Future of Islam and the West: Clash of Civilizations or Peaceful Coexistence?, The

Hunter, Shireen T. The Future of Islam and the West: Clash of Civilizations or Peaceful Coexistence? Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1998. 197 pp.

Samuel Huntington proposed a new paradigm for the post-Cold War era in his iconoclastic essay, "The Clash of Civilizations?" published in Foreign Affairs (1993). In a subsequent book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order (1996), he is more assertive about his analytical framework. In contrast, John Esposito stresses "civilizational dialogue." While Fred Halliday's Islam and the Myth of Confrontation (1995) provides an indirect critique from Europe, Shireen Hunter's The Future of Islam and the West directly confronts Huntington's "civilizational clash" thesis from the other side of the Atlantic.

Hunter identifies two "paradigmatic theories" in the post-Cold War period: Francis Fukuyama's the "end of history" and Samuel Huntington's the "clash of civilizations." The author argues that Huntington's thesis itself refutes Fukuyama's proposition. Having dismissed Fukuyama, Hunter adds that in examining clash between civilizations, Huntington ignores clashes within a particular civilization. The latter scenario undermines the monolithic Islam assumption in Huntington's thesis. Using an historical and empirical methodology, Hunter develops argument against a monolithic Islam throughout the book. Rejecting the dichotomy between culture and religion, furthermore, the author holds that religion itself is akin to an idealogy. That allows her to assert that asymmetrical power relationship is the basic reason for contention between Islam and the West.

As for the intertwining of religion and politics in Islam, in Chapter 1 Hunter argues that the historical experience of Muslim societies bears resemblance to Christian and Jewish polities. Religion was invoked to serve the interest of the monarchies, and that influenced the development of various legal schools in Islam.

In examining the anti-Western orientation of Islamic resurgence in Chapter 2, the author notes that their prism of cultural determinism makes neo-- Orientalists see the inevitability of Islamic-Western clash. In contrast, a neo-- Third Worldist perspective paints a more flexible picture, she adds. Hunter illustrates this point by taking the reader through a meandering journey of Islamic rejuvenation. Distinguishing between the constant (spiritual essence) and variable (mundane manifestations) in Islam, she is careful to note that coexistence between Islam and the West is possible if anti-Westernism is related to asymmetrical power relationship, "including certain western policies."

Differentiating between Islamic and Muslim states, John Esposito (1992) left unexplained the gulf in Western policies toward these two types of countries. Hunter's interesting case studies of Iran and Saudi Arabia, in Chapter 3, fills that void. In analyzing these countries, she demonstrates the weakness in the neo-Orientalist assumption of a monolithic Islam. Interestingly, the author answers her own question, raised in the subtitle of the book, in the concluding chapter: for Islam and the West, the future holds a relationship of dynamic coexistence that includes both conflict and cooperation.

The detailed analysis of Islamic movement, however, is not related to the central issue of Islamic-Western relations till the very end of the chapter. Thus, for much of the chapter, the reader feels that it is disjointed from the framework of the book. Furthermore, it is not clear that Hunter is reading Huntington accurately when she asserts that religion is "the defining element" of a civilization for Huntington (p. 5). The author herself notes that instead of the Catholic civilization, Huntington refers to the Latin American civilization. Also, she is aware that Huntington separates the Slavic-Orthodox civilization from the Western civilization. One can add that Huntington uses metaphors such as the "Velvet Curtain of Culture" and "cultural fault lines:' It is because of his emphasis on democratic versus authoritarian culture, rather than religion, that Huntington's fault line runs through Europe, separating Catholic and Protestant Christianity from Orthodox Christianity. Despite Hunter's references to interest defined in terms of power (pp. 70, 121, 155), in addition, it is puzzling that she identifies Hans Morgenthau with the "so-called realist school" (p. 22, emphasis added).

Nevertheless, The Future of Islam and the West is a fascinating countervailing study of Huntington's "civilizational clash" thesis. Lucidly written and rich in details, the book makes an interesting reading. Students of political science and religion, particularly those with an interest in political Islam, should not pass an opportunity to read this invaluable addition to the debate on Islamic-- Western relations.

Rolin Mainuddin North Carolina Central University

Copyright Association of Third World Studies, Inc. Spring 2000
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