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JONATHAN MANN, CNN Anchor: And the two sides may have differences that ultimately can only be settled by victory or defeat. On our program today, war of the worlds.
New York’s Times Square may have some of the most expensive real estate in the world, and it’s no wonder. It’s the most symbolic and central place for the United States to sell its kind of culture, its kind of capitalism, its view of what country should believe and how they should behave.
Kabul, Afghanistan, has also bore the crossroads. The warriors who emerged, the Taliban are essentially the last ones left standing.
They wouldn’t stand for Times Square. Their guiding culture is drawn from a particular reading of the Koran, shared in different degrees by Muslims in other nations too. It clings to history and cannot forgive centuries of Muslim domination at the hands of the West. It sees religious duty as more powerful than any human right.
If the West refuses to roll back from the Middle East or abandon its allies there, and at the same time, if enough people refuse to let the West remain in the region or spread its culture there, what happens?
Years ago, a famous American political scientist, Samuel Huntington predicted the next world war, if there is one, will be a war between civilizations. Another. Benjamin Barbara phrased it in another way. It will be, he said, Jihad versus McWorld. Does it have to happen? Is it happening now? Prominent people say no.
[CHRIS PATTEN, E.U. Commissioner] One thing which is, in my view, incredibly important for us to do is to make it clear that this isn’t part of a clash of civilizations. It’s not a Europe and America against the rest. It’s the civilized world against those who threaten it with mindless terrorism.
[GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. President] The face of terrorist is not the true face of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.
[SHAKKER ELSAYED, Muslim American Society] Our stand is absolutely clear on this issue. We can’t accept coward attacks on civilians. We will never support them, justify them, condemn them, or even explain them. We were shocked in dismay like everybody else.

MANN: Joining us now is Samuel Huntington, professor of international relations at Harvard University and author of . Professor, thanks so much for being with us.
You wrote this as a paper, then expanded it into a book. Can we contract it a bit and explain the theory for television?

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, Author of : Well, I think the basic idea is a, that questions of culture and religion and history, as you indicated, are key to people’s identity these days and playing a much more important role in international relations.

MANN: Is that what you are seeing now? Is this the clash that you spoke of?

HUNTINGTON: Well, I don’t think we are in a clash of civilizations at all at the present moment.

MANN: What tells you that this has not already begun, that the clash has not already started with the spark that was set up with attacks on Washington and New York?

HUNTINGTON:Well, I think if one looks at the Moslem world, you focused on Kabul. Kabul is not representative of the Moslem world. And indeed out of 50 Moslem countries, only three recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan. And they, what you see in Kabul is just an extreme, very extreme form of Islam which most Moslems certainly do not share. And most Moslem governments have, so far, of course, denounced the terrorist attack. And many of them are cooperating in various ways with the United States and its partners. So this is not a clash of civilizations.

MANN: Now if you believe that the clash might be ahead and that this episode would not necessarily set it off, is it still in the distant future? Does it awake some spark, if not this one, or is it simply one possible outcome of competing cultures, competing ideas in the world?

HUNTINGTON: Well, I think we have to face the fact

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