ISLAM, POSTMODERNISM AND OTHER FUTURES

by Sohail Inayatullah (Editor), Sohail Inayatullah

Ziauddin Sardar is a prolific writer and an insightful cultural commentator. His latest book, Why Do People Hate America?, has been a regular feature in bestseller lists in several countries. In the UK, he is known as a leading intellectual and his regular contributions to the Observer, the Independent and the New Statesman have brought his writings to a wide audience. As one of our most high-profile Muslim intellectuals, he has also become an increasingly important voice in the media since the events of September 11th 2001. This is the first collection of his writings that offers a comprehensive introduction to his thought. Starting with his analysis of his own position as a British Muslim and a writer, it goes on to explore issues of Islam and cultural change, education, identity, post-modernism and the future. Drawn from a broad range of his work in scholarly journals as well as from his many books on aspects of culture and society, it includes his most frequently cited papers and makes an ideal introduction to the immense scope of his work in cultural studies.Ziaddin Sardar is currently the editor of Third Text and Visiting Professor of Cultural Studies at City University, London. His books for Pluto Press include Postmodernism and the Other and Aliens R Us.

Genres: Islam, Philosophy

384 pages, Paperback

First published February 14, 2003

Reviews

[Andrew]

I'd read some bits and pieces of Sardar's work before, and I'd been rather impressed.

The book starts with a strong analysis of what Islam is, isn't, and could be. We're on board.

Then we see Sardar's work on "postmodernism" and "other futures," and suddenly we get a different sort of work, one far more parochial and essentialist. In Sardar's worldview, knowledge is developed differently in different localities (fair enough), but is ultimately constricted by "civilizations" (a term which doesn't even begin to be defined), and any attempt to reconcile knowledge between civilizations is a form of imperialism. Furthermore, I, as a secular Westerner (although Christians are apparently cool) am a spiritually damaged person who fails to grasp the value of any ethical system or community, which is why I like postmodernist novels instead of being repelled by them.

And it goes downhill from there. At times, I see this contradiction between the author as entrenched conservative, and the author as committed humanist and anti-capitalist. Sure, he condemns romanticization of the past, but his program doesn't seem so different. As so often happens, in my reader's eye, the bad outweighs the good. When you say that Asians and Westerners (again, using those two obscenely broad categories) perceive civilization in diametrically opposed ways, it sounds more like the claptrap of a gin-sodden raj officer than a postcolonial intellectual. Compared to the intellectual high-water marks of Edward Said, Hamid Dabashi, and C.L.R. James, the latter two-thirds of this book are the postcolonial equivalent of a Michael Moore film, and one that does little to actually counter the effects of global capitalism.

[Ziyad Hasanin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review tbc