The Representation of Islam in Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996)

Abstract

The representation of anything in literature is indisputably a powerful means that shape and inform public opinions. Muslim communities, for instance, have been contentious subjects in literary representation. With this vein of thought, the present study seeks to examine the representation of Islam by the Western World in certain events and documents, such as the Crusades, the Elizabethan Era, captivity narratives, and traveller’s accounts. Its focal point is the confrontation between the Western world and the Islamic World since the emergence of Islam, including the Crusades, Orientalism, and Neo-Orientalism in the Modern Era. After the events of September eleventh, the relationship between the Western world and the Muslim world has been characterized by negative ideological terms, particularly regarding extremism and terrorism. Many thinkers and scholars have been intrigued to study this conflict among whom is Samuel Huntington with his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. This study aims at scrutinizing the representation of Islam in the aforementioned book, and it reveals that the West has purposefully distorted the image of Islam and emphasized erroneous and misrepresentative preconceptions of Muslims. The image of Islam and Muslims in this book is marked by stereotyped connotations of violence, terrorism, fanaticism, and extremism.