ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the relations between the West and Islam in the light of the London bombings and the questions that have been raised post-9/11 about the possibilities of dialogue between different traditions and civilisations. This is an issue that relates not only to Islam but to different religious traditions that have tended to be treated as forms of unreason within the secular terms of an Enlightenment rationalism. Classical forms of social theory have tended to reproduce a clear distinction between reason and faith that have made it difficult to illuminate the growing influence of religious beliefs and practices in contemporary societies. These issues have been intensified through the growth within the diverse Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam of influential fundamentalist and literalist traditions. Though there have been powerful movements towards increasingly secular societies in Europe, within the United States there has been a strengthening of fundamentalist Christianities that have gained significant influence in government circles.1
