Newly released: Islam and the West: [From the ideology of clash to the dialectic of conflict] الإسلام و الغرب: من ايديولوجيا الصدام الى جدلية النزاع

Islam and the West: ideology debate and conflict?

The book of Jocelyne Dakhlia, a researcher specialized in the history of relation between Islam and Europe within the Mediterranean area, is an answer to polemic and essential discourses that swept through media and academic fields in Europe, since the terrorist attacks on September 11th,2001 in New York, which has ignited the clash of civilizations, cultures and religions. This book uses a rich methodology of humanities and social sciences to associate the cultural, religious and civilizational facts their historical dimensions, and to provide an in-depth analysis of the factors that contributed to destabilize the French and Western elites in general, with Islam and its aim to transform it from a religion like others to a frightening one.

The author dissects the essential unit of religion and highlights the internal pluralism of both Islam and Europe. Besides, she clarifies how the identity of each of them was historically formed in a continuous and close interaction throughout history. Then, she thinks that the relations between Europe and Muslim societies may get rid of the logic of clash for the sake of a logic of rational political management of conflicts.