It's not a clash of civilizations

It's a clash between civilization and nihilists.

A recent illustration comes from Mecca, where Wahabbists are destroying their own cultural and architectural heritage.

Almost all of the rich and multi-layered history of the holy city is gone. The Washington-based Gulf Institute estimates that 95 per cent of millennium-old buildings have been demolished in the past two decades.

Now the actual birthplace of the Prophet Mohamed is facing the bulldozers, with the connivance of Saudi religious authorities whose hardline interpretation of Islam is compelling them to wipe out their own heritage.

The destruction of the massive statues of the Buddha in Afghanistan was not an anomaly. What these people want is to destroy every vestige of history and culture, even their own, in the name of stamping out idolatry -- present or potential.

The rift is widening between people who happen to be Muslim and want to participate in the world's civilization and those who are members of today's suicide cult and want to destroy every good and pleasant thing.

No wonder Muslim nihilists find natural allies among Western anarchists, and no wonerthat the spoiled, alienated and disaffected youth of these seemingly opposite groups find themselves on the same side.