The "shock of civilizations" has become an easy formula – although widely contested – to understand relations, specifically, between the "West" and the "Islamic world". The problem, however, is that such shock does not exist. What exists – and this is the thesis of this article, based in researches in light of the future publication of a book (SCHÄFER, 2008) – is a dispute between Western fundamentalists and Islamic fundamentalists. They are the ones that want us to believe that there is a shock of civilizations, instead of a shock of fundamentalisms. The object is to gather public support for the cause of fundamentalism. The effect desired is to hide the ancient basic conflict – the unjust distribution of the riches of the planet – behind ...