Islam and the West: Unequal Distance/ Unequal Difference

Can one divide human reality as indeed human reality seems to be genuinely divided, into clearly different cultures, histories, traditions, societies, even races, and survive the consequences humanly? By surviving the consequences humanly, I mean to ask whether there is any way of avoiding the hystility exoressed by the division, say, of men into "us" (Westerners) and "they" (Orientals) . . . designating in one's mind a familiar soace which is "ours" and an unfamiliar soace beyond "ours" which is "theirs. . . ." It is enough for "us" to set these boundaries in our minds; "they" become "they" accordingly, and both their territory and their mentality are designated as "they" accordingly, and both their territory and their mentality are designated as different from "ours." To a certain extent modern and primitive societies see thus to derive a sense of their identities negatively.