The "shock of civilizations" has become an easy formula -although widely contested to understand relations, specifically, between the "West" and the "Islamic world". The problem, however, is that such shock does not exist. What exists -and this is the thesis of this article, based in researches in light of the future publication of a book (SCHAFER, 2008) -is a dispute between Western fundamentalists and Islamic fundamentalists. They are the ones that want us to believe that there is a shock of civilizations, instead of a shock of fundamentalisms. The object is to gather public support for the cause of fundamentalism. The effect desired is to hide the ancient basic conflict -the unjust distribution of the riches of the planet -behind the religious strategy of identity.
