Dialogue Among Civilizations
Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami introduced the idea of Dialogue Among Civilizations as a response to Samuel P. Huntington's theory of a Clash of Civilizations. The term was initially used by Austrian philosopher Hans Köchler who in 1972, in a letter to UNESCO, had suggested the idea of an international conference on the "dialogue between different civilizations" (dialogue entre les différentes civilisations) and had organized, in 1974, a first international conference on the role of intercultural dialogue ("The Cultural Self-comprehension of Nations") with the support and under the auspices of Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor. History One of the first places where Dialogue Among Civilizations took place was in Isfahan, Iran at the Safa Khaneh Community that was established in 1902. Safa Khaneh was a place that Haj Aqa Nourollah and his older brother made. It was a place where Muslims and Christians talked about their religions with each other. It was one of the first interfaith centres in the world. Later a magazine was published based on the dialogues between Muslims and Christians in the Safa Khaneh and it was released in Iran, India and England. The founder of Safa Khaneh, Haj Aqa Nouroollah was one of the leaders of the Constitution Era in Iran. His house has become a museum named Constitution house of Isfahan. Introduction The page dedicated to the United Nations Year of Dialog Among Civilizations introduces the idea as follows: The Vision Here are some excerpts from the vision of the Foundation for Dialogue among Civilizations: The Mission Here are some excerpts from the mission of the Foundation for Dialogue among Civilizations: Contrasting view: The Clash of Civilizations In 1993, Huntington provoked great debate among international relations theorists with the interrogatively-titled "The Clash of Civilizations?", a controversial, oft-cited article published in Foreign Affairs magazine. Its description of post–Cold War geopolitics contrasted with the controversial End of History thesis advocated by Francis Fukuyama. Huntington expanded "The Clash of Civilizations?" to book length and published it as The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order in 1996. The article and the book posit that post–Cold War conflict would most frequently and violently occur because of cultural rather than ideological differences. That, whilst in the Cold War, conflict likely occurred between the Capitalist West and the Communist Bloc East, it now was most likely to occur between the world's major civilizations — identifying seven, and a possible eighth: (i) Western, (ii) Latin American, (iii) Islamic, (iv) Sinic (Chinese), (v) Hindu, (vi) Orthodox, (vii) Japanese, and (viii) the African. This cultural organization contrasts the contemporary world with the classical notion of sovereign states. To understand current and future conflict, cultural rifts must be understood, and culture — rather than the State — mern(?) nations will lose predominance if they fail to recognize the irreconcilable nature of cultural tensions. Critics (for example, in Le Monde Diplomatique) called The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order the theoretical legitimization of American-led Western aggression against China and the