Conference: A World Civilisation or a Clash of Civilisations
20 January 2007, Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London SW1
The controversial “clash of civilisations” theory is the subject of a special one-day conference organised by the GLA on Saturday 20 January.
The view has been put forward that the world is going into an era of conflict and war driven by a clash of civilisations. The Mayor’s policies are based on the exact opposite idea: that the multicultural city is part of creating a new concept of world civilisation that corresponds to a globalised world.
This conference will debate these contrasting approaches and their implications. The conference will feature a debate between the Mayor and Daniel Pipes, Director of the Middle East Forum, an American think tank that advises US policymakers on the Middle East. He has argued that “there is not so much a clash of civilisations as there is one of civilisations vs. barbarism”.
Other sessions will see scholars and policy-makers discuss the impact of international events on London’s communities and examine issues such as religious tolerance, human rights, diversity and the approach to multiculturalism.