Bilal Philips – My Writings – The Clash of Civilizations (Moral Foundations of Islamic Culture)

			Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh my writings in the late 90s and early 21st century.
		

			They include a book,
		

			which I began,
		

			put together, compiled, wrote on, primarily because a researcher from the UK contacted me and asked
me
		

			advice with regards to refuting Samuel Huntington's premise for his book, The Clash of
Civilizations. Well, I hadn't heard about the book. I hadn't read it back then. So he sent me
information from the book, where he presents his basic
		

			argument, idea, Muslim researcher, he was asking me advice as to how to tackle the refutation. After
I read it,
		

			I actually agreed with it. He was identifying that the current struggle, you know, is between the
Muslim civilization and Western civilization. He identified the basic elements, which to me, seemed
to be correct. Now, the researcher, he felt that there wasn't any clash here
		

			and wanted to refute this argument, but I felt that there was a clash, there is
		

			a foundational clash,
		

			civilization, which is built on faith.
		

			And a civilization, which is based on on faith, no faith,
		

			a secular civilization, a civilization, which sees itself as the peak of human civilization,
		

			and sees itself as having a duty to impose that civilization on the rest of the world.
		

			So that's real,
		

			to me, seemed quite real. So, I looked at it from a cultural perspective,
		

			which existed already in the Muslim world,
		

			between cultural traditions, and what is truly Islamic culture, cultural Islam, that is Islam which
varies from place to place people to people culture to culture,
		

			and what is the culture which came out of pure Islam? There is a distinct difference between the
two. So I wrote on this and in the course of it, I also analyzed you know, the moral foundations of
Islamic culture
		

			and stressed that this needs to be highlighted because for the most part Muslims learn the ritual
what to do when to do how to do but the moral principles behind it when problems are Salem had
already said that he was only sent to perfect the pinnacle of morality in the Midwest to live with
mmm I carry Mala clock.
		

			But this is not reflected in the understandings of the pillars of Islam and Eman, Faith cetera.
		

			So I set out to
		

			look at the pillars of Islam and the pillars of a man
		

			from a moral perspective, what is the moral message behind them?
		

			After clearly defining the struggle that exists within the Muslim world with regards to traditions
and culture, some of it
		

			to some degree, maybe even dangerous, life threatening etc.
		

			Like honor killings and bright burnings and all such matters. So I put together a material
		

			which was
		

			published in the early 2000s, for courses which I was teaching in Islamic civilization, I initially
named it the clash of civilizations and Islamic view. And this is its publication from Al hidayah
press in Birmingham, UK. But later, because of sensitivities in the university, I changed it to
		

			the moral foundations of Islamic civilization and taught that course for about two or three years.
The book
		

			is available from the UK
		

			and it will be reprinted from the university
		

			IOU and it is used in the curriculum of IOUs civilizational studies Baraka la ficam, Salaam Alaikum
Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh