Postmodernism and Islam: After 9/11? —Professor Akbar S Ahmed
The challenge to postmodernism did not come from the expected quarters. It came from George W Bush and Osama bin Laden...
"...postmodernism is, if nothing else, is resilient. Ideas of universal acceptance, compassion and understanding are difficult to erase. While Islam is being demonised by many in America as a religion of terrorists and extremists, books on Islam are doing brisk business at the bookstores.
Maulana Rumi, a Muslim mystic born centuries ago in what is now Afghanistan, is one of America’s favourite poets. Rumi’s example in itself is evidence the spirit of postmodernism still survives the Grand Narrative.
Indeed, it is desperately needed in the violent and anarchic world that September 11 has engendered. The predicament of living in the early part of the21st century will be assuaged by the promise and practice of universal compassion and understanding that lie at the heart of both postmodernism and Islam."
