'Why do people hate America?' By Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies (bog)

Not just another 9/11 book, this controversial United Kingdom bestseller is for those who are trying to understand why America is a target for hate. The authors explore the global impact of America's foreign policy, corporate power, and the TV and Hollywood machine.

"American corporations and popular culture affect the lives and infect the indigenous cultures of millions around the world. The foreign policy of the U.S. government, backed by its military strength, has unprecedented global influence now that the USA is the world's only superpower - its first 'hyperpower.'" "America also exports its value systems, defining what it means to be civilised, rational, developed and democratic - indeed, what it is to be human. Meanwhile, the U.S. itself is impervious to outside influence, and if most Americans think of the rest of the world at all, it is in terms of deeply ingrained cultural stereotypes." Many people do hate America, in the Middle East and the developing countries as well as in Europe. Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies consider this hatred in the context of America's own perception of itself, and provide an important contribution to a debate which needs to be addressed by people of all nations, cultures, religions and political persuasions.

Ziauddin Sardar is a writer, futurist and cultural critic. He is the Director of the Centre for Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies and editor of Critical Muslim, an innovative quarterly on contemporary Muslim ideas and thought.

He has been described as a ‘critical polymath’ and works across a number of
 disciplines ranging from Islamic studies and futures studies to science policy, literary criticism, information science to cultural relations, art criticism and critical theory. He was born in Pakistan in 1951 and grew up in Hackney, East London.

Ziauddin Sardar has worked as science 
journalist for Nature and New Scientist and
 as a television reporter for London Weekend Television. He was a columnist on the New Statesman for a number of years and has served as a Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission and as a member of 
the Interim National Security Forum.
 Ziauddin Sardar has published over 45 books. The Future of Muslim Civilisation (1979) and Islamic Futures: The Shape of Ideas to Come (1985) are regarded as classic studies on the future of Islam. He pioneered the discussion on science in Muslim societies, with a series of articles in Nature and New Scientist and a number of books, including Science, Technology and Development in the Muslim World (1977), The Touch of Midas: Science,
Values and the Environment in Islam and the West (1982), which is seen as a seminal work, The Revenge of Athena: Science, Exploitation and the Third World (1988) and Explorations in Islamic Science (1989).
Postmodernism and the Other (1998) has
 acquired a cultish following and Why Do 
People Hate America? (2002) became an
international bestseller.

Ziauddin Sardar’s two volumes of biography and travel, Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim (2004) and Balti Britain: A Provocative Journey Through Asian Britain (2008) have received wide acclaim. Reading the Qur’an (2011), which began as a Guardian blog, has been described as a ‘mini masterpiece’. And Future: All That Matters is probably the only accessible introduction to futures studies. He has also authored a number of study guides in the Introducing series, including the international bestsellers Introducing Islam and Introducing Chaos. Two collections of his writings are available as Islam, Postmodernism and Other Futures: A Ziauddin Sardar Reader (2003) and How Do You Know?: Reading Ziauddin Sardar on Islam, Science and Cultural Relations (2006).

Ziauddin Sardar has written and presented
 numerous television programmes – most 
recently ‘Battle for Islam’, a 90-minute
documentary for BBC2 and ‘Dispatches’ on
 Pakistan for Channel 4. His earlier 
programmes include ‘Encounters with Islam’ (1985), a series of four shows for BBC and ‘Islamic Conversations’ (1994), a series of six programmes for Channel 4. He was a regular Friday Panel Member on ‘World News Tonight’ on Sky News (2005-2007).

Formerly Editor of Futures (1999-2012), the monthly journal of policy, planning and 
futures studies, he is now consulting editor 
of Futures. He was a long-standing columnist on the New Statements and has contributed to the Guardian, the Times, the Independent and numerous other newspapers and magazines.

Widely known for his radio and television
 appearances, he writes an occasional ‘Credo’ column for the Times. His history of Mecca: The Sacred City will be published by Bloomsbury in the autumn of 2014.

Titel: Why do people hate America?

Forlag: Icon Books

Udgivelsesår: 2002

Sider: 231

Sprog: Engelsk