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Clash over `clash of civilisations'

AL AIN - By labelling the whole current international scene as a mere conflict between civilisations in his book titled The Clash of Civilizations and Remaking of the World Order, the American philosopher Samuel Huntington has simplified the situation and ignored the various identities within each civilisation, said Professor Malory Nye, of the Scotland-based Al Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, during a lecture on `Clash of civilisations' organised on Tuesday by the Social Club of the UAE University.

"Huntington has not specified whether this clash is between the world's various civilisations or between Islam and the West in particular." The American thinker has also simplified the situation by saying that the motives behind this conflict are, "Cultural reasons not primarily economic or ideological and it will be the bottom line for future conflicts".

Huntington added: "The world will be shaped in large by seven or eight civilisations, the Western, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slovac-Orthodox, Latin American and possibly African." he said.

Professor Nye pointed out, "The problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism, it is Islam", i.e. the lack of understanding of the real values of Islam and its various interpretations.