Starts to write regularly for the Independent and occasionally for The Times. Becomes Co-Editor of Third Text, the bi-monthly critical journal of visual art and culture.
Publishes the high-acclaimed award winner, Mecca: The Sacred Journey. Back to top Home Back to top. Facebook Twitter. Managed by Elma Berisha Site by Effusion.
Almost everyone in the world is connected to everyone else through various communication technologies like media, email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the hour news channels. Third, everything is globalised and the globe in a sense has shrunk. So this scale, speed of change and connectivity are unique phenomena of our times and together they make up a complex system.
Most of our problems are complex, whether they are political, social or economic. So when you have interconnectivity, complexity and things changing rapidly, you always get positive feedback which then changes things in a geometric fashion. Things multiply too fast and they almost always become chaotic. So you have to understand what I call the post-normal times. The Arab Spring is a post-normal phenomenon in that sense. It could not happen in the earlier period because the connectivity, the scale of things, the speed with which things change was not there.
A small, insignificant incident — of one particular trader objecting to being mistreated and setting himself on fire — started a chain reaction. The hour news showed him again and again, not just in Tunisia but in neighbouring countries too.
Things multiplied with a profound impact and hence came the phenomenon of Arab spring. But the interesting thing is that just as a post-normal situation can create a situation in favour of democratic forces very easily, it can also as easily create a situation in favour of dictatorial forces.
So in Egypt, first we saw Mubarak being removed and Morsi coming to power, then a similar phenomenon threw out Morsi just as quickly as the fall of Mubarak. If you have rapid change, it takes time to stabilise the system, and if the system is unstable then other forces can manipulate the same system to try and change it in their favour.
ZS: It is my thesis that most of the problems of the Muslim world boil down to lack of criticism, self-criticism, which also means lack of imagination and creativity. And if we are to change things for the better, first of all we have to critically engage with the world. Even before we do that, we have to appreciate that we live in a diverse and pluralistic world, with different notions of truth.
That means we have to learn to appreciate other notions of truth and look at them with respect and dignity, and realise that our claim — that we have the monopoly over sole truth — looks quite absurd to others.
At the same time, we have to look critically at ourselves, our worldview. A great deal of what we believe in is manufactured dogma. A lot of this was manufactured in history but sometimes in front of our eyes and justified with all sorts of Ahadees which have no basis in authenticity or our history. So criticism is essential. Critical Muslim is essentially about looking at Islam, Muslims and the world critically.
We critique everything — the West, the Muslim societies, culture, science and technology. We believe that without thorough criticism, we cannot reach a true understanding of life and do something positive to change our societies.
TNS: In this context, how do you look at the ideal of freedom of expression as it is practised in the West which is to the annoyance of Muslims? ZS: One of the first things you need to appreciate is that in a diverse world, different people will have different opinions and will express them differently.
We need to learn to live with diversity. So if I am a believer, I will not dishonour the Prophet [pbuh] because he is a model of behaviour for me. But there is also a question of power here. In Critical Muslim critical engagement is also about analysing power. I will stand up against you because I believe in justice and will stand up against injustice anywhere. The Charlie Hebdo affair is interesting in this context.
That is not a very dignified way to express your freedom. Freedom of expression works best when you are critiquing power and exploring the will to undermine power. ZS: The Muslims have to come to terms with the plurality, diversity and complexity of the world. If you feel hurt and take action, it will have consequences not just for you but for all the interconnections that your action may generate.
An event that happens in the West and upsets the Muslims makes them go out and burn their own buses and shops, the same buses they will use the following day to go to work and the same shops they need to go out to and buy their groceries at. That is just senseless. We need to step back and find a more sophisticated way of protesting and undermining power. TNS: The project has a kind of an academic feel. Have you thought of other modes of expression like film or drama maybe, considering that Muslims are not too much into reading?
We write fiction as well; every issue of Critical Muslim has short stories or poems. Our contention is that the Muslims have to see themselves as humans, and humans need music, arts, literature, science, technology, philosophy etc.
Religion may fulfill certain needs but it may not fulfill other needs. The goal of the project is that if we have that critical mass of people who are equipped to deal with themselves and their societies, they could then act as catalysts for change.
ZS: Yes it is. In Turkey they have rethought many aspects of Islam. In Indonesia, the debate whether you can have an Islamic state was a long one and had a lot of depth, and they came to the conclusion that Islam and politics are linked, not through the state but through a civic society.
What this means is that if you are a socially-conscious Muslim, you ought to bring your own moral and ethical outlook, express it openly in a civic context and debate and discuss it. This is quite an innovative way of being political, but not ideological in the sense that the whole idea of Islamic state has been constructed.
So, they have kind of redefined what it means to be political — it means to create a civic society. In Morocco, they have totally redefined the personal aspect of the Sharia, not the criminal law but the personal law. You should go down and google mudawana. Under the new Sharia, women have an equal right to divorce.
In a divorce situation, children go to the mother, women have a right to alimony, a man cannot just divorce a woman, he has to actually go to a court and justify it, a man cannot take a second wife, women cannot be married off etc.
All the conventional nonsense has been overturned, but by using the basic sources of Islam, i. Quran and Sunnah. If you dig out the whole constitution, you find the articles have footnotes saying where they are derived from. It is a Sharia which is just as valid as the classical Sharia but it is much more prepared for our own time. Things are changing. In Morocco, instead of letting the conservative ulema interpret the Sharia for mudawana , the king decided to have female lawyers and other representatives of society who may not be alim but have a much greater understanding of contemporary times, laws etc.
What happens is that there is no challenge to the conservative thought and authority, and this leads to uncritical thought. TNS: You have been described both as a post-modernist as well as somebody who critiques post-modernism?
Ziauddin Sardar explored the cultural tensions that surrounds this summer's tour of England. Writer and academic Ziauddin Sardar hails the boy who has shattered barriers and preconceptions. Ziauddin Sardar is a writer, broadcaster and critical critic. Cif belief Reading the Qur'an in the dark. Published: 27 Aug Cif belief Not in my name. Published: 21 Oct First person First person. Published: 13 Sep Post-PC dignity.
Published: 15 Jul A window on the Muslim world. Published: 11 Jul The eternal present tense. Published: 21 Jun To lionise former extremists feeds anti-Muslim prejudice. Published: 24 Apr The Islamic law debate Sharia: heat but no enlightenment. Published: 14 Feb
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