SECRETARY-GENERAL QUESTIONS EXISTENCE OF ‘CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS’
IN REMARKS AT ‘ISLAM AND THE WEST’ LECTURE
Following are the introductory remarks by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the lecture on “Islam and the West” by Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr delivered today in New York:
This afternoon, I am really honoured that Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr has accepted my invitation to give this lecture.
He is a great Islamic scholar who has lived and taught for many years in the West.
That very fact illustrates a problem about the title of his lecture -– which, I must admit, was suggested by me and not by him.
When we talk about “Islam and the West”, it sounds as if these were two opposites.� Yet Islam is a universal religion, with adherents in almost every part of the world, whereas “the West” is a geographical, or perhaps geo-political expression.
It’s true that historically, Islam began in the Middle East –- as, of course, did Judaism and Christianity -– and for many centuries Muslims were concentrated in a certain part of the world –- a very large one, stretching from West Africa to South-East Asia, and from the Volga to Zanzibar.
It’s also true that Muslim States and Christian States competed with each other –- sometimes in war, but also peacefully, in science and philosophy and art.� The West as we know it today is the product of many Islamic influences –- and it has many Muslim inhabitants.� Professor Hossein Nasr is one of the most outstanding examples, but there are millions of others.
Unfortunately, in spite of that, there are many misunderstandings about Islam among non-Muslim westerners –- and also much resentment of the West among people in Muslim countries.
All this has been thrown into sharper relief by the tragic events of September 11, 2001.� Those events, and the reactions to them, have raised the spectre of a “clash of civilizations”.
Personally I don’t believe in such a clash, because I don’t believe that there are distinct and separate “civilizations” in the world today.� I think we all live in one world, and that in every country there are many different
