Abstract
The fall of Berlin Wall on 9Th November, 1989 was an important mile stone of the last decade of 20th century. It not only changed the history of East and West Germany but started a new phase of human history. The world welcomed this reunion with a sigh of relief and hoped to enter into the new millennium with the message of peace and harmony. But the publication of an article ‘The Clash of Civilizations’ in summer of 1993 in the Foreign Affairs magazine by Samuel P. Huntington, set new alarm bells ringing. In this article he expressed the opinion that the future of world politics would be dominated by conflicts between civilizations. The publication of the article generated an intense debate and according to the editor of that distinguished journal, seldom had so much interest been taken in an article since George Kennan’s article of containment in 1940s. It was put to severe intellectual trial, both for and against, around the world .If the debate had only confined to an intellectual discourse, it would not have stirred that much interest but the world actually started heading towards a new phase of tension in the name of war against terror. Now the world is gripped by this new phase of world wide confrontation. Is clash of civilization a myth or reality? Did it start at the end of Cold War or simply resurfaced, or did it start with the creation of Adam and the concomitant emergence of Satan? What is the position of Islam vis-à-vis the theory of ‘Clash of Civilizations’? All these questions are just mind boggling and needs to be explored thoroughly. This paper tries to present an Islamic critique and appraisal of Samuel Huntington theory.
Inayatullah Khan, . (2008) Clash of Civilizations, The Dialogue, Volume 3, Issue 4.
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