In recent years there has been much talk of a ‘civilisational clash’ between the Muslim world and Christendom, most of it superficial, ignorant and media driven. This perception of a possible looming ‘clash’ is itself the by-product of an intellectual attempt to identify a new threat from Muslim fundamentalism, which, it is claimed, will replace the dead spectre of communism.

Historically there has certainly been a zone of interaction and flux between Muslims and Christians, stretching from the Mediterranean through the Balkans and the Black Sea regions northeastwards into the Caucasus and Central Asia. If this broad swathe of lands has become viewed as a frontier between two civilisations, what takes place in this metaphorical Christian-Muslim frontier?

This book sets out to explore the realities behind the myths of confrontation and to examine the nature of relations in a number of societies in which Muslims and Christians have been in close proximity to each other, either as neighbouring communities or as inhabitants of the same community.

Distinguished scholars from Western and Eastern Europe as well as from the Caucasus and Central Asia review issues such as Russia’s historic relations with Islam; the position of Muslims in Moscow; the effect of Islam in Central Asia’s transition from communism to attempts at democracy; Muslim-Christian relations among the races in the Volga region and the North Caucasus; the role of Islam in Tatarstan; Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt; and the effect of Muslim immigrant communities on Western European foreign policy.

This book makes a most important contribution to a better understanding of relations between ‘the West’ and the Islamic world and will prove indispensable to scholars, students and practitioners in the world of international affairs.
ISBN: 1860640990
Publisher: I.B .TAURIS
Subtitle: CHAOS, CLASH OR DIALOGUE?
Author: JORGEN S NIELSE