When Islam Meets West

After attending two back-to-back "international dialogues of civilizations," one in Doha, Qatar (Jan. 9-12) organized by Brookings Institution and the Emir of Qatar, and another at UNESCO in Paris (Jan. 17-19) hosted by UNESCO, Euro Mediterranean, and President Jacques Chirac, I cannot help but reflect on the promise and the politics of dialogues.

In response to Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington's now infamous argument predicting a future full of clashes between civilizations, the world's liberals responded with a call for a civilizational dialogue. After 9/11, this call for a dialogue between Islam and the West has become even more urgent. The philosophical assumptions behind these dialogues are not too difficult to discern. Islam and the modern West share a common Abrahamic tradition and their foundational sources; Islamic law and philosophy and Western enlightenment philosophy have common roots--Hellenistic reason and Biblical revelation. The two civilizations have a common past and a common future, particularly in the light of strong economic relations between the West and the Muslim world and the growing presence of Islam in nearly every Western society.

Because the future of the two civilizations is inseparable, any clash will be devastating to both, regardless of the asymmetry of power. A clash between Islam and the modern West would be like a collision between the present and the future for both. Islam is integral to the future of the West and Islamic civilization's reticence toward modernity is untenable. Eventually, the Muslim world will have to modernize, democratize, and recognize that its future, too, is interdependent. Neither the West nor the Muslim world can imagine a mutually exclusive future.

Clearly, the long-term benefits of cooperation and co-existence are apparent to all except those who are quite obtuse and whose reason and good will is blunted either by their hatred for the other or by the intoxication that comes from power. For them, the clash is not only inevitable but also desirable, as they seek a future for the one without the other. Dialogues between the two civilizations help convince the undecided on both sides that there is hope and conflict is not inevitable.

In the dialogue itself, one can convince the other that not all interests are sacred and not all positions are etched in stone. With a little more understanding, patience, and a willingness to recognize the legitimate concerns of the other, along with some compromise and much restraint, dialogues can bridge even the widest of divides. For those who believe in the common humanity of all and dream of a world where all can live in dignity and security, dialogues are necessary and the only means to resolve disagreements and disputes.

Needless to say, I went to both international forums with hope, excitement, and anticipation. But I discovered that the promise of a dialogue can be so easily compromised, even subverted by the politics that underpin these dialogues or by those political entrepreneurs who seek to exploit them to score political points at the expense of advancing understanding.

Bashing the U.S. and Islam

The forum in Paris was entitled "The Clash of Civilizations Will Not Happen." Both President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin argued that the clash of civilizations must not be allowed to happen. They expressed fear that the growth of terrorism and the undermining of multilateralism in the world was threatening peace and enhancing the prospects of a clash. The forum was apparently designed to underscore the common traditions between Islam and the West, but it actually ended up as a forum that rejected Islamic resurgence in the Muslim world and America as a neocolonial power.