Islamic scholar voted world's No 1 thinker

[zinc]

An Islamic scholar was voted world's no 1 thinker and the top 10 were all Muslims, this is great news.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008...3/turkey.islam

For the full top 100 check this out:
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/a...s.php?id=10261

In 2005 the top 100 looked like this:
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/i...ls/results.htm

Dawkins from 3rd to 19th

[purebob]

If you read the details, there was a swizz by Gulen's followers that corrupted the results.

Still it is positive that Muslims could be motivated to bother to do that though IMO.

How Gulen triumphed

[Illuminate]

Originally Posted by purebob

If you read the details, there was a swizz by Gulen's followers that corrupted the results.

results are always corrupted - like the eurovision song contest, nobel price, USA presidental election, votes by parliament - LOOOL....

[plimfix01]

The Guardian story begins, "A hitherto largely unknown Turkish Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gülen..." I thought he was hitherto fairly well known, actually.

[dontask]

"When Prospect and Foreign Policy drew up our list of the world’s top 100 public intellectuals a few weeks ago, none of us expected a Turkish Sufi cleric, barely known in the west, to sweep to victory. Nor did we expect every name in the top ten would be from a Muslim background. (Noam Chomsky, who won the last poll in 2005, led the west in 11th place this time.)"

"This “Muslim effect” seems to reflect the power of connectivity in the Muslim world, especially its more liberal parts. You had to have access to the internet to be able to vote in the poll, of course, but, more to the point, email and websites allow news to spread and campaigns to be mounted within hours. Turkey now boasts almost 3m Facebook users, more than any country apart from the US, Britain and Canada. Farsi, the most widely spoken language in Iran, is by some counts the fourth most popular language in the world for blogs."



aww diddums the neo conservative zionists dont like a taste of their own medicine ... so when its muslims doing winning it has to be discounted as something sinister ..

[nassir49]

This is what the west want us to be, some one they like, just like him its pick and choose.

[Saracen]

Originally Posted by nassir49

This is what the west want us to be, some one they like, just like him its pick and choose.

a bit like HT, pick and choose.

[Saracen]

polls are often meaningless, like this one.

[faith28]

Nice to hear. I remember that some orientalist also placed Muhammed (SAW) as the greatest leader that ever lived.

[CANTANATRIX]

A clear case of democracy in action. Get enough people bothered to vote and your candidate will win.

Ok this guy might not be most people's choice for no.1 thinker but those Turkish guys rallied their numbers to get him noticed so well done to them.

[purebob]

Originally Posted by CANTANATRIX

A clear case of democracy in action. Get enough people bothered to vote and your candidate will win.

Ok this guy might not be most people's choice for no.1 thinker but those Turkish guys rallied their numbers to get him noticed so well done to them.

Completely agree CT

Democracy in action !

[GCarty]

Originally Posted by faith28

Nice to hear. I remember that some orientalist also placed Muhammed (SAW) as the greatest leader that ever lived.

I know Michael H Hart wrote a book on the "100 most influential people in history", and his top 10 was:

1. Muhammad
2. Isaac Newton
3. Jesus Christ
4. Buddha
5. Confucius
6. St. Paul
7. Ts'ai Lun (inventor of paper)
8. Johannes Gutenberg
9. Christopher Columbus
10. Albert Einstein

He wasn't an Orientalist though, but an astrophysicist...

[CasualVisitor]

Originally Posted by GCarty

I know Michael H Hart wrote a book on the "100 most influential people in history", and his top 10 was:

1. Muhammad
2. Isaac Newton
3. Jesus Christ
4. Buddha
5. Confucius
6. St. Paul
7. Ts'ai Lun (inventor of paper)
8. Johannes Gutenberg
9. Christopher Columbus
10. Albert Einstein

He wasn't an Orientalist though, but an astrophysicist...

Yeah, right. Always depends on who asks whom.

A Japanese survey gave this result:

1. # Sakamoto Ryoma
2. # Napoleon I
3. # Oda Nobunaga
4. # Saigo Takamori
5. # Miyamoto no Yo****sune
6. # Jean of Arc
7. # Hideyoshi Toyotomi
8. # Albert Einstein
9. # Yutaka Ozaki
10. # Akechi Mitsuhide

And another, more general, non-hero list:

1. Matsuo Basho
2. Isaac Newton
3. Akechi Mistuhide
4. Ikkyu
5. Chopin
6. Dazai Osamu
7. Abraham Lincoln
8. Shohei “Giant” Baba
9. Anne Sullivan
10. Honda Soichiro
11. Ferdinand Magellan

...
13. Confucius
...
17. Joan of Arc
...
21. Albert Schweizer
...
28. Elvis Presley
...
38. Jesus Christ
...
48. Bruce Lee
...

Guess what. Muhammad is on neither list...

[GCarty]

Originally Posted by CasualVisitor

A Japanese survey gave this result:
Quote:

1. Sakamoto Ryoma
2. Napoleon I
3. Oda Nobunaga
4. Saigo Takamori
5. Miyamoto no Yoshitsune
6. Jean of Arc
7. Hideyoshi Toyotomi
8. Albert Einstein
9. Yutaka Ozaki
10. Akechi Mitsuhide

Wot, no Fukuzawa Yukichi?

(He was the man responsible for the modernization of Japan during the Meiji era. His face is on Japan's highest-denomination bank note.)

[CasualVisitor]

Originally Posted by GCarty

Wot, no Fukuzawa Yukichi?

(He was the man responsible for the modernization of Japan during the Meiji era. His face is on Japan's highest-denomination bank note.)

Holy moley, I had to google this fella up first! Respect GCarty!
Yes, he is on the list - the second, more general list.
He is on a decent 85th place, right behind Anne Frank but still before Einstein and Mother Teresa:

84 Anne Frank
85 Fukuzawa Yukichi
86 Misora Hibari
87 Albert Einstein
88 Princess Diana
...
92 Mother Teresa
...
97 Thomas Edison

Crazy Japanese... Weird priorities, huh?
[Dazed and Confused]

[Tranqulity]

Originally Posted by CasualVisitor

Guess what. Muhammad is on neither list...

Muslims don't really take the word of atheists as being of Divine origin. we'd rather accept what God has told us than a (human) compiler of some list

[CasualVisitor]

Originally Posted by Tranqulity

Muslims don't really take the word of atheists as being of Divine origin.

休ませる 【やすませる】!!
(Excuse me!)
Shintosim is a polyteistic religion, not atheism.

[CANTANATRIX]

Originally Posted by CasualVisitor

Holy moley, I had to google this fella up first! Respect GCarty!
Yes, he is on the list - the second, more general list.
He is on a decent 85th place, right behind Anne Frank but still before Einstein and Mother Teresa:

Crazy Japanese... Weird priorities, huh?
[Dazed and Confused]

What about Tokugawa Ieyasu? Master strategist and founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate that finally brought an end to the warring states and united Japan?

[CasualVisitor]

Originally Posted by CANTANATRIX

What about Tokugawa Ieyasu? Master strategist and founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate that finally brought an end to the warring states and united Japan?

Damn it!
#96 on the general list!
You studied Japanese Studies??
Cool!

[CANTANATRIX]

Originally Posted by CasualVisitor

Damn it!
#96 on the general list!
You studied Japanese Studies??
Cool!

I studied modern Japanese History and Japanese wartime history but the late feudal era has been a area of personal interest, not least because of William Adams who was the first Briton to reach Japan and he became the first (and only I think) gai-jin to be granted the rank of samurai.