1 Intercultural communication between the West and Islam under the spectre of islamophobia 1 Abdelaziz Kesbi 2 Abstract The article is an attempt to discover the origin and causes of conflicts between Islam and other cultures and civilisations, given the fact that Islam has become the fastest spreading religion in the world 3 . The issue investigated emanates from the widespread and prevailing ideas and opinions promoted by the Western media, especially after September11 th , about Muslims representing a violent and bloody civilisation that cannot engage in intercultural dialogue. The hypothesis exists that a highly tense and unfriendly relationship prevails between the Islamic and the Western world in which Muslims are generally negatively stereotyped as violent terrorists. I considered the most efficient ways to get these two blocks into reconciliatory and friendly terms and clear out the perceptual misrepresentations of Muslims and Islam from the minds of mainstream westerners. Therefore, I questioned the possibility of coexistence of Muslims with other cultures and civilisations. The paper draws its conclusions from a qualitative analysis of various interviews carried out in the public and private sectors. In short, the conflict between Islam and the West unveils a clash of economic and political interests hidden under a clash of civilisations. Introduction This article aims at finding the raison d'être of the observed increasing clash between Muslims and Westerners. This paper is investigative in nature and endorsed by a qualitative analysis. In fact, I have interviewed thirteen selected respondents among teachers and engineers. The aim is not, of course, to generalise but rather to unveil the point of view of these selected respondents. I have pinpointed that cultural diversity had been a hindrance to harmony between different civilisations owing to the infrequent cultural contacts in the past. Currently, after the downfall and disintegration of the ex-Soviet Union, the US as a single superpower holds sway over the international scene. Therefore, I witness a lack of cultural dialogue between Westerners and Muslims and a failure of integration of Muslim immigrants in the Western world. One of the main causes is the spread and expansion of Islamophobia. Intercultural communication and islamophobia It is a truism that change among people and societies is the norm rather than the exception. That is why the difficulty to understand, accept and adapt to cultural diversity was and still is a major deterrent to people’s coexistence. The strangers are quickly marginalised and rejected simply because they are not like us and they are automatically blamed for all our problems. The best exemplification is laying a guilt trip on Muslim immigrants for all the economic and societal problems in the Western world (Samovar et al. 1998). In the past, social and commercial encounters between civilisations were rare due to geographical remoteness and limited means of transport. Today, intercultural interactions are more common in a globalised world mainly because of technological development, which led to 1 This paper was presented at the first Annual International Conference on Cultures and Languages in Contact at the Faculty of Letters and Human sciences Eljadida, Morocco in November 23-24, 2011. 2 I am grateful to my friends and colleagues Boukris Fouzi, Dammouch Abderrahman, Elkandoussi Mohammed and Fourie Trudie for their insightful and enlightening comments and suggestions. 3 Islam the fastest growing religion in the world. - sheikh yusuf este.s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FibQ5WVPfcE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGHWeI67kuM&feature=related