Violence or Persuasion? Denial of Recognition and Opportunities for Action in Contemporary Societies

‘The fault line that defines the clash of moral cultures and powers in the post Cold-War era does not run between civilizations, but within them. It divides the beliefs of those who hold that they are justified in advancing their values and inter-ests by the use of force (from here on “violent beliefs”) and the beliefs held by those who believe in persuasion, education and leadership (“persuasive beliefs”) ’ (Etzioni, 2006). It was with these words that Amitaï Etzioni in a recent essay replied to the theory set out by Samuel Huntington in his book The Clash of Civilizations (Huntington 1997). In Etzioni’s view the line dividing the contemporary world does not, as Huntington claims, separate western civilization from all the others and especially the Muslim world. The fundamental confrontation of our times draws together, on the one hand, those who, while positioning themselves in various cul-tural contexts, have recourse to ‘normative appeals ’ and, on the other, those who, within these same groups, make use of violence to advance their cause. His demon-stration is supported as much by the diversity of reactions to recent events (the controversy around caricatures of Mohammed in Denmark) as by opinion polls an