Since the horrific attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center on September 11, many thousands of words have been written about the relationship between Islam, the Middle East and globalisation. Much of this has been quickly produced, speculative and has, for the large part, followed the lead given by former American Assistant Secretary of State, James Rubin.
Rubin, speaking on British television in the immediate aftermath of the assault, argued that this was not only a strike against America, but an attack on civilisation itself. In targeting the World Trade Center the perpetrators had attacked ‘the centre of western civilisation, where all the countries of the world trade in finance, industry, in all sorts of products.’
