ABSTRACT
The image that Europe has of Islam comes from a long history, profoundly rooted in every European country's encounter and/or clashes with Muslim countries. Whatever ways we adopt to understand and judge this long history (a task that will not be assumed here), it is clear to the observer that, most of the time, the analysis and opinions are about a confrontation between separate partners, which were — and probably still are — perceived as enemies standing in front of each other. This image has little to do with ‘real’ history, that is with the history of reciprocal ‘permeabilities’, at both the material (economy, technology and so on) and the cultural levels. But it has a lot to do with Islam and Europe's reciprocal images that, even if totally ‘constructed’, are quite similar to the model proposed by Samuel Huntington in his notorious book, theorizing what he called the ‘clash of civilizations’. 1 Even Huntington's book, in fact, describes these ‘civilizations’ as separate and impermeable subjects — a fascinating although totally unplausible model. The problem is that this model is more or less what we believe corresponds to reality. Furthermore, as we are reminded by a well-known sociological assertion, it is not important if something is real or not, it is the fact that we believe in its reality that makes it real in its consequences.
