Question.
In reality (as opposed to in thoretical constructs) alliances are defined less by what the allies share culturally, economically, and politically, than by who they are directed against. The classic example being the Allied alliance in WW2 combining christian/secular democracies lke the USA and UK, secularCommunist dictatorships like the USSR, and confucian near-fascist dictatorships like China. This alliance would never have existed but for the perceived common threat posed by expansionistic Germany and Japan.
What on earth would be the reason for an alliance between "Islam" and "western civilization?" Who, or what,would it be directed against? If the west were more explicitly religious I could perhaps see an affiliation between the Christian west and Islamic world as an alliance of evangelistic Abrahamic believers against secular ideologies such as communism, secular humanism, and non-Abrahamic faith traditions. Several years ago, I saw what seemend to be a call for such an alliance by Pope John Paul II in his outreach to the Islamic World in the convergence of interest the Papacy and the conservative Third World had on issues regarding sexual and reproductive rights issues. If it weren't for the current conflict between radical islamic movements and GW's USA, as well as the close ties between the USA and Israel, an alliance between the increasingly conservative USA and Islam against the secular world perhaps be possible. But I doubt that is what the Spanish PM is talking about. Plus, given the basic nature of the USA, it is unlikely the USA government would ever become so explicitly conservative christian on a permanant basis make that possible, at least on a formal state to state basis
