When I blogged about this earlier, I didn’t get it quite right; the list of 100 was not the result of a poll – it was the long list compiled by Foreign Policy Magazine and Prospect Magazine. Readers were asked to vote for their picks out of this list, to determine the world’s top 20 public intellectuals.
Over 500,000 people from all over the world voted, and, as Foreign Policy noted, the top ten public intellectuals in this year’s poll are all Muslim.
Topping the list was Turkey’s Fethullah Gülen, a religious leader and Islamic scholar with a movement named after him that includes millions of followers.
Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the popular host of Al-Jazeera’s talk show “Sharia and Life” came in third place. Amr Khaled came in sixth.
In seventh place was Iran’s Abdol Karim Soroush, Islamic thinker, philosopher, Rumi scholar, and university professor. Tariq Ramadan was voted eighth. Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Sherin Ebadi came tenth.
The write-in public intellectual, meaning the person who wasn't on the long list and people suggested, was Stephen Colbert - actor, comedian, and host of the popular Colbert Report.
Whatever you might say about polls, lists, and the ranking business – I still think this is interesting. According to Foreign Policy:
Which reminds me, Amr Khaled will be in Amman tomorrow giving a talk at the Arena, at 5:00 pm. The ad I saw said that tickets are sold in public places, I’m not sure where that is exactly, but if I find out I will update this post.
Over 500,000 people from all over the world voted, and, as Foreign Policy noted, the top ten public intellectuals in this year’s poll are all Muslim.
Topping the list was Turkey’s Fethullah Gülen, a religious leader and Islamic scholar with a movement named after him that includes millions of followers.
Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the popular host of Al-Jazeera’s talk show “Sharia and Life” came in third place. Amr Khaled came in sixth.
In seventh place was Iran’s Abdol Karim Soroush, Islamic thinker, philosopher, Rumi scholar, and university professor. Tariq Ramadan was voted eighth. Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Sherin Ebadi came tenth.
The write-in public intellectual, meaning the person who wasn't on the long list and people suggested, was Stephen Colbert - actor, comedian, and host of the popular Colbert Report.
Whatever you might say about polls, lists, and the ranking business – I still think this is interesting. According to Foreign Policy:
In early May, the Top 100 list was mentioned on the front page of Zaman, a Turkish daily newspaper closely aligned with Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. Within hours, votes in his favor began to pour in. His supporters—typically educated, upwardly mobile Muslims—were eager to cast ballots not only for their champion but for other Muslims in the Top 100. Thanks to this groundswell, the top 10 public intellectuals in this year’s reader poll are all Muslim. The ideas for which they are known, particularly concerning Islam, differ significantly. It’s clear that, in this case, identity politics carried the day.
Which reminds me, Amr Khaled will be in Amman tomorrow giving a talk at the Arena, at 5:00 pm. The ad I saw said that tickets are sold in public places, I’m not sure where that is exactly, but if I find out I will update this post.
0 comments:
Post a Comment