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2.5 Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun's Understanding of Civilizations And Ibn Khaldun's Understanding of Civilizations and the Dilemmas of Islam and the West Today Author(s): Akbar Ahmed Source: Middle East Journal, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Winter, 2002), pp. 20-45 Published by: Middle East Institute Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4329719 Accessed: 07/02/2009 09:34 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mei. 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Middle East Institute is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Middle East Journal. http://www.jstor.org Ibn Khaldun'sUnderstanding of Civilizationsand the Dilemmasof Islamand the WestToday AkbarAhmed In the wakeof the September11 attacks,new attentionis beingpaid to bothsides of the debateover the competingideas of a "clashof civilizations"and thatof a "dialogueof civilizations;" in thisarticle, Ibn Khaldun's analysis of civilizations is examinedin the contextof the dilemmasfaced by Islam and the Westtoday. ISLAMVERSUS THE WEST? L the centuryjust begun, how we organizeour lives, view our own culturesand interactwith otherswill be shapedby the outcomeof a strugglebetween two diametri- cally opposedideas. These ideas are furtherseparated, and the differencesbetween themsharpened, by the processwhich has come to be calledglobalization.' The firstof AkbarS. Ahmedis the Ibn KhaldunChair of Islamic Studiesand Professorof InternationalRelations, The AmericanUniversity, Washington DC. He has held senioradministrative positions in Pakistan,and was the PakistanHigh Commissioner(Ambassador) to the UK, and is authorof Islam Today:A Short Introductionto the MuslimWorld, (London: I.B. Tauris,1999). He is the authorof many otherbooks and articles,and a frequentcommentator on Islamicaffairs in the media.The authoris deeply indebtedto the followingfor theircomments: Professors Osman Bakar, John Esposito, Louis Goodman, Benjamin Ladner, NanetteLevinson, James Mittelman,Joseph Montville, Sulayman Nyang, M. K. Pasha,Howard Reed, JohnRichardson, Lawrence Rosen, Chris Rojek, Abdul Aziz Said, andTamara Sonn; Ejaz Akram, Bishop Michael Nazir Ali, Arlene Fullerton,Azmat Hassan,Katherine Marshall, Mowahid Shah, and Meena Sharify-Funk.In particular,the authorwould like to expresshis gratitudeto DeanLouis Goodman, School of InternationalService, American University, Washington DC, for his commitmentto the Ibn Khaldun Chair.The authorhas been workingon themesin this articlefor severalyears for a forthcomingbook. The articleis based on his inaugurallecture as holderof the Ibn KhaldunChair. 1. For differentperspectives on globalizationsee the work of Akbar S. Ahmed, Postmodernism and Islam: Predicamentand Promise (London:Routledge, 1992); ZygmuntBauman, Globalization: The Human Consequences(Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998); Ralph Braibanti,"Islam and the West: Common Cause or Clash?"(Washington, DC: GeorgetownUniversity, Occasional Paper Series, The Center for Muslim-ChristianUnderstanding, 1999); RichardFalk, Predatory Globalization:A Cri- tique (Cambridge:Polity Press, 1999); Alija Ali Izetbegovic, Islam between East and West(India- napolis, IN: AmericanTrust Publications, 1993); MuhammadKhatami, "Dialogue of Civilizations" (New York:United Nations GeneralAssembly, September24, 1998); John Micklethwaitand Adrian Wooldridge,A FuturePerfect: The Challengeand HiddenPromise of Globalization(New York:Times Books, 2000); M. PatriciaMische and Melissa Merkling(eds.), Towardsa Global Civilization?The Contributionof Religions (New York:Peter Lang Publishing,Inc., 2001). Lewis approachesthe same subject from a historical perspective: BernardLewis, The Multiple Identities of the Middle East, Continuedon Next Page MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL * VOLUME 56, NO. 1 WINTER 2002 MIDDLEEAST JOURNAL * 21 these opposed ideas is the so-called "Clashof Civilizations"in which Muslims are invariablyseen as the mainopponents of the West.This Muslim-Westernopposition is not a new idea2and is, in fact, a continuationof olderideas aboutIslam as a predatory civilizationthreatening the West.3 The second and opposedidea is the "Dialogueof Civilizations,"introduced by PresidentMuhammad Khatami of Iranin the United Nations4and supportedby UN SecretaryGeneral Kofi Annan. President Khatami's statement made a dramaticimpact becausehis countryis associatedin Westernminds with "terrorism"and "extremism" Continuedfrom Previous Page (New York:Schocken Books, 1998); Friedmanfrom thatof a journalist:Thomas Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: UnderstandingGlobalization, (New York: Farrar,Straus and Giroux, 2000); Mittelmanthat of a political economist:James Mittelman,The GlobalizationSyndrome: Transforma- tion and Resistance, (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 2000); Giddens from that of a sociolo- gist:Anthony Giddens, Runaway World: How Globalizationis reshapingour lives, (London:Routledge, 2000); and Kottakthat of an anthropologist:Conrad Phillip Kottak,Cultural Anthropology, (Univer- sity of Michigan and New York: McGraw-Hill,Higher Education,2000). For a more apocalyptic interpretationsee Grace Halsell, Prophecyand Politics: MilitantEvangelists on the Road to Nuclear War(Westport, Connecticut: Lawrence Hill and Co., 1986) and GraceHalsell, ForcingGod's Hand - WhyMillions Prayfor a QuickRapture - and destructionof Planet Earth (Washington,DC: Cross- roads Int. Publishing, 1999); Mary Kaldor,New and Old Wars:Organized violence in a Global era (Cambridge:Polity Press, 1999); RobertKaplan, The End of the Earth: From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia,a Journeyto the Frontiersof Anarchy,(New York:Vintage Books, 1997). 2. The idea is containedin the simplistic division of the world into dar al-Islam - the land of Islam - and dar al-harb- the land of war.The conceptcan be tracedto the origins of Islam.After the Prophet'smigration to Medina, the town was declared dar al-Islam while Mecca, from where he fled, remaineddar-al-harb. Ira G. ZeppJr., A MuslimPrimer: Beginner's Guide to Islam,(Westminster, Maryland:Wakefield Editions, 1992 ), p.30. Also see AbdulHamidAbuSulayman, Towards an Is- lamic Theoryof InternationalRelations: New Directionsfor Methodologyand Thought,(Herndon, Virginia:International Institute for Islamic Thought, 1993); and Abdulaziz Sachedina,The Islamic Roots of DemocraticPluralism, (Oxford:Oxford University Press, 2001). 3. ProfessorRichard Falk points out: "To a large extent, this humanrights discourseis unavoid- ably perceived,with varyingdegrees of justificationand opportunism,as taintedby false universalism and is an expression of Westernhegemony, one featureof which has been, and continuesto be, the suppressionof civilizationalidentity and difference- particularlyIslam, which has historicallybeen perceivedas a threatby the West."Richard Falk, HumanRights Horizons: the Pursuitof Justice in a GlobalizingWorld, (New Yorkand London:Routledge, 2000), pp. 150; Also see BenjaminR. Barber, Jihad vs. McWorld,(New York:Times Books, 1995); JohnL. Esposito, TheIslamic Threat:Myth or a Reality? (New York:Oxford UniversityPress, 1992); Fred Halliday,Islam and the Mythof Confron- tation, (London:I.B. Tauris,1996); GrahamE. Fuller and Ian 0. Lesser,A Sense of Siege, (Boulder, CO: Westview/RAND, 1995); Izetbegovic,Islam betweenEast and West. 4. PresidentMuhammad Khatami of Iran,in his text to the United Nations GeneralAssembly in New York on the 24th of September 1998, strongly and clearly advocateda "Dialogue of Civiliza- tions" (MuhammadKhatami, "Dialogue of Civilizations";see especially pages 12 and 13). The two doves on the text of the statementsymbolized its content.For a detaileddiscussion of the concept see Dialogue of Civilization:An IntroductoryCivilizational Analysis by VictorSegesvary (Lanham, Mary- land: United Press of America, 2000); also see GiandomenicoPicco, "A Dialogue Among Civiliza- tions," in SetonHall Journalof Diplomacyand InternationalRelations ,Vol. 2, No. 1 (Winter/Spring, 2001), pp. 5-10. 22 * MIDDLEEAST JOURNAL althoughthis idea too is not entirelynew. Worldfigures like Pope John Paul II,' the Archbishopof Canterbury,George Carey, Nelson Mandelaof SouthAfrica, Prince Charlesof GreatBritain, and Bishop Desmond Tutu of SouthAfrica, on one level, and manyothers,6 on anotherlevel, havebeen involvedin theirown ways in preciselythis kindof dialoguefor manyyears. Forpeople of good will or faiththe idea of dialogue lies at the heartof the humancondition and the need to reachout. The idea of dialogue was strucka deadly blow in Americaon September11, 2001, whenthe fourhijacked planes killed thousands of innocentpeople anddestroyed
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