Clash of Civilizations
Akbar
Islamic-studies scholar to discuss post-9/11 relations between the West and the World of Islam
Author and Islamic-studies scholar Akbar Ahmed will explore the heavily debated political thesis “Clash of Civilizations” in a lecture at Dickinson on Wednesday, April 15, at 7 p.m. in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter (ATS) Auditorium.
In 1992, political scientist Samuel Huntington proposed that the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world would be a “clash of civilizations” that pitted different cultural and religious groups against one another. This thesis has become one of the most heavily debated topics for those who study Islamic and Western societies. Ahmed will discuss the role of Huntington’s thesis in society since 9/11.
Ahmed is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University. He is a former ambassador in the senior Civil Service of Pakistan and served as Pakistan High Commissioner to the U.K. and Ireland. He also served as a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and was the first distinguished chair of Middle East and Islamic studies at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Ahmed has written more than a dozen award-winning books, including a quartet of studies published by Brookings Press examining relations between the West and the World of Islam after 9/11: Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization, Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam, The Thistle and the Drone: How America’s War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam, and the forthcoming Journey Into Europe: Islam, Immigration, and Empire.
The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of anthropology, political science, Middle East studies and sociology, and by the Churchill Fund. For more information call 717-245-1875.
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Published April 15, 2015