Political Islam,Clash of Civilizations,U.S. Dominance and Arab Support of Attacks on America: A Test of a Hierarchical Model

This study examines two theses used to explain Arab support of the 11 September attacks on the United States: clash of civilizations and anti-dominance reaction to perceived American hegemony in the Middle East. Huntington's clash-of-civilizations thesis has been widely challenged, but rarely tested on the basis of individual-level data. In this study data were obtained from a random sample consisting of 805 male and female respondents representing 7 Arab nations: Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. Results from structural equation modeling show strong support for the anti-dominance thesis and essentially no support for the clash-of-civilizations thesis. These findings suggest a lack of fit between “civilization” and political values contrary to what Huntington had originally posited.