By Douglas Todd: The now famous phrase of Samuel Huntington – “a clash of civilizations” – has been turned upside down by a Vancouver Ismaili Muslim.
The phrase was originally coined to describe inevitable and rising conflict between Muslim cultures and the West.
In the public’s mind, the “clash of civilizations” theory posits on one side: Enlightened, democratic Judeo-Christian-based North America and Europe.
On the other side is the anti-democratic, medieval, autocratic Muslim-majority Arab Middle East (Huntingdon failed to look far beyond the Arab world, to give recognition to the much larger Muslim populations in South Asia, Africa and Indonesia.)
But I like the way that Ali Lakhani, a prominent Vancouver lawyer, took apart the concept in a recent interview (for a different article, which will appear in a few weeks).
“It’s not a clash of civilizations. It’s a clash of ignorance,” said Lakhani, an Ismaili Muslim and publisher of the scholarly journal, Sacred Web (which has been praised by Karen Armstrong, Huston Smith and Prince Charles).
More: “Not a clash of civilizations. A clash of ignorance.” | Vancouver Sun.
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