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Where I stand?
I'm fortunate enough to come from a family that doesn't try to restrict our thoughts or the things we talk about. On the contrary, my childhood has been a fairly fulfilling one and my parents often encourage us to read books which open up our minds to critical thinking, or at least, different attitudes. If they came back from overseas, there would be one or two new books about anything really; Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations, a Dan Brown or John Grisham novel, Fifa 192 and anything else they happen to pick up. We were always brought up to think for ourselves, and as a result, dinner or car trips usually involved discussing government, education, religion and aspirations.
These are 4 intellects who I've come to admire as of late:
1) Tariq Ali
A British-Pakistani historian and political thinker, his criticisms of the contemporary world and of modern tragedies offer the casual reader a better understanding of why regional problems are so problematic. Since I'm doing a module this year on Latin America, I bought one of his books, 'The Pirates of the Carribean', where he sheds light on modern-day revolutionaries of Central and South America: Chavez, Castro, Morales. One critic cited Ali as the Johnny Depp of international comment.
2) Christopher Hitchens
I came across Hitchens after I read Christopher Dawkin's The God Delusion, which I didn't really find stimulating, despite its hype in the UK (Dawkins' documentaries however are excellent). Hitchens, like Tariq Ali, is a hardlined political commentator and is an advocate of democracy and open and accountable governments. He is very much opposed to Islam and all religions for that matter since he sees them as as harmful delusions. His collection of journals and writings in Love, Poverty and War was certainly a good read personally. There he exposes all that is wrong with Afghanistan, Bill Clinton, Mother Teressa, Milosevic and a great deal of other topics.
3) Tariq Ramadan
I've never read anything from him yet, but his talks and debates on youtube are pretty good. His debates on secularist Islam, adopting a "post-modern" or updated stance to separate state and the mosque, as it were, without necessarily losing all spirituality. There is in Europe (he's Swiss) a tendency to see a Europianization of Islam (where Islam is no longer trapped in terms of nationalist or anti-West thinking). In any case, his strong views on Islam is refreshing. He's actually coming to Birmingham soon for a talk which I'm planning to go to.
4) Reza Aslan
Like Ramadan, Reza Aslan is also in the bracket of updating how we intepret Islam and the Quran to fit a 21st century context - human rights, democracy, liberal values etc. His book 'There is no god, but God' is a good introduction on how people need to stop treating Islam as an ideology and instead embrace it simply as one's spiritual foundation.
These are just some of the people I'm starting to catch up on. The trick is to not be easily swayed and take whatever these critics say with a pinch of salt. Their views are not solid and are open to many criticisms as well, but I enjoy reading their writings and watching their debates. I'm aiming to have a strong view on democracy and the secular state, and I hope to come across more prominent commentators of our time.
I'm fortunate enough to come from a family that doesn't try to restrict our thoughts or the things we talk about. On the contrary, my childhood has been a fairly fulfilling one and my parents often encourage us to read books which open up our minds to critical thinking, or at least, different attitudes. If they came back from overseas, there would be one or two new books about anything really; Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations, a Dan Brown or John Grisham novel, Fifa 192 and anything else they happen to pick up. We were always brought up to think for ourselves, and as a result, dinner or car trips usually involved discussing government, education, religion and aspirations.
These are 4 intellects who I've come to admire as of late:
1) Tariq Ali
A British-Pakistani historian and political thinker, his criticisms of the contemporary world and of modern tragedies offer the casual reader a better understanding of why regional problems are so problematic. Since I'm doing a module this year on Latin America, I bought one of his books, 'The Pirates of the Carribean', where he sheds light on modern-day revolutionaries of Central and South America: Chavez, Castro, Morales. One critic cited Ali as the Johnny Depp of international comment.
2) Christopher Hitchens
I came across Hitchens after I read Christopher Dawkin's The God Delusion, which I didn't really find stimulating, despite its hype in the UK (Dawkins' documentaries however are excellent). Hitchens, like Tariq Ali, is a hardlined political commentator and is an advocate of democracy and open and accountable governments. He is very much opposed to Islam and all religions for that matter since he sees them as as harmful delusions. His collection of journals and writings in Love, Poverty and War was certainly a good read personally. There he exposes all that is wrong with Afghanistan, Bill Clinton, Mother Teressa, Milosevic and a great deal of other topics.
3) Tariq Ramadan
I've never read anything from him yet, but his talks and debates on youtube are pretty good. His debates on secularist Islam, adopting a "post-modern" or updated stance to separate state and the mosque, as it were, without necessarily losing all spirituality. There is in Europe (he's Swiss) a tendency to see a Europianization of Islam (where Islam is no longer trapped in terms of nationalist or anti-West thinking). In any case, his strong views on Islam is refreshing. He's actually coming to Birmingham soon for a talk which I'm planning to go to.
4) Reza Aslan
Like Ramadan, Reza Aslan is also in the bracket of updating how we intepret Islam and the Quran to fit a 21st century context - human rights, democracy, liberal values etc. His book 'There is no god, but God' is a good introduction on how people need to stop treating Islam as an ideology and instead embrace it simply as one's spiritual foundation.
These are just some of the people I'm starting to catch up on. The trick is to not be easily swayed and take whatever these critics say with a pinch of salt. Their views are not solid and are open to many criticisms as well, but I enjoy reading their writings and watching their debates. I'm aiming to have a strong view on democracy and the secular state, and I hope to come across more prominent commentators of our time.
posted by Zed Peace
on 04 June 2009
2 Comments:
pick up 'What's right with Islam: is what's right with America' by Abdul Rauf Feisal if you can. his conciliatory views will appeal to you i think.
Thanks for sharing. i'll check it out.
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