Reading Ziauddin Sardar on “Self” and “Other” in Post-Normal Times

Abstract

I reflect on the intellectualism of Ziauddin Sardar in three fields. First, in his science of Islam, Zia reasons the need for critical enquiry from within. Global Islam is open, fluid, and dynamic, but it is missing in much of the world of Islam today. Second, how we view the Other is how we wish to project the Self—and vice-versa. Until the Self neutralizes itself, the Other is unknowable. Individualism is at the axis of Othering. Finally, where change is the only constant, the mind must be prepared to think beyond axioms and norms reliant on the past.