Author Archives: Kenan Malik

SHAMIMA BEGUM AND MORAL RESPONSIBILITY

February 18, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the debate over Shamima Begum, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the BBC’s attitude to abortion.) It was published in the Observer, 17 February 2019, under the headline ‘The possibility of redemption is central to a humane society’. How do you solve a problem like Shamima? In February 2015, 15-year-old east London schoolgirl Shamima Begum travelled to Syria with two friends, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana, to join Islamic State. Last […]

Categories: Britain, Philosophy & Ethics, War on terror • Tags: citizenship, ethics, islamic state, islamism, jihadi returnees, jihadism, moral responsibility, morality, sajid javid, shamima begum

FROM BOOK TO FATWA

February 15, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie (it was issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 1989). To mark the anniversary, here is an extract from Chapter 1 of my book From Fatwa to Jihad (pp 1-10),which tells the story of how the conflict over The Satanic Verses first arose. . 1 ‘It would be absurd to think that a book can cause riots’, Salman Rushdie told the Indian journalist Shrabani Basu […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Culture & Books, Free Speech • Tags: ayatollah khomeini, fatwa, ghayasuddin siddiqui, iran, islam, islamism, muslims, rushdie affair, salman rushdie, saudi arabia, the satanic verses

DOING VIOLENCE TO OUR RIGHTS

February 11, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the clampdown on drill music, was my Observer column this week. It was published 10 February 2019, under the headline ‘Since when was it a police job to impose sanctions on drill musicians?’ The authorities ban musicians from playing without official approval. The police prevent them from performing a song deemed unacceptable. The courts threaten to imprison them when they do play it. All this not in Russia or Iran but in Britain. Last month, two drill musicians, Skengdo […]

Categories: Britain, Culture & Books, Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: 410, censorship, dan hancox, drill music, gang violence, ian macquaid, incitement laws, liberties, music, skengdo and am

PLUCKED FROM THE WEB #53

February 9, 2019 by Kenan Malik

The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . CRISPR babies: a view from the centre of the storm Robin Lovell-Badge, Development, 6 February 2019 JK’s rationale was clearly to make children resistant to HIV. Apparently, there is a lot of stigma associated with being HIV-positive in China, or even having a family member who is, and children with HIV-positive parents […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

THE CORROSIVENESS OF BULLSHIT

February 4, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on bullshit in contemporary politics, was my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 3 February 2019, under the headline ‘Bullshit, not lies, is the corrosive influence blighting our public life’. ‘Bullshit’, the philosopher Harry Frankfurt observed in a seminal essay on the subject, ‘is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about.’ He wrote that in 2005. But he might have been watching recent episodes of This Week, BBC’s late-night politics […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: andrew neil, brexit, british politics, bullshit, experts, harry frankfurt, james delingpole, ken livingstone, michael gove, technocratic politics, this week, venezuela

LEONARDO’S ETHEREAL LINES

February 2, 2019 by Kenan Malik

It is in his drawings, even more than in his paintings, that you truly glimpse the greatness of Leonardo da Vinci. It’s in his drawings that you see the depth of his curiosity, the breadth of his imagination, and the heights of his technical accomplishments. His studies of human anatomy, in particular, still astound. What is particularly extraordinary is his ability to meld scientific precision with a sensuous imagination that makes you look at, and think about, the human body […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: art, leonardo da vinci

WHEN DEMOGRAPHY BECOMES POLITICS

January 28, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on politics and demography, was my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 27 January 2019, under the headline ‘Demography is not destiny. Politics should be about winning minds’. Peter Kellner’s ‘crossover day’ has caused some commotion. Last Saturday, according to the veteran pollster, Britain became a majority Remain nation through demographic changes alone. Kellner’s calculations suggested that in the period since the 2016 referendum, sufficient old folk (who largely voted Leave) had died and enough teenagers, overwhelmingly Remain, had reached […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: brexit, british politics, crossover day, democracy, demography, identity politics, peter kellner, political demography, youth

PLUCKED FROM THE WEB #52

January 26, 2019 by Kenan Malik

The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Martin Luther King Jr and the meaning of emancipation Asad Haider, n+1, 18 January 2019 The contemporary betrayal of King lives on in the suppression of this voice of intransigence, and the reduction, by liberals and conservatives alike, of King to an empty symbol. Reagan’s neutralization of his politics is repeated, year […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

THE ART OF CONDESCENSION

January 21, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on art and snobbery in the context of ‘Museum Selfie Day’, was my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 13 January 2019, under the headline ‘Here’s me and the Mona Lisa. Who says that art and selfies can’t mix?’. So, there you are, having worked your way through a crowd denser than a Brexit negotiation, standing in front of your prize. The Mona Lisa in the Louvre. What do you do? Look more closely at that enigmatic smile? […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: art, mona lisa, museum selfie day, museums, selfie, yayoi kusama

TRACKS DISCOVERED IN 2018

January 19, 2019 by Kenan Malik

Not a compilation of my favourite music from 2018, but ten tracks from bands, singers and music that I discovered for the first time last year. Many I should have known about already, but I’m glad I’ve discovered now. And I might make this an annual post… . Driss El Maloumi, Imtidad (from the album Makan) Possibly my favourite discovery from last year. Driss El Maloumi is a Moroccan oud player, his style lyrical and haunting, melding classical Arabic and […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: blues, music, oud

SOCIALLY POLARISED, POLITICALLY PARALYSED

January 14, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the peculiar character of contemporary social polarisation, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the calls for the sacking of reactionary lecturer John Finnis.) It was published in the Observer, 13 January 2019, under the headline ‘A divided Britain is not new. So why do today’s schisms seem intractable?’ A few years ago, we stayed in a cottage in the Yorkshire Dales. One night, we went for a drink in the […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: anna soubry, brexit, british politics, left, polarisation, semiotics, social movements, symbols, tribalism

PLUCKED FROM THE WEB #51

January 11, 2019 by Kenan Malik

The latest (somewhat random) collection of recent essays and stories from around the web that have caught my eye and are worth plucking out to be re-read. . Citizenship v the surveillance state Matthew Longo, Boston Review, 6 December 2018 As a society, we have accepted as self-evident that a secure border protects our national sovereignty (and, by extension, citizens). But in fact, the opposite is increasingly true. New forms of bordering rely extensively on data and information sharing at […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

THE POLITICS OF THE SPACE RACE

January 7, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the politics of the space race from Sputnik to Chang’e-4, was the main article in my Observer column this week. It was published in the Observer, 6 January 2019, under the headline ‘Power politics always drives space conquest. China’s coup is no different’. Nasa had rejected it as too difficult and costly an undertaking. Last week, China declared ‘mission accomplished’ after landing a spacecraft, Chang’e-4, on the far side of the moon. It was a remarkable endeavour. As the […]

Categories: International, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics, Science • Tags: chang'e-4, china, cold war, john f kennedy, moon landing, nasa, soviet union, space exploration, space race, sputnik, usa, yuri gagarin

A BOOKISH DOZEN FOR THE NEW YEAR

January 4, 2019 by Kenan Malik

A dozen books due in 2019, both fiction and non-fiction, that I’m looking forward to. Not books I have read, so not (yet, anyway) recommendations, but books I would like to read. There are a dozen more I might have included, and many more that I have missed, but this is a start. . John Lanchester, The Wall Faber, January Where Lanchester’s Capital took on the financial crisis, his latest novel tackles another big issue: migration and the fear of the […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: angela saini, books, john lanchester, jonathan ree, margaret atwood, marlon james, michel houellebecq, peter gatrell, richard evans, samanth schweblin, toby green, william darlymple, zadie smith

POSH MAY BE PASSÉ BUT CONTEMPT IS NOT

December 31, 2018 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on changing attitudes to class, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on cookery books.) It was published in the Observer, 30 December 2018, under the headline ‘Posh is so passé – today’s elite prefers the myth of the meritocracy’. I’m not posh,’ an irate David Dimbleby told the Today presenter John Humphrys. ‘I come from Wales, as you do.’ Dimbleby, who this month stepped down as host of BBC’s Question Time, was being interviewed by Humphrys, […]

Categories: Britain, Class • Tags: brexit, Class, david dimbleby, david runciman, democracy, donald trump, education, elite, elitism, meritocracy, michael young, populism, poshness, privilege, richard dawkins, technocracy, upper class, working class