Demographers do not see a ‘clash of civilizations’
The article is a review of Le Rendez-vous des civilisations by Youssef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd (2007) and has been published in issue 12 of The Broker, the bimonthly magazine of the Foundation for International Development Publications (IDP) in Leiden, the Netherlands. This article is published within the framework of the Knowledge Programme Civil Society in West Asia, which aims to disseminate and integrate knowledge on roles and responsibilities for democratization through Civil Society Actors (CSAs) in Iran and Syria. Demographic data suggest that the world is not facing a ‘clash of civilizations’ between the Muslim and western world, according to Youssef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd. In their book, Courbage and Todd compare trends in Islamic nations with those of other countries. Parts of the Muslim world show a certain lag in the increase of literacy, a decline in the number of children born per couple, changing gender roles and shifting political ideologies. The overall pattern, however, is not much different from other parts of the world. The demographic development of Tunisia and Iran, for example, does no longer differ from that of France.
Keyword(s): democratization, civil society, muslim world, demography
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