Tarik Ali

Tarik Ali (طارق علی)
(image source: http://tariqali.org)
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British-Pakistani writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, political activist, and public intellectual, born in Lahore in 1943; studied at Oxford; member of the editorial committee of the New Left Review and Sin Permiso, contributor to The Guardian, CounterPunch, and the London Review of Books; author of several books, including Pakistan: Military Rule or People's Power (1970), Can Pakistan Survive? The Death of a State (1991), Pirates Of The Caribbean: Axis Of Hope (2006), Conversations with Edward Said (2005), Bush in Babylon (2003), Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity (2002), A Banker for All Seasons (2007), The Duel (2008), The Obama Syndrome (2010)[3] and The Extreme Centre: A Warning (2015) [info source: wiki]

I had a long discussion yesterday on Facebook with some friends, a discussion that was far from being devoid of controversies and misunderstandings; it was about an article in NY Times authored by Tarik Ali and giving his analysis of the 1917 October Revolution. It happens that I am just reading one of his film scenarios (consecrated this time to the Trials of Spinoza). I also have read some time ago a couple of his books. His opinions are radical, thus controversial, while the consistency of his writing makes him a valuable source of information and reflection. I think that in order to understand a topic you need to read opinions that you agree with as well as opinions contrary to your views. It is the only way to enrich your approach of various events and phenomena and to get a good balance over them.

• Tarik Ali about the October Revolution

(A Life in Books)