'Us versus Them', and Beyond
Subtitle: An Oriental-Islamic Rejoinder to the Clash of Civilizations Theory
Publisher: The Other Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 229
ISBN-13: 9789839541717
Description: Trying to make sense of the whole debate surrounding Samuel Huntington's controversial thesis, Maryam Sakeenah gives a background to the theory and the historical forces behind its development, discussing the various critique and responses to Huntington's theory. She writes that while it has become a convenient discourse on both the Western and non-Western worlds, the Clash theory serves to encourage the ?us versus them' rhetoric to increase hostilities and militant tendencies. In the end, the elites of the two powerful opposing structures today?the West's military-industrial complex and Al Qaeda's militancy, are the ones who stand to gain by presenting real-world socio-political dynamics as a simplified clash between opposing cultures.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: 1 Backdrop and Context of the Theory of the Clash of Civilizations; title: 2 The Orientalist Legacy in Huntington; title: 3 ‘The West versus the Rest’—Creating and Perpetuating Schisms; title: 4 Impact on Policy and Rhetoric of the ‘War on Terror’; title: 5 Rejoinders: Perspectives from the non-West; title: 6 The Fraternity of Civilizations: Prospects for Dialogue and Reconciliation; title: 7 Conclusion; title: References; title: Appendix A; title: Appendix B; title: Index