Desperately Seeking Paradise: Memoir of a Skeptical Muslim - Tapa dura

Ziauddin Sardar is one of the foremost Muslim intellectuals in Britain, author of more than 40 books on science, religion and culture. This is his account of his life as a restless believer. Sardar learned the Koran at his mother's knee during his childhood in Pakistan. As a young student in London, he sets out on a quest to grasp the meaning and contemporary relevance of his religion and, hopefully, to find "paradise". He experiments with the mystical branch of Islam, Sufism and with classical Islam. He then sets off on extensive travels through the Muslim world: to Iran, the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Turkey, North Africa, Pakistan and China. On his travels, Sardar speaks to other Muslima about their beliefs, and he yearningly looks back to Islam's "Golden Age". Finally, he accepts that he will probably never reach paradise - but it's the journey that's important.

Ziauddin Sardar was born in Pakistan in 1951 and grew up in Hackney, East London. He has worked all over the world as Muslim and Middle East correspondent for Nature, New Scientist and the Independent as well as making programmes for Channel 4, LWT and the BBC. He has published over 40 books, and contributes to the Observer, New Statesman, Independent, Evening Standard and Daily Mail. He is Visiting Professor of Postcolonial Studies at City University, London.