Author Archives: Kenan Malik

THE FAILING GRAYLING MODEL FOR BRITAIN

March 18, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the scandal of public sector outsourcing in Britain, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece reflecting on the debate about the Christchurch terror attacks.) It was published in the Observer, 17 March 2019, under the headline ‘We scoffed at Grayling’s ‘ferries’ but his way is now a public service norm’. Oh, how we laughed. Failing Grayling, the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, the Mr Bean of contemporary politics, had awarded a cross-Channel ferry […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: austerity, british politics, chris grayling, conservatives, new labour, outsourcing, privatisation, public sector

THE HISTORY AND POLITICS OF WHITE IDENTITY

March 16, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This is a transcript of a talk I gave to the Literarisches Colloqium Berlin on 5 March 2019. Identity politics is one of the defining – and one of the most divisive – issues of our age. And no identity is more contested or fought over than white identity. For some it is a means of giving voice to a group whose identity has previously been denied. For others it is simply as an expression of racism. The political context […]

Categories: Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: black identity, blumenbach, democracy, enlightenment, governor eyre, haitian revolution, herder, identity politics, immigration, immigration controls, imperialism, nouvelle droite, racial science, racism, universalism, white identity, working class

ON THE RIGHT TO HAVE RIGHTS

March 11, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the contemporary significance of Hannah Arendt’s concept of ‘the right to have rights’, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the dispute at Parkfield Community School over teaching about gays.) It was published in the Observer, 10 March 2019, under the headline ‘Human rights mean nothing unless we defend real, threatened people’. ‘The right to have rights.’ It’s 70 years since the philosopher Hannah Arendt coined that luminous phrase in an essay in […]

Categories: Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics, Politics • Tags: citizenship, discrimination, hannah arendt, human agency, human rights, immigration, lida maxwell, refugees, right to have rights, rights, struggling

PLUCKED FROM THE WEB #54

March 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. . Doing more, getting less Malcolm Harris, The Nation, 7 March 2019 In Gigged, we get a national tour of the new labor relations that provide the basis for Silicon Valley’s prosperity. Kessler began covering the gig economy in 2011, when she was herself a casualty of the post-financial-crisis labor market. Her first post, […]

Categories: Pandaemonium

RUSHDIE’S MONSTERS

March 4, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, a review of the BBC documentary The Satanic Verses: 30 Years On, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the use of predictive algorithms by local authorities.) It was published in the Observer, 3 March 2019, under the headline ‘The Satanic Verses is still creating monsters, even new book-burners’. Sometimes, you just have to shake your head to clear it and look again. Did he really write that? So it was […]

Categories: Britain, Culture & Books, Free Speech • Tags: bookburning, british politics, censorship, mobbed azhar, muslims, offence, racism, rushdie affair, salman rushdie, the satanic verses

RETURN TO OZ

March 1, 2019 by Kenan Malik

I will be in Australia again in the first week of April, giving talks in Brisbane, Melbourne and Bendigo, mainly on the politics of diversity and identity. Here is the current schedule: . 1 April Why are we so obsessed by identity? Griffith University Ian Hanger Recital Hall Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University 140 Grey St, Brisbane 19.00 A talk followed by a conversation with Luke Stegemann. The event is organized by Integrity 20. . 3 April Three myths about diversity […]

Categories: Kenan Malik • Tags: australia, talks

ANTI-ZIONISM IS NOT (ALWAYS) ANTI-SEMITISM

February 25, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the relationship between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on Einstein, science and philosophy.) It was published in the Observer, 24 February 2019, under the headline ‘Antisemites use the language of anti-Zionism. The two are distinct’. Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. So claimed France’s President Emmanuel Macron in a speech last week in which he promised to change policing regulations to criminalise anti-Zionism. The condemnation of anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism has a […]

Categories: International, Politics • Tags: anti-semitism, anti-zionism, civic nationalism, emmanuel macron, ethnic nationalism, israel, jews, labour party, left, nationalism, palestine, racism, tony judt, zionism

THE SCULPTED ROCKS OF GRANIT ROSE

February 23, 2019 by Kenan Malik

The Côte de Granit Rose runs along the eastern Breton coast from Plestin-les-Greves to Louannec. It’s quite unlike the rest of the coastline in Northern France. As the name suggests, it is formed of rose-coloured granite, and along sections, particularly north of Tréguier, the rocks are eroded and folded into fantastic sculptural shapes, abstract and otherworldly. .

Categories: Photos • Tags: brittany, coastline, france, granit rose, photography

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, Free Speech, Justice & Liberties • 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

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