News Release

Tariq Ramadan on the global ideology of fear

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

In the current issue of New Perspectives Quarterly, Tariq Ramadan discusses global fear-- fueled by both terrorism and the war against it. He observes three principal effects of fear: it breeds mistrust and potential conflict with the "Other," it allows us to forgo all explanation, understanding, and analysis that may help us understand the Other, and it produces a deafness that allows individuals to remain uninformed. He states that fear transforms all societies and their members into victims. He follows that those victims become incapable of viewing the Other as anything but a potential threat.

Professor Ramadan advocates education. "Against the temptation to close ourselves off, to see reality in black and white, we need an 'intellectual jihad,'" he writes. "We need to resist (jihad means, literally effort and resistance), to strive for the universality of a message that transcends the particular and allows us to understand the common universal values that make up our horizon." This reform should be undertaken to resist the ideology of fear.

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This study is published in the Winter issue of New Perspectives Quarterly. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article please contact journalnews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net

New Perspectives Quarterly has a well-earned reputation around the world as the one publication that consistently engages the best minds and most authoritative voices in cutting-edge debate on current affairs-- and does so in a way that is always interesting, accessible, and concise. Its coverage is wide-ranging, its contributors outstanding. It is published on behalf of The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.

Blackwell Publishing is the world's leading society publisher, partnering with 665 academic and professional societies. Blackwell publishes over 800 journals and, to date, has published more than 6,000 books, across a wide range of academic, medical, and professional subjects.


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