Ding, Dong, Said is Dead

by Joe Katzman at September 25, 2003 6:47 PM

Columbia professor Edward Said is dead of leukemia, all praise be to Allah. He was 67. I'd commemorate appropriately by going outside to ululate and fire a Kalashnikov in the air, but [a] only women are supposed to ululate, and [b] gun control is pretty strict up here. Feel free to use the Comments section instead...

As an aside, Adil "MuslimPundit" Farooq's article When Ibn Warraq Met Edward Said remains one of my favourites here at Winds of Change.NET. Not to mention a good illustration of why I'm not shedding many tears.

UPDATES:

· See the Comments section for some useful exchanges. Respecting the dead is not a social convention to throw aside lightly - but I believe it to be justified in this case. Others disagree, and I think I see a politico-cultural split that separates the positions. More on that in a subsequent article.

· The Sufi Shaykh Muzaffer had a wise reminder for occasions like this in "G-d and Our Enemies." True. This event also prompts further meditations on the concepts in this much-discussed post re: the theology of "Forgiveness, Justice & Hate."

· For more background on Said and 'Orientalism,' see also Charles Paul Freund's Reason Magazine article "2001 Nights" (Hat Tip: Instapundit)

· Blog Irish offers some fascinating insights - and an author to read.

· Meet Said's academic bane Martin Kramer, who comments by offering Chapter 7 ("Said's Splash") of Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America online. This book is now a counterpart pre-reading to Said's texts at Harvard, and more Said-related resources can also be found in the sidebar.

· Christopher Hitchens had a different view of Said (Hat Tip: klaatu) - an opinion that had not worn off, though it was under strain from recent events.

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