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This, of course, is my answer to this popular [[thesis ]] by Samuel P [[Huntington ]] and [[others ]] that there is a so-called clash of civilisations. I don't buy this thesis, for a [[number ]] of reasons.Today's [[racism ]] is precisely this racism of [[cultural ]] [[difference]]. It no longer says: 'I am more than you.' It says: 'I [[want ]] my [[culture]], you can have yours.' Today, every [[right]]-winger says just that. These [[people ]] can be very [[postmodern]]. They acknowledge that there is no [[natural ]] [[tradition]], that every culture is artificially constructed. In [[France]], for example, you have a neo-fascist right that refers to the deconstructionists, saying: 'Yes, the lesson of deconstructionism against [[universalism ]] is that there are only [[particular ]] identities. So, if blacks can have their culture, why should we not have ours?'We should also consider the first reaction of the American '[[moral ]] majority', specifically Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, to the 11 September attacks. Pat Robertson is a bit eccentric, but Jerry Falwell is a mainstream [[figure]], who endorsed [[Reagan ]] and is part of the mainstream, not an eccentric freak. Now, their reaction was the same as the Arabs', though he did retract a couple of days later. Falwell said the [[World ]] Trade Centre bombings were a [[sign ]] that God no longer protects the USA, because the USA had chosen a path of [[evil]], [[homosexuality ]] and promiscuity.According to the FBI, there are now at least two million so-called radical right-wingers in the USA. Some are quite violent, killing abortion doctors, not to mention the Oklahoma City bombing. To me, this shows that the same anti-[[liberal]], violent attitude also grows in our own civilisation. I see that as proof that this [[terrorism ]] is an aspect of our [[time]]. We cannot link it to a particular civilisation.There is [[nothing ]] inherently intolerant [[about ]] [[Islam]]. We must rather ask why this terrorist aspect of Islam arises now. The tension between [[tolerance ]] and fundamentalist [[violence ]] is within a civilisation.Take [[another ]] example: on CNN we saw President [[Bush ]] [[present ]] a [[letter ]] of a seven-year-old [[girl ]] whose [[father ]] is a pilot and now around Afghanistan. In the letter she said that she [[loves ]] her father, but if her country [[needs ]] his [[death]], she is ready to give her father for her country. President Bush described this as American patriotism. Now, do a simple [[mental ]] experiment — imagine the same [[event ]] with an Afghan girl saying that. We would immediately say: 'What [[cynicism]], what [[fundamentalism]], what manipulation of small [[children]].' So there is already something in our [[perception]]. But what shocks us in others we ourselves also do in a way.<ref>The One Measure of [[True ]] [[Love ]] Is: You Can Insult the [[Other]]</ref>