A civilization is a cultural entity, villages, regions, ethnic groups, nationalities, religious
groups, all have distinct cultures at different levels of cultural heterogeneity or it can be
defined as the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity

Chapter 2_________________________________________________________________Clash of Civilizations

people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species. It is defined both by
common objective elements, such as language, history, religion, customs, institutions, and by
the subjective self-identification of people.
People have levels of identity: a resident of Rome may define himself with varying
degrees of intensity as a Roman, an Italian, a Catholic, a Christian, a European, and a
Westerner. The civilization to which he belongs is the broadest level of identification with
which he intensely identifies. People can and do redefine their identities and, as a result, the
composition and boundaries of civilizations change.
Civilizations obviously blend and overlap, and may include sub-civilizations. Western
civilization has two major variants, European and North American, and Islam has its Arab,
Turkic and Malay subdivisions. Civilizations are nonetheless meaningful entities, and while
the lines between them are seldom sharp, they are real. Civilizations are dynamic; they rise
and fall; they divide and merge. They can also disappear and be buried in the sands of time.
2- The Next Pattern of Conflict
World politics is entering a new phase, and intellectuals have not hesitated to proliferate
visions of what it will be the end of history, the return of traditional rivalries between nation
states, and the decline of the nation state from the conflicting pulls of tribalism and globalism,
among others. Each of these visions catches aspects of the emerging reality. Yet they all miss
a crucial, indeed a central, aspect of what global politics is likely to be in the coming years.
The fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological
or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of
conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs,
but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different
civilizations. The clash of civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.1
This clash will be the latest phase of the evolution of conflict in the modern world, for a
century and a half after the emergence of the modern international system of Peace, the
conflicts of the Western world were largely among princes and emperors, absolute monarchs
and constitutional monarchs attempting to expand their bureaucracies, their armies, their

S. P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, Foreign Affairs vol.72, N 3, USA, 1993.

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Chapter 2_________________________________________________________________Clash of Civilizations

mercantilist economic strength and, most important, the territory they ruled. In the process
they created nation states, and beginning with the French Revolution the principal lines of
conflict were between nations rather than princes.
In 1793, as R. R. Palmer put it, The wars of kings were over, the ward of peoples had
begun.1 This eighteenth-century pattern lasted until the end of World War I. Then, as a result
of the Russian Revolution and the reaction against it, the conflict of nations yielded to the
conflict of ideologies, first among communism, fascism-Nazism and liberal democracy, and
then between communism and liberal democracy. During the Cold War, this latter conflict
became embodied in the struggle between the two superpowers, neither of which was a nation
state, and each of which defined its identity in terms of ideology.
These conflicts between princes, nation states and ideologies were primarily conflicts
within Western civilization, Western civil wars as William Lind has labeled them. This was
as true of the Cold War as it was of the world wars and the earlier wars of the seventeenth,
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. With the end of the Cold War, international politics
moves out of its Western phase, and its center-piece becomes the interaction between the
West and non-Western civilizations and among non-Western civilizations. In the politics of
civilizations, the people and governments of non-Western civilizations no longer remain the
objects of history as targets of Western colonialism but join the West as author of history.
3- Clash of civilizations
3-1- Differences between civilizations (motivations)
Civilization Identity will be increasingly important in the future, and the world will be
shaped in large measure by the interactions among seven or eight major civilizations. These
include Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American and
possibly African civilization. The most important conflicts of the future will occur along the
cultural fault lines separating these civilizations from one another.2
First, differences among civilizations are not only real, they are basic. Civilizations are
differentiated from each other by history, language, culture, tradition and, most important,
religion. The people of different civilizations have different views on the relations between
1

R. R. Palmer, The age of the democratic revolution: a political history of Europe and America, Princeton UP, vol. 2 (1964).

S. P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, Foreign Affairs vol.72, N 3, USA, 1993.

19

Chapter 2_________________________________________________________________Clash of Civilizations

God and man, the individual and the group, the citizen and the state, parents and children,
husband and wife, as well as differing views of the relative importance of rights and
responsibilities, liberty and authority, equality and hierarchy. These differences are the
product of centuries. They will not soon disappear. They are far more fundamental than
differences among political ideologies and political regimes. Differences do not necessarily
mean conflict, and conflict does not necessarily mean violence. Over the centuries, however,
differences among civilizations have generated the most prolonged and the most violent
conflicts.
Second, the world is becoming a smaller place. The interactions between peoples of
different civilizations are increasing; these increasing interactions intensify civilization
consciousness and awareness of differences between civilizations and commonalities within
civilizations. North African immigration to France generates hostility among Frenchmen and
at the same time increased receptivity to immigration by good European Catholic Poles.
Americans react far more negatively to Japanese investment than to larger investments from
Canada and European countries.
The interactions among peoples of different civilizations enhance the civilizationconsciousness of people that, in turn, invigorates differences and animosities stretching or
thought to stretch back deep into history.
Third, the processes of economic modernization and social change throughout the world
are separating people from longstanding local identities. They also weaken the nation state as
a source of identity. In much of the world religion has moved in to fill this gap, often in the
form of movements that are labeled fundamentalist. Such movements are found in Western
Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as in Islam.
In most countries and most religions the people active in fundamentalist movements are
young, college-educated, middle-class technicians, professionals and business persons. The
unsecularization of the world, is one of the dominant social factors of life in the late
twentieth century. The revival of religion,1 as Gilles Kepel labeled it, provides a basis for
identity and commitment that transcends national boundaries and unites civilizations.

G. Kepel, The Revenge of God: The Resurgence of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in the Modern World , Blackwell
Publishing Ltd, 1994.

20

Chapter 2_________________________________________________________________Clash of Civilizations

Fourth, the growth of civilization-consciousness is enhanced by the dual role of the


West. It is at a peak of power. At the same time, however, and perhaps as a result, a return to
the roots phenomenon is occurring among non-Western civilizations. Increasingly one hears
references to trends toward a turning inward and Asianization in Japan, the end of the
Nehru legacy and the Hinduization of India, the failure of Western ideas of socialism and
nationalism and hence re-Islamization of the Middle East. A West at the peak of its power
confronts non-Wests that increasingly have the desire, the will and the resources to shape the
world in non-Western ways.
Mr. Huntington explains how the population explosion in Muslim countries and the
economic rise of East Asia are changing global politics. These developments challenge
Western dominance, promote opposition to Western ideals, and intensify inter-civilization
conflict over such issues as nuclear proliferation, immigration, human rights, and democracy.
The Muslim population surge has led to many small wars throughout Eurasia, and the rise of
China could lead to a global war of civilizations. Mr. Huntington sets forth a strategy for the
West to preserve its unique culture and emphasizes the need for people everywhere to learn to
coexist in a complex, multipolar, multi-civilizational world.
Fifth, cultural characteristics and differences are less mutable and hence less easily
compromised and resolved than political and economic ones. In the former Soviet Union,
communists can become democrats, the rich can become poor and the poor rich, but Russians
cannot become Estonians and Azeris cannot become Armenians. In conflicts between
civilizations, the question is Who are you? That is a given that cannot be changed. And as
we know, from Bosnia to the Caucasus to the Sudan, the wrong answer to that question can
mean a bullet in the head. Even more than ethnicity, religion discriminates sharply and
exclusively among people. A person can be half-French and half-Arab and simultaneously
even a citizen of two countries. It is more difficult to be half-Catholic and half-Muslim.
Finally, successful economic regionalism will reinforce civilization-consciousness; it may
succeed only when it is rooted in a common civilization. The European Community rests on
the shared foundation of European culture and Western Christianity. The success of the North
American Free Trade Area depends on the convergence now underway of Mexican, Canadian
and American cultures. Japan, in contrast, faces difficulties in creating a comparable
economic entity in East Asia because Japan is a society and civilization unique to itself.
21

Chapter 2_________________________________________________________________Clash of Civilizations

Common culture is clearly facilitating the rapid expansion of the economic relations
between the Peoples Republic of China and Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and the overseas
Chinese communities in other Asian countries. With the Cold War over, cultural
commonalities increasingly overcome ideological differences, and mainland China and
Taiwan move closer together.1
The same phrase has been applied to the increasingly difficult relations between Japan
and the United States. Here cultural difference exacerbates economic conflict. People on each
side allege racism on the other, but at least on the American side the antipathies are not racial
but cultural. The basic values, attitudes, behavioral patterns of the two societies could hardly
be more different. The economic issues between the United States and Europe are no less
serious than those between the United States and Japan, but they do not have the same
political salience and emotional intensity because the differences between American culture
and European culture are so much less than those between American civilization and Japanese
civilization.
The interactions between civilizations vary greatly in the extent to which they are likely
to be characterized by violence. Economic competition clearly predominates between the
American and European sub-civilizations of the West and between both of them and Japan.
On the Eurasian continent, however, the proliferation of ethnic conflict, epitomized at the
extreme in ethnic cleansing, has not been totally random. It has been most frequent and
most violent between groups belonging to different civilizations.
In Eurasia the great historic fault lines between civilizations are once more aflame. This
is particularly true along the boundaries of the crescent-shaped Islamic bloc of nations from
the bulge of Africa to central Asia. Violence also occurs between Muslims, on the one hand,
and Orthodox Serbs in the Balkans, Jews in Israel, Hindus in India, Buddhists in Burma and
Catholics in the Philippines. Islam has bloody borders.
3-2- Clash of religions as a part of clash of civilizations
As people define their identity in ethnic and religious terms, they like to see an us
versus them relation existing between themselves and people of different ethnicity or
religion, differences in culture and religion create differences over policy issues, ranging from
1

M. Weidenbaum, Greater China: The Next Economic Superpower, Washington University Center for the Study of American
Business, Contemporary Issues, Series 57, February 1993, pp. 2-3.

22

Chapter 2_________________________________________________________________Clash of Civilizations

human rights to immigration to trade and commerce to the environment. The end of
ideologically defined states in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union permits traditional
ethnic identities and animosities to come to the fore; Geographical propinquity gives rise to
conflicting territorial claims from Bosnia to Mindanao.
However, the clash of civilizations occurs at two levels. At the micro-level, adjacent
groups along the fault lines between civilizations struggle, often violently, over the control of
territory and each other. At the macro-level, states from different civilizations compete for
relative military and economic power, struggle over the control of international institutions
and third parties, and competitively promote their particular political and religious values.
The fault lines between civilizations are replacing the political and ideological
boundaries of the Cold War as the flash points for crisis and bloodshed. The Cold War began
when the Iron Curtain divided Europe politically and ideologically. The Cold War ended with
the end of the Iron Curtain. As the ideological division of Europe has disappeared, the cultural
division of Europe between Western Christianity, on the one hand, and Orthodox Christianity
and Islam, on the other, has reemerged.
The most significant dividing line in Europe, as William Wallace has suggested, may
well be the eastern boundary of Western Christianity in the year 1500. This line runs along
what are now the boundaries between Finland and Russia and between the Baltic states and
Russia, cuts through Belarus and Ukraine separating the more Catholic western Ukraine from
Orthodox eastern Ukraine, swings westward separating Transylvania from the rest of
Romania, and then goes through Yugoslavia almost exactly along the line now separating
Croatia and Slovenia from the rest of Yugoslavia.
In the Balkans this line, of course, coincides with the historic boundary between the
Hapsburg and Ottoman empires. The peoples to the north and west of this line are Protestant
or Catholic; they shared the common experiences of European history -- feudalism, the
Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the Industrial
Revolution; they are generally economically better off than the peoples to the east; and they
may now look forward to increasing involvement in a common European economy and to the
consolidation of democratic political systems.1

A. Clesse et al., The International Systems After the Collapse of the East-West Order, Luxembourg, 1994, p 12

23

Chapter 2_________________________________________________________________Clash of Civilizations

The peoples to the east and south of this line are Orthodox or Muslim; they historically
belonged to the Ottoman or Tsarist empires and were only lightly touched by the shaping
events in the rest of Europe; they are generally less advanced economically; they seem much
less likely to develop stable democratic political systems. The Velvet Curtain of culture has
replaced the Iron Curtain of ideology as the most significant dividing line in Europe. As the
events in Yugoslavia show, it is not only a line of difference; it is also at times a line of
bloody conflict.
Conflict along the fault line between Western and Islamic civilizations has been going on
for 1,300 years. After the founding of Islam, the Arab and Moorish surge west and north only
ended at Tours in 732. From the eleventh to the thirteenth century the Crusaders attempted with
temporary success to bring Christianity and Christian rule to the Holy Land.
From the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, the Ottoman Turks reversed the balance,
extended their sway over the Middle East and the Balkans, captured Constantinople, and twice
laid siege to Vienna. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries at Ottoman power declined
Britain, France, and Italy established Western control over most of North Africa and the Middle
East.

After World War II, the West, in turn, began to retreat; the colonial empires
disappeared, first Arab nationalism and then Islamic fundamentalism manifested themselves;
the West became heavily dependent on the Persian Gulf countries for its energy; the oil-rich
Muslim countries became money-rich and, when they wished to, weapons-rich. Several wars
occurred between Arabs and Israel (created by the West). France fought a bloody and ruthless
war in Algeria for most of the 1950s; British and French forces invaded Egypt in 1956;
American forces returned to Lebanon, attacked Libya, and engaged in various military
encounters with Iran; Arab and Islamic terrorists, supported by at least three Middle Eastern
governments, employed the weapon of the weak and bombed Western planes and installations
and seized Western hostages. This warfare between Arabs and the West culminated in 1990,
when the United States sent a massive army to the Persian Gulf to defend some Arab
countries against aggression by another. In its aftermath NATO planning is increasingly
directed to potential threats and instability along its southern tier.
The centuries of military interaction between the West and Islam is unlikely to decline.
It could become more virulent, the Gulf War left some Arabs feeling proud that Saddam
24

Chapter 2_________________________________________________________________Clash of Civilizations

Hussein had attacked Israel and stood up to the West. It also left many feeling humiliated and
resentful of the Wests military presence in the Persian Gulf, the Wests overwhelming
military dominance, and their apparent inability to shape their own destiny. Many Arab
countries, in addition to the oil exporters, are reaching levels of economic and social
development where autocratic forms of government become inappropriate and efforts to
introduce democracy become stronger.
Some openings in Arab political systems have already occurred. The principal
beneficiaries of these openings have been Islamist movements. In the Arab world, in short,
Western democracy strengthens anti-Western political forces. This may be a passing
phenomenon, but it surely complicates relations between Islamic countries and the West.
Those relations are also complicated by demography. The spectacular population
growth in Arab countries, particularly in North Africa, has led to increased migration to
Western Europe. The movement within Western Europe toward minimizing internal
boundaries has sharpened political sensitivities with respect to this development. In Italy,
France and Germany, racism is increasingly open, and political reactions and violence against
Arab and Turkish migrants have become more intense and more widespread since 1990.
On both sides the interaction between Islam and the West is seen as a clash of
civilizations. It is in the sweep of the Islamic nations from the Meghreb to Pakistan that the
struggle for a new world order will begin. Bernard Lewis comes to a regular conclusion:
We are facing a need and a movement far transcending the level of issues and policies and
the governments that pursue them. This is no less than a clash of civilizations, the perhaps
irrational but surely historic reaction of an ancient rival against our Judeo-Christian heritage,
our secular present, and the worldwide expansion of both.1
Historically, the other great antagonistic interaction of Arab Islamic civilization has
been with the pagan, animist, and now increasingly Christian black peoples to the south. In
the past, this antagonism was epitomized in the image of Arab slave dealers and black slaves.
It has been reflected in the on-going civil war in the Sudan between Arabs and blacks, the
fighting in Chad between Libyan-supported insurgents and the government, the tensions

Bernard Lewis, The Roots of Muslim Rage, The Atlantic Monthly, vol. 266, September 1990, p. 60; Time, June 15k
1992, pp. 24-28.

25

Chapter 2_________________________________________________________________Clash of Civilizations

between Orthodox Christians and Muslims in the Horn of Africa, and the political conflicts,
and communal violence between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria.
The modernization of Africa and the spread of Christianity are likely to enhance the
probability of violence along this fault line. Symptomatic of the intensification of this conflict
was the Pope John Paul IIs speech in Khartoum in February 1993 attacking the actions of the
Sudans Islamist government against the Christian minority there.
On the northern border of Islam, conflict has increasingly erupted between Orthodox
and Muslim peoples, including the carnage of Bosnia and Sarajevo, the simmering violence
between Serb and Albanian, the tenuous relation between Bulgarians and their Turkish
minority, the tense relations between Russians and Muslims in Central Asia, and the
deployment of Russian troops to protect Russian interests in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Religion reinforces the revival of ethnic identities and re-stimulates Russian fears about
the security of their southern borders. This concern is well captured by Archie Roosevelt:
Much of Russian history concerns the struggle between Slavs and the Turkish peoples on
their borders, which dates back to the foundation of the Russian state more than a thousand
years ago.
In the Slavs millennium-long confrontation with their eastern neighbors lies the key to
an understanding not only of Russian history, but Russian character. To under Russian
realities today one has to have a concept of the great Turkic ethnic group that has preoccupied
Russians through the centuries. 1
The conflict of civilizations is deeply rooted elsewhere in Asia. The historic clash
between Muslim and Hindu in the subcontinent manifests itself now not only is the rivalry
between Pakistan and India but also in intensifying religious strife within India between
increasingly militant Hindu groups and Indias substantial Muslim minority. The destruction
of the Ayodhya mosque in December 1992 brought to the fore the issue of whether India will
remain a secular democratic state or become a Hindu one.

Archie Roosevelt, For Lust of Knowing, Boston: Little, Brown, 1988, pp. 332-333.

26

Chapter 2_________________________________________________________________Clash of Civilizations

In East Asia, China has an outstanding territorial dispute with most of its neighbors. It
has pursued a ruthless policy toward the Buddhist people of Tibet, and it is pursuing an
increasingly ruthless policy toward its Turkic-Muslim minority. With the Cold War over, the
underlying differences between China and the United States have reasserted themselves in
areas such as human rights, trade and weapons proliferation. These differences are unlikely to
moderate. A new cold war, Deng Xaioping reportedly asserted in 1991, is under way
between China and America.
We discussed in this chapter a new theory that affected the international foreign affairs
and supposed to be the interpretation for the conflicts existing in the world actually. After the
presentation of this theory, we emerged the fault lines that govern those conflicts with the role
of religion in the international relationships, a context in which we will discuss the clash
between Islam and Christianity as a part from the clash of civilizations in the next chapter

27

Chapter 3
Clash between Islam and Christianity
Over the course of history, relations between the Islamic world and the West have been
characterized by a mixture of hostility, indifference, and relative peace. Such relations
progressed, not in a linear fashion, but rather in surges as a result of critical encounters over
time and space. These encounters, the Muslim conquest of Spain, the Christian Crusades, and
the European colonization of Muslim lands, the independence and creation of modern Muslim
states, have extended and modified the parameters of interaction and have been influential in
the formation and alteration of mutual perceptions.
Christianity and Islam are the two largest religions in the world and they have many
points of contact. Both inherited from Judaism a belief in one God who created the world and
cares about the behavior and beliefs of human beings. The Prophet Muhammad knew
Christians in his lifetime and respected them along with Jews as "People of the Book."
Because of their monotheism and roots in the revealed Jewish Bible, the Prophet and his
successors extended conquered Christians (and Jews) more freedoms than conquered pagans.
In the approximately 1,300 years of history since the life of the Prophet, the relationship
between Christianity and Islam has rarely been harmonious. As it spread, the Muslim Empire
quickly conquered much of the Judeo-Christian Holy Land and the Christian Byzantine
Empire. The Christian Crusades of the 11th through 13th centuries, waged in large part
against Muslims, served only to widen the divide between the two faiths. Constantinople, the
"New Rome" and the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, fell to the Turks in 1453 and
has lived under Islamic rule ever since.
In recent centuries, mutual distrust between Christians and Muslims has continued to
grow. On the other hand, some have pointed out that the conflict has more to do with political
tensions and divergent cultural worldviews than with religion, and efforts have been made by
both Christians and Muslims to find common ground and engage in respectful dialogue.

Chapter 3____________________________________________________Clash between Islam and Christianity

1- Similarities and differences between Islam and Christianity


The differences between the religions of Islam and Christianity are profound, but the
similarities are also significant. Both religions have a strong central figure in Jesus Christ and
Muhammad, but their lives held many differences. Each religion adheres to its own written
form of scripture, and each is unique in its own way.
Islam and Christianity hold closely to their own religious practices, and each practice is
outwardly and inwardly different in expression and form. Underneath the wide umbrella of
the words "Islam" and "Christianity", many smaller sub-groups that worship with variation
from the others exist, and sometimes those variations come into conflict with each other.
Its surprising to know how much similarity and connection both these monotheistic
religions carry, some light would be thrown on these similarities:
Both Muslims and Christians recognize the Jesus. Both believe that Jesus was sinless and
born of the Virgin Mary. Both religions accept that Jesus preformed miracles and was
crucified and raised up to God. The difference is only in the belief where Muslims see Jesus
as a highly regarded prophet, while Christians take Him as God Himself.
Islam and Christianity are united on the concept of the doomsday. Both believe that existence
of this World is finite, but man does not know when the World will come to an end. Believers
who die will go to heaven and live forever, while Disbelievers will go to hell to be punished.
Prayer is an integral part of both the religions. Both religions facilitate the communication of
man with God through prayer. Prayer can be conducted at any time and special times also
exist to make sure man develops the habit to pray.
In both the Bible and The Quran, creation of the world and the man has been described alike.
Both religions enforce their followers to abide by the following moral codes:

Simple faith without its practical implementation is of no use.

Punishment for those who disrespect God and worship any other deity.

Prohibited from inhumane acts like murder, theft, lying, gambling and violence.

Parents and spouses are to be respected.

Adultery, fornication, Homosexuality and vulgarism are forbidden.


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Chapter 3____________________________________________________Clash between Islam and Christianity

Respect and observing society laws is important.

Intoxication and suicide are forbidden.

Both religions oppose same sex marriage.


The religion of Islam is based on one core belief, that there is no god worthy of worship

but Allah. The concept of a trinity inherent in most Christian denominations ostensibly
includes aspects of plurality. The belief that one God is somehow three divinities (father, son,
and holy spirit) contradicts the concept of Monotheism inherent in Islam, where the Oneness
of God is unquestionable. Some Christian groups, including those known as Unitarians
believe that God is One and cannot be God and human at the same time.
Community is extremely important to both Islam and Christianity. But when someone
chooses to leave the Christian community they are free to leave and free to return. But when
someone leaves the Islamic community by converting to another religion the Quran requires
that they be physically punished
2- Islamic doctrine and the birth of Islam-West conflict
Islam was founded by the Prophet Muhammad in the Arabian Peninsula during the last
23 years of his life (610632 CE). While founding Islam, he had directed 70100 raids and
wars. These wars were inspired, even directed, by verses of the Quran, the Islamic holy book,
which Muslims believe, contains Gods words in immutable forms for guiding humankind.
Allah outlines in the Quran a blueprint for establishing a religio-political imperial state
over the entire globe through Jihad. To inherit the earth, Allah commands, Muslims must kill
the Polytheists wherever they are found, and enslave their women and children for converting
to Islam, thereby capturing their lands for establishing Islamic rule. For acquiring the lands
controlled by monotheistic Jews and Christians, Muslims must fight them, Allah commands,
until they feel subdued and subjugated to Muslim rule and pay special taxes. Allahs desired
global triumph of Islam will, thus, be completed.
Having captured the Arabian Peninsula, Muhammad organized two campaigns against
the Christians of Muta and Tabuk in Syria, a part of Byzantium, the worlds most powerful
empire. The commands of Islamic God (Allah) contained in Quranic verses are binding on
Muslims for all time, whilst the Prophet Muhammads actions and deeds constitute ideal
templates for them to do likewise.
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In 628, Muhammad, still quite weak militarily, dared sending emissaries to the worlds
most powerful rulers, the King of Persia and Emperor Heraclius of Byzantium, demanding
that they submit to Islam, and accept Muhammad as their master, or face consequences.
Therefore, after Muhammads death, his successors continued the tempo of his
conquests. Within two decades, Muslims overran the worlds second-mightiest empire, Persia,
and captured the prized territory from Byzantium. Islamic depredations of Western Europe
began in 652, exactly two decades after Muhammads death when Muslims occupied Spain in
711 C.E, establishing Islamic rule lasting some 780 years. Europe sustained numerous
Muslim attacks until the last decade of the seventeenth century. Islamic campaigns against
Western Europe and the ensuing conflicts are discussed in following sections.
2-1- Conflicts in the Mediterranean Islands and Sicily (6521091)
The Mediterranean island of Sicily suffered the first Jihad raid involving pillage and
plunder in 652, which was repeated in 669, 703, 728, 729, 730, 731, 733, 734, 740 and 752.
Muslims also attacked other Mediterranean islands Sardinia, Ischia, Corsica and
Lampedusa, then under the Byzantine control. They devastated Ischia and Lampedusa in 813,
attacked Sardinia and Corsica in the same year and Crete in 824.
The early Muslim incursions (652752) on Sicily failed to gain a foothold for Islam.
The Islamic conquest of Sicily started in real earnest when an Aghlabid Muslim army from
Tunis landed in Mazara del Vallo in 827. This started a long series of battles: Palermo fell in
831, Pantelleria in 835, and Messina in 843. Cefal and Enna resisted Muslim assaults for
many years before being overrun, and razed to the ground in 858 and 859, respectively.
Syracuse succumbed to Muslim assaults in 878. Catania fell in 900 and Taormina in 902.
Sicily came under Muslim control completely in about 915. Palermo, renamed al-Madinah,
became the new Islamic capital of the Emirate of Sicily, and Arabic replaced Greek as the
national language. A Norman conquest of Muslim Sicily, started in 1061, led to eventual
expulsion of Muslims in 1091.1

A. G. Bostom, The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims, Prometheus Book, New York,
2005, p. 421-22.

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2-2- Spain and France


In 711, Musa ibn Nusair, the Muslim governor of North Africa and his General, Tariq,
crossed the Mediterranean Sea to attack Spain. The reigning Visigoth King Rodrigo was
defeated followed by mass slaughter and enslavement, plunder and pillage; the churches and
synagogues were destroyed, and often replaced by mosques. The whirlwind march of Muslim
conquest moved northward: Toledo, Barcelona, and Girona were easily captured. By 716,
most of Iberia, except a few northern tracts, was under the Muslim control.1
In 725, The Muslim army reached Autun in the Frankish territory. A 60,000 strong
Muslim army marched on penetrating deep into France, and defeated Duke Eudo at Aquitaine.
Muslims sacked Aquitaine, and burned down Bordeaux. They defeated Duke Eudo again near
Agen with Eudo fleeing northward. From Spain, Muslims continued, albeit unsuccessfully,
their incursions on the French borders for another two centuries.2
An indigenous Spanish revolt against Muslim occupiers, called Reconquista, began in
718 lasting nearly eight centuries, and the Muslim colonists were completely dislodged from
power in 1492.
2-3- Ottoman attacks on Europe form the Byzantine front
At the time of Islams birth, Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire) had bridged tracts of
Europe with West Asia and North Africa. Muslim invaders captured Jerusalem, Bethlehem,
Nazareth, Tiberias, Cana, Tyre, Sidon, Damascus, Caesarea and Egypt from Byzantium quite
early in bloody battles. They made naval attacks on Constantinople, the Byzantine capital,
first in 674, then in 67778 and 71718, suffering severe reverses in each case.
The biggest Muslim blow to Byzantium came in 1071 when Sultan Alp Arslan defeated
the Byzantine army at Manzikert (Armenia) bringing the Muslim army ominously close for a
land-attack on Constantinople. In the 1360s, Islamic invaders seized Adrianople (now
Edirne) and Philippopolis (Plovdiv). Adrianople became a royal residence in 1366 to facilitate
the Ottoman conquest of Europe.

S. OShea, Sea of Faith: Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World, Walker & Company, New York,
2006, p. 66-69.
2
P. K. Hitti, The Near East in History: A 5000 Year Story, D. Van Nostrand Company, New York, 1961, p. 308.

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In 1389, Ottoman troops under the commands of sultan Murad defeated a SerbianBulgarian coalition army at the battlefield of Kosovo Polje. Murad quickly advanced into
Bulgaria, and captured the cities of Drma, Kavla and Seres (Serri), but the Sultan was
killed by valiant Serb warrior, Milo Obilic. Having lost the capital Kosovo, the Jerusalem of
the Serbian Empire, the Balkan was lost to the Muslim invaders.
In 1441, the Holy Roman Empire, Poland and Albania made an alliance, and inflicted a
number of humiliating defeats on the Ottomans in 144344. The Ottomans soon recovered,
and defeated the Hungarians in the second battle of Kosovo in 1448; they went on to invade
Serbia, and attack Central Albania. In 1450, they attacked Albania again.
Under the next Sultan, Mehmed II (r. 145181) known as Fatih, the Conqueror
the Ottomans inflicted the final blow on Constantinople. After a three-month siege, it was
overrun on May 29, 1453. With Constantinople fallen, Ottoman assaults on Europe gained a
new momentum. They attacked Serbia in 1454, Novi Brod and Krusevac [Alacahisar] in
1455, while Moldavia agreed to pay tributes. In 1456, the Ottomans attacked Belgrade, and
defeated Serbia in 1459. In 1460, they captured the Duchy of Athens and much of the Morea,
while they captured the last Byzantine state of Trebizond (Trabzon) in 1461, and conquered
the Genoese holdings in the Aegean Sea. In 1463, they annexed Bosnia, conquered
Herzegovina in 1465 while the Crimean Khanates were reduced to Ottoman suzerainty in
1475.
Starting in mid-18th century, Britain, Holland, France and Italy (Portugal and Spain to
lesser extents) eventually captured most of the Islamic lands by the early 20th century. Russia
took large parts of Central Asian regions, while China, Burma and Thailand also captured
lands, previously conquered by Muslims, only Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, of little
economic or strategic importance, plus Iran and the Ottoman Turkey, remained outside the
European control. When European powers eventually withdrew from their formerly Muslimruled colonies, countries dominated by Muslims came under Muslim control. Elsewhere they
lost political powers to non-Muslim indigenous majorities (i.e. India) often through
democratic processes.

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Chapter 3____________________________________________________Clash between Islam and Christianity

2-4- Crusades: European counterattack against Jihad


The Crusades (10961291), launched by Christian Europe to take control of Jerusalem,
the birth place of Jesus Christ and the Christian Holy Land, is the most condemned chapter in
the collective European history. The Crusades, the Christian Holy War, were in reality a
counterattack against Islamic Holy War (Jihad), waged aggressively some 470 years earlier.
Prophet Muhammad had himself sent an expedition against the Christians of Muta in
Syria, while he himself led another holy war expedition against the Byzantine border in Syria,
bringing a number of small Christian principalities under the Muslim control. On his deathbed (632), he had instructed his followers to expel the Jews and Christians from Arabia,
which was completed by 644. Two years after his death, Muslims captured Palestine in 634,
and Jerusalem in 638 from Byzantine control.
In 1076, the Seljuk Turks captured Jerusalem from the Fatimid rulers of Egypt, the
persecuted Christians of Jerusalem could now appeal only to Europe for their protection.
These factors were converging together when the Normans, blessed by the Pope, had just
evicted Muslims from Sicily (1191). Pope Urban II took up the cause of freeing the Holy
Land from Muslims.1
In 1095, he delivered an unprecedented, emotive and high-pitched, speech in Southern
France for freeing Jerusalem, reciting tales of Moslem atrocity and distributed crosses,
also desirous of uniting the Eastern and Western Churches, Pope Urban urged the bickering
Christian rulers of Europe to unite on a Truce of God.2 There began the infamous Crusades,
the harrowing battles between Cross and the Crescent, between the Christian West and the
Islamic East, a clash between two inimical civilizations.
In the first campaign, three great Crusader contingents, marching separately from
France, converged on a Constantinople rendezvous before marching forward. They went on to
restore some territories to Byzantine suzerainty, and also established four Latin kingdoms in
West Asia: Edessa in Armenia (1098) then, Antioch, the cradle of the first organized church

1
2

B. Walker, Foundations of Islam: The Making of a World Faith, Rupa & Co, New Delhi, 1998, p. 243.
P. K. Hitti, The Near East in History: A 5000 Year Story, D. Van Nostrand Company, New York, 1961, p. 308.

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(1098) and Jerusalem, incorporating territories from Beirut to the Red Sea (1099), and finally
Tripoli (1109). These were the first and the last acquisitions by the Crusaders.1
Thereafter, Muslim power improved, while disunity amongst the Crusader Kingdoms
weakened their position. The first Muslim counterattack against the Crusaders fell upon
Edessa in 1144. In 1187, the famed Sultan Saladin inflicted the decisive blow upon the
Crusaders. Having destroyed the main Crusader army in the battle of Hattin, two days
journey from Jerusalem, Saladin marched on and captured Jerusalem, where all Crusaders
were put to death, and the Christian population was captives, and sold into slavery. This loss
of the Holy Land shocked Europe, rousing a renewed Crusading zeal. A series of new
Crusades were undertaken in 118992, 120204, 1212 and 121721, and a few more
thereafter, but all failed.
The Crusaders, especially in their first campaign, also committed unspeakable cruelties
against Jewish communities that they came across along their journey. They killed nearly
10,000 Jews during the first six months alone.
3- Modern face of Islamic-western conflict
3-1- Colonial era
The Crusades, although failed, held back Muslim incursions into Europe for more than
two centuries. Having driven out the Crusaders, the Ottoman Turks renewed their religioimperial expansion into Europe; and they were poised to overrun Western Europe in the
sixteenth century. Meanwhile, Renaissance had begun in Europe bringing new vitality and
excellence in science and technology. When the Ottomans were repulsed from Vienna in
1683, Europes military supremacy over her age-old dreaded eastern enemy had been
decidedly established. Muslims were gradually driven out of Western Europe, while Russia
rolled them back from Central Asia.
The subsequent industrial revolution in Europe, and the discovery and mastery of searoutes, brought European merchants to the Muslim world, beginning in early sixteenth
century. This commercial interest later turned into imperial ambition. The British East India
Company, which had come to India as merchants in 1600, ousted the Muslim governor of
Bengal in 1757, and obtained the tax-collecting authority in 1765. It eventually took political
1

P. K. Hitti, The Near East in History: A 5000 Year Story, D. Van Nostrand Company, New York, 1961, p. 310-312.

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Chapter 3____________________________________________________Clash between Islam and Christianity

control of most of India by 1850. The Portuguese had similarly ousted Muslim rulers from the
Malay Peninsula in 1511, later replaced by the Dutch and British. The Spaniards stopped the
advancing Muslims in Southern Philippines in 1565. France, Britain and Italy captured
Muslim-ruled lands in Africa. In the course of the First World War, Britain and France
occupied the Turkish lands, namely Syria and Palestine, while the Balkan territories gained
independence in 1910s1.
When Western imperialists namely Britain, France, Holland and Italy extended
their colonial rule, there was much change in Europe: following the Enlightenment,
secularism had taken hold, replacing theocracy in political systems. Those colonists tried to
secularize the Islamic polity in occupied Muslim lands, which often had large non-Muslim
populations groaning under the yoke of cruel Islamic laws.
As a result, Jihad, which had inspired Muslims to undertake conquests to most parts of
the known world, again became handy for them to inspire the Muslim masses to drive out the
European colonists. While European powers found it relatively easy to deal with their nonMuslim subjects, Muslims waged the dreaded Jihad against colonial rulers causing serious
problems for them.
There was an Armed Muslim resistance against colonial Western powers, namely the
revolts of Dipa Negara (182530) and Atjeh-war (18731904) in Indonesia, the Mahdist
movement against the British and Italians in Somalia (18991920), the nineteenth-century
Islamic resistance against the British in India (including the Sepoy Mutiny, 1857), the
Algerian resistance against the French, the nineteenth-century Urabi resistance against the
British in Egypt, the Sanusi resistance in Libya against the Italians, the Mahdist resistance led
by Muhammad Ahmad (d. 1885) in the Sudan, the Ottoman Jihad declarations against the
Western powers (1914), the Muslim resistance to British colonialism in Palestine2.
3-2- Conflict in 21st Century
Since September 11, under the pretext of the war on terror, the West has undertaken a
host of measures specifically aimed at Muslims living in the West. These measures include
arbitrary arrests, physical torture, imprisonment without trial, surveillance of mosques,

B. Lewis, Islam and the West, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993, p. 39.
R. Peters, Islam and Colonialism: The Doctrine of Jihad in Modern History, Mouton Publishers, The Hague, 1979, p. 39104.
2

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Chapter 3____________________________________________________Clash between Islam and Christianity

muzzling of Imams, and deaths in police custody. Some have even been forced to become
spies. Muslims have also witnessed the endless vilification of Islam by the western media.
The inclusion of pre-emptive strikes and a loose definition on terrorism will enable
western powers to legally justify punitive actions against Muslim countries that pose a threat
to their interests. The threat does not have to be real, only perceived. This will preserve the
Wests domination over Muslims lands within the ambit of international law.
On the international scene the West was quick to sacrifice freedom of religion in
preference for forging alliances with despotic regimes across the Muslim world, the regimes
that habitually torture, imprison and kill Muslims for expressing their Islamic beliefs became
the vanguard for the Wests crusade against Islam.
Western governments use religious freedom or freedom of expression to pry open
societies closed to western values or totally ignore freedom when it does not concur with their
interests. In the case of Karimovs massacre of Muslims in Andijoni1, the West has chosen to
dilute its response, as the protesters were avid practitioners of Islam and no democracy. Such
hypocrisy only serves to underscore the perception amongst Muslims that America and
Europe are solely interested in the utter destruction of Islamic values and practices.
Recently, the Vatican is somehow divided on how to tackle Islam. Some cardinals are in
the favor of reaching out to moderate Muslims and tapering the Vaticans attitudes towards
Islam, other cardinals prefer a much tougher stance towards Islam.
The real challenges posed by Islam are miniscule in comparison to the influence of
secularism on the worlds billion or so Catholics. A far greater threat is the secularization of
Catholics in Europe, which is significantly higher than any other continent. Only 21
percent of Europeans say that religion is "very important" to them, according to the
European Values Study, conducted in 1999 and 2000 and published in 2008.
Catholicism as well as other Christian faiths has suffered immensely under the
patronage of secular western states, particularly European states. Retreating behind the
veil of freedom of speech , and freedom of religion , secularists have relentlessly
abused Catholicism and forced the Roman Church to adapt its views and practices.

Slaughter signals end of Karimov regime, The Guardian, Wednesday, 18 May 2005.

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Chapter 3____________________________________________________Clash between Islam and Christianity

Today, Catholic teachings and truths are scarcely recognizable and face imminent
extinction, unless the Vatican takes a firm stand against the secular powers.
Islam is the sole ideology in the world that is able to counter secularism and offer
genuine protection to people belonging to different faiths. Islam is able to achieve this, in the
past, when Islam was implemented practically, as in Islamic Spain, Jews, Christians and
Muslims living in the Spanish cities of Toledo, Cordoba and Granada, enjoyed unrivalled
tolerance and prosperity.
In fall 2007, a longer statement of Muslim leaders was addressed to Christian leaders
East and West, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Evangelical, entitled A Common
Word between Us and You. In the long history of Muslim-Christian relations, it is
unprecedented that a group of Muslim thinkers from different parts of the world and differing
views should collaborate on a positive overture to Christians.
The kinship between Christianity and Islam is deeper than the centuries of conflict
would lead one to think. To mention only one example: the collaboration of Christians and
Muslims in the ninth and tenth centuries in the translation and interpretation of philosophical
works from Greek antiquity into Arabic and their transmission to the West in translations
from Arabic into Latin in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Indeed, the Islam, like
Christianity, is grounded in the revelation of a transcendent God, a free creator, Muslim
thinkers addressed a series of philosophical and theological topics, God and the world,
creation out of nothing, the freedom of God, faith and reason, that Christian thinkers would
also take up.
Old European fables of Muslims spreading Islam by the sword are reinvented to convey
the impression that Muslims are extremely dangerous, highly irresponsible and pay scant
regard to human life. Hence the mantra of disarming Muslim countries of weapons of mass
destruction has become the rallying cry of the West directed against the Muslim world. In
some cases the arguments are extended to justify the Wests ongoing policy of regime change
in Syria, Iran and perhaps Pakistan. However, a close study of Islamic rule in the past
contradicts the popular western myth that Muslims are blood thirsty people anxious to wipe
out the rest of mankind in the name of Islam.

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Chapter 3____________________________________________________Clash between Islam and Christianity

Today the world has more to fear from the destructive nature of western values
than Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). In the past these values were enforced upon
nations either through direct colonial rule or through tyrannical regimes loyal to the West.
Presently, the greatest danger facing mankind is the constant threat of the West
imposing its values on the rest of the world through WMD.

39

Conclusion
Throughout the historys entirety, there was a constant disagreement between the west
and the Muslim world and in recent years, it has been much clear that the clash has taken
another form which is the religious one. It can be argued that the relationship between the
west and Islam has been marked by a constant turbulence and euphoria since early time which
has been culminated in the 9/11 events.
The disturbing events of September 2001 have intensified the western confrontation
with Islam. This struggle is not a clash of civilizations as misunderstood by some; rather it is a
war of religions and the Muslim world is the foremost of battlegrounds. Western powers are
waging this brutal war with all of their might and wealth to ensure the survival of
their political, economic, cultural and military domination of the Muslim world. Hence, what
is thought to be a clash of civilizations is a deceptive western play game to hide their real
motives in order to exert their power over the Muslim world.
The Western world has perpetuated an artificial lie against their Muslim counterpart,
in an attempt to execute Islam totally from their democratic world. This often takes the form
of the war against the supposed Terrorism that is thought to be embraced by the Muslim
world in favor for the adaption of the democratic and the liberal ideals.
Finally, it should be kept in mind that the relationship between Islam and the West
has a long and perhaps cyclical history. The crisis within the Muslim world today might be
said to mirror the situation of the West during the middle Ages, when the Muslim empire was
the center of knowledge and civilization. Perhaps the Muslim world today, by examining its
situation through the lens of modernity, will embark on a contemporary Islamic renaissance
and new phase of the history of the Islamic-Western encounter.

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