Postmodernism and Islam: Predicament and Promise

305 Pages·1992·1.11 MB·English

by  Akbar S. Ahmed

Postmodernism and Islam

In this remarkable and accomplished book Professor Akbar Ahmed
is a friendly and knowledgeable companion through the thickets of
both Western and Islamic culture. As one of the world’s leading
Islamic scholars and an incisive Muslim commentator on the West,
he is in a unique position to offer an indispensable guide to many
complicated and vexed questions. He writes with a clear moral
purpose: to reduce misunderstandings between East and West and
to make what seems alien and strange to each culture intelligible.
Why do Muslims want to kill Salman Rushdie? How can the
study of the Greek gods help to make sense of the current
perceptions and misperceptions in East-West relations? Will Islam
replace communism as the new enemy of the West? What is the
relevance of postmodernism to Islam? Can West and East ever
understand each other? In exploring these questions Professor
Ahmed goes back into history and looks into the future.
Emphasizing the role of the mass media in shaping our mental map
of East-West relations, he analyses the ways the media turned the
Rushdie affair and the Gulf war into a carnival of spectacle and
entertainment. He makes use of the postmodern theme of the
displaced, circulating image to show how images are used to tell
stories—stories which are not always helpful or accurate.
Written with panache and an unswerving fidelity to truth,
Postmodernism and Islam will help us to understand our times.
Above all, it will be seen as a major enquiry into the study of Islamic
and Christian relations.
Akbar Ahmed is the Allama Iqbal Fellow and Fellow of Selwyn College
at the University of Cambridge. His previous books include Pakistan
Society, Discovering Islam and Resistance and Control in Pakistan.

Postmodernism and Islam

Predicament and promise

Akbar S.Ahmed

London and New York
First published in 1992
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

© 1992 Akbar S.Ahmed
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Ahmed, Akbar S. (Akbar Salahudin), 1943–
Postmodernism and Islam: Predicament and promise.
I. Title
297

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Ahmed, Akbar S. 1943–
Postmodernism and Islam: Predicament and promise/
Akbar S.Ahmed
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Islam—20th century
I. Title.
BP163.A354 1992 91–39584
297´.09´049–dc20 CIP

ISBN 0-203-41359-8 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-72183-7 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-06292-6 (Print Edition)
0-415-06293-4 (pbk)
Contents

Preface vii
1 Postmodernism and Islam 1
2 Greek gods and Semitic prophets 51
3 Confrontation and clash 94
4 Studying Islam 154
5 Culture and change 192
6 The evil demon: the media as master 222
References 266
Name index 278
Subject index 288
v
For Nafees, with love
Preface

This book is an attempt to understand our times. And because it
is about the age we live in some of the language and imagery may
be disturbing and even offensive to those readers accustomed to
the discussion of religion in traditional language and with
customary reverence. While inserting the ‘health warning’ I also
wish to point out that this is neither profanation nor
gratuitousness; the eclecticism, syncreticism, irony and
juxtaposition which cause—and will cause—cultural friction in our
world are central to an understanding of postmodernism and will
be examined; this is still little explored territory. A related theme
I investigate is the ubiquitous presence of the media. The Western
media are all around, stimulating, corrupting, influencing, shaping
and challenging us. We cannot hope to understand Muslims
without first understanding the nature of the Western media; this
I will try to do.
I myself am ambivalent about the media. Although aware of its
dangers—both in its destructive powers and seductive charms—I am
also conscious of its great potential to assist in understanding and
explaining the differences between disparate peoples. Its capacity
to help bridge gaps is immeasurable. Future endeavour, whether
academic, cultural or political, must take developments in the audio-
visual media and recent communications technology into account;
henceforth no one can be an island ever again.
Perhaps mine is a flawed picture; perhaps I am too influenced
by my Asian background, perhaps by a Muslim perception of history
and society. But without this exercise we cannot understand Muslims
and their predicament in our age. I will, therefore, support my
arguments with what I learned as a result of my forays into the
Western media.
vii
viii Preface
Take what for me were the highlights of the summer and autumn
of 1991: I was on BBC TV’s Newsnight, discussing Rajiv Gandhi’s
death with Jeremy Paxman; on The World This Week (Channel 4),
presented by Sheena McDonald, I crossed swords with a US
Congressman on nuclear proliferation (I am against nuclear weapons
whoever has them); and I analyzed the Middle East with John
Simpson again on Newsnight. On Radio I debated Christina Lamb’s
Waiting for Allah (1991) with her on BBC’s Outlook, and spoke
on the history of Pakistan for BBC’s Birth of a Nation series; Melvyn
Bragg was supportive of my new book, Resistance and Control in
Pakistan (1991a), on Start the Week; and I was on BBC’s Any
Questions? with Ken Livingstone, MP, and Gillian Shephard, MP.
(The trick question was about Nigel Kennedy’s clothes on stage; I
talked of Madonna’s clothes—or lack of them.) For The World
Today on the BBC I tried to explain the unsuccessful coup against
Gorbachev in Moscow; for their News Hour, on the World Service,
the kidnapping of a diplomat in Delhi by (it was believed) the Sikhs;
and, again for the World Service, corruption in South Asia; for their
Analysis I prepared a programme I was to present on the Middle
East. Marina Salandy-Brown of BBC Radio 4 asked me to present
a series of discussions with eminent British Asians, to be called Only
Connect. I interviewed the Aga Khan for The Guardian and Diana
Hinds interviewed me for The Independent. Finally, I plunged into
Mark Tully’s new book, No Full Stops in India (1991), to prepare
for the Third Ear discussion with him on BBC Radio 3.
Enough, enough, I almost hear you cry. But this is not by way
of impressing you, gentle reader, only to illustrate the extent of my
involvement with the media. Chauffeur-driven cars to pick you up
and drop you at your door; pretty, short-skirted young women with
sultry voices to fuss over you; people in the street looking at you
with a flicker of recognition in their eyes (‘the telly don?’); members
of your community flattering you (‘thank God, we have a credible
voice now’)—all this is calculated to seduce; it is also illusion, as
transitory as it is superficial.
More seductive and dangerous was the notion that appearing in
the media confers a special wisdom and penetrating insights into
human affairs. I was in danger of becoming the instant expert, the
media guru, Mr Know-All. The alarm bells were sounding and I
heard them loud and clear. My own discomfort was matched by
that of my friends; they were becoming distrustful of the media
exposure. Some Muslims, intrinsically suspicious of the West, asked:
Preface ix
‘Why are you being invited so often?’ ‘Why are you talking to the
“enemy”?’ A few asked darkly: ‘Have you sold out?’ Those Muslim
spokesmen, often self-appointed, who did not wish to share the
media spotlight, were resentful of what they saw as an interloper
(see Chapters 3 and 4).
However, all this was serving a serious purpose. It allowed me
to participate in debates of importance and to present an alternative
view. It was also giving me access to the Western media few Muslims
would enjoy. This kind of participant observation, I knew as an
anthropologist, was essential to a book dealing with the nature of
the Western media. So, in spite of the dangers, in spite of the
reservations of colleagues, in spite of the short-notice requests,
changing schedules, unfriendly hours and long journeys that
characterize dealings with the media, it was worth it.
Traditionally, social scientists neutralize the self in their academic
work which reinforces their ivory tower image. I have deliberately
used my experiences as sociological resource to make sense of what
was going on around me. The consequences of the break-up of the
cultural divides do not affect me alone but other lives also, as I will
illustrate. Citing these experiences, therefore, becomes legitimate
methodology (see also Ahmed 1991a).
The arguments in this book are impressionistic and thematic
rather than sequential, exhaustive and chronological. The jumble
of ideas and names, mingling and intermingling, the images piling
upon images, the vast scope and dissolution of cultural
boundaries suggest postmodernist methodology. In building my
case there will be at times apparent contradictions and obvious
circularity in the argument; there will be strange juxtaposition
of people and places and even what seems deliberate provocation;
this too reflects postmodernist method. The reader must bear
with me. There will be, as I hope to show, an underlying structure
to my argument.
The book itself grew out of a volume jointly planned with Ernest
Gellner for Routledge; however, the publishers felt that both ‘parts’
would be better served as two separate, independent volumes.
Although we were looking at the same problem we were covering
two different areas and this was, perhaps, the most felicitous way
of presenting our findings. After mutual agreement this is how we
have proceeded. I would like to express my gratitude to him for his
unfailing courtesy and support—and not only with regard to this
project.