Dialogue for Dialogue
Without rejecting other cultures, Islam has intermingled with Chinese, Iranian, Indian and Greek cultures

Like every social phenomenon, the concept of a “civilization” is a historical issue, in the sense that its emergence and evolution depends on historical changes within the socioeconomic structure of a given community.
Any closed and self-centered civilization claiming to keep its distance from international developments is one which actually turns a blind eye to what is always a strong current flowing between many different countries and cultures. Civilizations, nation-states, and the wealth and complexity of their proper heritage are without exception the result of the intermixture of various cultures.
Today, the need for a dialogue and an exchange of opinions between different cultures has become a popular topic. As a matter of fact, in the past, the world did not recognize such frontiers. There were no such classifications as “Eastern” or “Western” culture: Greek and Chinese philosophers, and Iranian and Indian mathematicians all belonged to one and the same global family
What is known as Western culture today is in fact the adoption of a series of oriental values and innovations. The recent emergence of Eastern and Western schools of thought has only contributed to widening the gap between nations with different beliefs, traditions and ideologies; nations which, especially in the present context, urgently need to find a peaceful coexistence instead of harboring animosity toward one another.
Due to misunderstandings arising from differences in religions and traditional behaviors, and the emergence of an imperialist culture in a colonial context, the two major global players were pitted against each other. As of this moment, the West was widely considered economically and scientifically advanced, while the East was considered ignorant, backward, and unable to evolve beyond classical culture.
Now that the Internet is leading the world towards globalization, it provides an excellent opportunity for the two camps to show their respect for human dignity, and to do away with the discriminations and misunderstandings of old. In other words, the dialogue of civilizations may not remain a mere diplomatic and superficial formality, but must lead to an exchange between cultures on a scale that instills hope for a better future.
History has shown that the best method of communication between nations is the translation of works of major writers and philosophers. Important travelogues such as that of Ibne Batuteh or Marco Polo kindled a new interest for foreign cultures. Without rejecting other cultures, Islam has intermingled with Chinese, Iranian, Indian and Greek cultures, and has contributed to western civilization as well.
During the years of 1957 to 1966, UNESCO launched a plan for the study of non-European cultures known as the Grand Plan, which assessed Eastern and Western cultural values. But this plan raised a number of issues:
First of all, the plan called for the recognition of common values in East and West, and to refrain from judging the respective values of different cultures. The notion of a “study of culture” was first initiated by oriental scientists, who had developed a tendency to repeatedly compound differences between Western and Eastern cultures. Rather than confirm and elucidate the fact that the problems of modern mankind were universal, the said ill-fitted approach led to confrontations between the two cultures. Research methods such as these are clearly not in touch with the more pressing issues of modernity. What communities need now is to live in peaceful coexistence with each other, and to try to come to understand one another.
Secondly, the division into Eastern and Western blocs leads people to believe that these two blocs enjoy fundamentally different and opposing cultures. In this classification, all Western states are inevitably classified as technically and economically advanced, and the East is looked upon as utterly traditional, backward and attached to unrealistic spiritual values.
The third problem with the cultural dialogue is that, from the Western point of view, “culture” has a universal meaning, whilst in the East, only classical and traditional values unrelated to the present age bear any significance with respect to that term. In other words, the western concept of culture addresses the modern world, whereas the Eastern version is a folkloric and ancient one that is alien to modern life. Moreover, the spiritual values proposed by the East are wholly introspective. What’s more, Eastern art is intermixed with ancient tradition, and is not considered a merit in and for itself as it is in the West.
The fourth problem with the dialogue is the method of studying Eastern cultures and civilizations. The fact is that these cultures have been studied from an imperialistic point of view which maintain that, compared to modern human, social, anthropological and economic sciences in the West, the East has made little progress.

Finally, one other problem is that the orientalists have divided Eastern culture according to languages, such as Arabic and Persian-speaking cultures, whilst both these cultures have actually been inspired by Islamic culture
On the other hand, the positive impact of this plan was that it permitted the East and the West to both establish common points, and to discover differences in rhetoric and mentality between each other.
With the entry of African states into the United Nations, UNESCO’s policies underwent a revolution, and certain criticisms were made that were more realistic and to the point. Since then, UNESCO has taken real steps towards a dialogue of cultures.
Despite many efforts to improve the dialogue among civilizations, up to the end of World War II (1945), the West continued to believe that all achievements in the world were its own doing, and refused to take into account the progress made in, for example, Japan and the Pacific. Yet once even smaller countries had succeeded in freeing themselves from Western colonial rule, they recovered their forgotten cultures, and benefiting from the support of the United Nations and UNESCO, have since demonstrated exceptional self-confidence.
In recent years, UNESCO has been focusing on planning general links between various cultures. Another initiative by UNESCO was the Silk Road project, as a platform for dialogue between Eastern and Western civilizations, though with most of the cargo (silk) being carried from the East to the West, and merchants transferring Eastern sciences on farming, spices, medicine, handicraft and paper along with their cargo, it was the impact of Eastern culture on the West that became more and more manifest.
As a result of these studies, researchers from various countries could compare their studies and research projects. For example, they compared the differences between the trips of Marco Polo and Ibne Batuteh, and also studied the transferal of paper technology to the West - concluding that it was actually thanks to Eastern science that the West first established scientific institutes.
UNESCO’s objective of studying Eastern cultures has led to the translation of hundreds of books from Eastern poets and intellectuals into various foreign languages. For example, from 1952 to 1968, six volumes on the history of mankind were published by UNESCO, with the cooperation of 500 historiographers. In 1956, UNESCO held another conference in Delhi to explore Chinese, Indian and Iranian cultures.
In 1975, UNESCO held another seminar in Tehran about Asian languages, to show their affinities, and to help the Asian nations recover a forgotten culture which was on the verge of annihilation due to Soviet rule.

Conclusion

After the end of World War II, and until 20 years ago, two schools of thought were dominant everywhere from Russia to North America: one doctrine was economic and political liberty, and the other was Marxism with its various divisions. In both these camps, culture was not considered an important factor, and materialistic values prevailed over spiritual ones. But events such as the solidarity movement in Poland against Moscow, the resistance of the Afghans against the giant Red Army - which mingled Afghan nationalism with Islam - ethnic wars for independence from Yugoslavia, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and finally, the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, all encouraged many countries to revolt against the West and seek independence. All such religious and nationalist movements proved to the West that it was a mistake to exclude spiritual values from politics. One can therefore conclude that an understanding between cultures is a crucial factor for achieving a peaceful coexistence among nations.