USA
2006
New ed
AU $34.95
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The London bombings of July 7th, 2005, revived the debates that raged after 9/11. What relation did they bear to the foreign and war policies of the United Kingdom and the United States? Were they symptoms of a "cultural clash" between deep-seated "values" or signs of a social crisis at the root of the ongoing conflict? How should we analyze the present-day emergence of fanatical forms of Islamic fundamentalism? The title of the book alludes to the famous thesis on the "Clash of Civilizations." Achcar develops a counterthesis, namely that the clashes we are witnessing do not oppose civilizations, but their dark sides. Each civilization produces a specific form of barbarism, which tends to take over in periods of crisis. Accordingly, the Bush administration does not embody the values of Western civilization nor does Islamic fanaticism of the al-Qaida type represent Islamic civilization. The clash between them is a "clash of barbarisms" in which the main culprit remains the most powerful. The war of aggression and occupation in Iraq led to blatant manifestations of Western barbarism, most strikingly epitomized by the torture at Abu Ghraib, and inevitably nurtured fanatical Islamic and other counterbarbarisms. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From the Publisher "This inquiry into the probable shape of things to come is sober, uncompromising, deeply informed, and full of provocative insights and judicious analyses." Noam Chomsky "The most forceful, most rigorous text that there is to read on this war." Le Monde Diplomatique (Pages:192) [When referring to this item please quote stockid 151120]
ISBN: 1594513090
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