Foreign Policy and Prospect have released the results of their joint poll asking who are the world's top public intellectuals.
Of the top ten, all ten are Muslims and write about Islamic issues.
The twenty-first century will be profoundly shaped by developments in the Islamic world, but I think this result overeggs the pudding, as the British would say. A product of ballot-box stuffing perhaps?
Foreign Policy admitted as much in its summary of the results:
What does this list tell us aside from which intellectuals are best at mobilizing their supporters? (There's something about the combination of "intellectuals" and "mobilizing their supporters" that doesn't sit right with me.)
Of the top ten, all ten are Muslims and write about Islamic issues.
The twenty-first century will be profoundly shaped by developments in the Islamic world, but I think this result overeggs the pudding, as the British would say. A product of ballot-box stuffing perhaps?
Foreign Policy admitted as much in its summary of the results:
...A number of intellectuals—including Aitzaz Ahsan, Noam Chomsky, Michael Ignatieff, and Amr Khaled—mounted voting drives by promoting the list on their Web sites. Others issued press releases or gave interviews to local newspapers. Press coverage profiling these intellectuals appeared around the world, with stories running in Canada, India, Indonesia, Qatar, Spain, and elsewhere.In any case, this confirms my readers' suspicions that this vote was a pointless exercise. I'm inclined to agree, and not just because of the absence of a single Japanese from the list of nominees (although Foreign Policy's Minxin Pei insisted that Funabashi Yoichi should have made the list). It's interesting that despite the much-vaunted rise of (East) Asia, the only East Asian in the top twenty is from India (Amartya Sen), whose credentials as an East Asian country some might question despite its membership in the East Asia Summit.
No one spread the word as effectively as the man who tops the list. 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.
What does this list tell us aside from which intellectuals are best at mobilizing their supporters? (There's something about the combination of "intellectuals" and "mobilizing their supporters" that doesn't sit right with me.)
4 comments:
This is Foreign Policy taking a step down Times's path of insipidity via lists that supplant content - nothing more, nothing less. Any non-numerical ranking of anything other than NCAA football teams is meaningless pap designed to sell magazines.
Obviously a completely worthless poll. One of the most worthless polls I have ever seen.
I think it is wrong to say that Fethullah Gulen mobilized his followers. The truth is his followers thought him worthy to be mobilized. His followers taught his opinions were worthy so they went and open schools all around world even at countries nobody wanted to go. His followers taught that with his ideas this world could be turned to a nice place where people tolerated each other and not killed each other for unworthy cause. I think if a man is respected by many people you should give him credit for that.
thanks
I agree that Gulen won becasue his supporters thought him worthy simply because of the strangth of his ideas. Rather, than being bitter about muslims being the top public intellectuals in the world, it might do us aworld of good if we listen to their ideas, which so many people felt worthy.
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