Disordered World

In this brilliant exploration of the post-9/11 world, leading Lebanese novelist and intellectual Amin Maalouf sets out to understand how we have arrived at such disorder. He explores three different but related aspects of disorder: intellectual (manifested in an unleashing of statements on identity that allow no possibility of peaceful co-existence or debate), economic and financial (that is exhausting the earth's resources), and climatic (the result of turning a blind eye to the consequences of rampant industrialization). Instead of seeing the current disorder of the post-9/11 world as 'a clash of civilisations' Maalouf sees it as the 'exhaustion of two civilisations', a period in which humanity has reached its threshold of 'moral incompetence'. Islam and the West have theoretical coherence, he says, but in practice each betrays its true ideals: the West is unfaithful to its own enlightenment values, which has discredited it in the eyes of the people to whom it has introduced democracy by force; while Islam finds itself condemned to a headlong rush into radicalism. These symmetrical disorders are only some of the elements in a global disorder that requires humanity as a whole to take responsibility for its future and face up to the urgent tasks such as climate change and the global financial crisis that threaten us all. Disordered World is a plea by one of the major writers of the last twenty years for intelligence, tolerance and a sense of urgency in order that we develop an adult vision of our patrimony, our beliefs, our differences and the future of the planet which is our common home.

ISBN	1408815982	DEWEY edition	DC22
ISBN13	9781408815984 (What's this?)	Pages	288
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing PLC	Published in	London
Imprint	Bloomsbury Publishing PLC	Height (mm)	216
Format	Hardback	Width (mm)	135
Publication date	19 Sep 2011	Academic level	General
DEWEY	909.83

Maalouf writes for a general rather than a specialist readership Le Monde Rarely has the tipping point between Arab nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism after the Six Day War been explained so clearly. ... Maalouf is a Christian, but he wants to speak out in defence of Muslims; he is from the Middle East, but he still has great hope in Europe; he is Lebanese, but he is a great critic of group interests; he is a critic, yet he constantly voices his faith in humanity L'Express

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