The Flight of the Intellectuals (Hardcover)

From the Publisher: A sequel to the best-selling Terror and Liberalism examines the western world's ongoing efforts to establish healthy relations with moderate Islam in spite of key misunderstandings, profiling charismatic Muslim leaders with whom previous attempts have been made including Tariq Ramadan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and the Ayatollah Khomeini.Paul Berman--one of America's leading public intellectuals (Foreign Affairs)--conducts a searing examination of the West's fumbling efforts to establish a healthy discourse with "moderate" Islam, or to even properly identify what a "moderate" Muslim is. He does so by simultaneously presenting concise and penetrating studies of several of the Muslims we've embraced--such as Tariq Ramadan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and the Ayatollah Khomeini--and the journalists and intellectuals who first encouraged us to embrace them, such as Michel Foucault in Europe and Ian Buruma in the United States.||His portraits include some surprising revelations. For example, his portrait of Tariq Ramadan--one of the Muslim world's most charismatic and influential figures, with a long career at prominent European universities--advocating peaceful coexistence with the West.||But in his gripping and stylish narrative, Berman details Ramadan's disturbing ties to radical Islam, especially through his grandfather, the founder of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the founding ideology behind al-Qaeda. By comparing Ramadan's own writing with his coverage in the press, Berman touches on many of today's most important issues--contemporary anti-Semitism, anti-feminism, and the presence of homegrown Islamic fundamentalism in the West--and presents a stunning commentary about the media's inability to detect dangerous ideas in contemporary society.