The prime minister of Malaysia sees a chasm opening between Islam and the West. At the same time his government has banned the notorious cartoons that have sparked rioting and death around the world.
It seems as if the prediction of Samuel Huntington, that the civilisations of Islam and the West are incompatible is coming to pass. Or is it? Huntington's 'clash of civilisations' thesis boils down to warnings: 'The Muslims are coming!' 'The Chinese are coming!'. He doesn't take into account the myriad effects of globalisation, intercultural contact, religious penetration (going in every direction) that are constantly occuring.
The current brouhaha about the cartoons may, in the end, be more about how Islam is defined within itself than about how Islam seeks to resist being defined by the secular West. We shall see.
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