Mark Vernon, The Guardian – Comment is free, Aug.6, www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/aug/06/religion-islam-ramadan-tolerance-pluralism
We live in a plural age. But do we have an adequate philosophy for living together in our diversity? Tariq Ramadan, in his new book, The Quest for Meaning, thinks not.
Ramadan cites the familiar, pluralist parable about the blind men each feeling a different part of the elephant. It’s usually taken to mean that we each have a partial knowledge of the one, immense cosmos. But that’s not the point, Ramadan insists. Its basic message is that we are, at least in part, blind, or have been blinded. Accepting that is the first and fundamental challenge.