Can West and East ever understand each other? In this extraordinary book one of the world's leading Muslim scholars explores an area which has been almost entirely neglected by scholars in the field - the area of postmodernism and Islam. This landmark work is startling and constantly perceptive in its exploration of Western and Islamic culture. Emphasizing the role of the mass media in shaping our understanding of East-West relations, Akbar S. Ahmed analyses the ways in which the media turned events like the Salmon Rushdie affair and the Gulf war into a carnival of spectacle and...