Author Archives: Kenan Malik

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘INTEGRATION’?

June 12, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Last month, I reviewed David Goodhart’s book The British Dream which explores, in the words of its subtitle, the ‘successes and failures of post-war immigration’. Goodhart, I suggested, ‘touches on some of the critical issues that we face today’. But ‘his insistence on seeing contemporary problems primarily through the lens of immigration only obscures those issues and makes it more difficult to formulate adequate responses’. In his response to the review, Goodhart raised three main issues. First, he suggested that […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: britain, britishness, david goodhart, identity politics, immigration, integration, multiculturalism, racism

SPORTING BEST

June 9, 2013 by Kenan Malik

My essay on CLR James’ Beyond a Boundary got me to thinking about my favourite sports books. And, after much torment and tussle, I finally settled on my list of the sporting best in print. And before anyone mentions it, I know that I have missed out Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch. It may be everyone else’s favourite sports book, but it’s not mine. If you are intrigued enough to want to read any of the books, click on the cover. […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Sport • Tags: clr james, david storey, muhammad ali, norman mailer, sporting books, sports

MYTHS OF RADICALISATION

June 2, 2013 by Kenan Malik

How do we stop young Muslims becoming radicalized? That has been the question posed by many politicians, policy makers, analysts and journalists in the aftermath of the killing of Lee Rigby in Woolwich last week. Indeed, it has been the question posed ever since the 7/7 bombings first raised the issue of ‘homegrown’ terrorism. The idea of ‘radicalization’ as the process by which young Muslims get drawn into jihadist circles has become received wisdom within security forces and among politicians, […]

Categories: Britain, War on terror • Tags: 7/7, britain, identity politics, islam, islamism, liberties, marc sageman, radicalisation, terrorism, war on terror

THE ENLIGHTENMENT – AND WHY IT STILL MATTERS

May 30, 2013 by Kenan Malik

‘If I knew something useful to me, and harmful to my family, I would reject it from my mind’, the French Enlightenment philosophe Montesquieu famously wrote. ‘If I knew something useful to my family and not to my country, I would try to forget it. If I knew something useful to my country, and harmful to Europe, or useful to Europe and harmful to Mankind, I would look upon it as a crime’. Montesquieu’s sentiment expresses, for Anthony Pagden, the […]

Categories: History • Tags: aquinas, cosmopolitanism, democracy, enlightenment, european union, hobbes, human nature, jonathan israel, morality, radical enlightenment, universalism

BAD WEATHER BLUES

May 26, 2013 by Kenan Malik

A weekend of glorious sun in London and I’m almost nostalgic for the misery of the previous eight months of rain and hail and wind and fog. More than once during that time I was reminded of the T-Bone Walker song: They call it Stormy Monday But Tuesday’s just as bad. They call it Stormy Monday But Tuesday’s just as bad. Lord, and Wednesday’s worse And Thursday’s all so sad. Not to worry, the rain returns tomorrow. So, in celebration […]

Categories: Photos • Tags: bad weather, blues, canada, london, photos, rockies, scotland, skye, yorkshire

REFLECTIONS ON WOOLWICH

May 23, 2013 by Kenan Malik

1 It was a mad, barbarous attack, more akin to a particularly savage form of street violence than to a politically motivated act. What was striking about the incident was not just its depravity but the desire of the murderers for that depravity to be captured on film. This was narcissistic horror, an attempt to create a spectacle, enact a performance, and generate media frenzy. In that it succeeded. We should not provide the act with greater legitimacy by rationalizing […]

Categories: Britain, War on terror • Tags: britain, islam, islamism, terrorism, war on terror

BEYOND A BOUNDARY

May 19, 2013 by Kenan Malik

This year marks the 50th anniversary of CLR James’ wonderful, groundbreaking work Beyond a Boundary. To call it a book about cricket is a bit like calling cricket a ‘game’. Beyond a Boundary blends politics and memoir, history and journalism, biography and reportage, in a manner that transcends literary, sporting and political boundaries. V S Naipaul, not a man given to offering easy praise, described it as ‘one of the finest and most finished books to come out of the West […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: clr james, cricket, sports

EQUALITY AND THE GODLESS

May 16, 2013 by Kenan Malik

I have been in Brussels to attend a conference on the Radical Enlightenment, and to interview Jonathan Israel, the keynote speaker, for an essay I am writing about his work and argument. Israel has transformed our understanding of the Enlightenment with his superlative trilogy published over the past decade: Radical Enlightenment, Enlightenment Contested, and Democratic Enlightenment. At the heart of his argument is his insistence that there were two Enlightenments. The mainstream Enlightenment of Kant, Locke, Voltaire and Hume is the […]

Categories: History, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: enlightenment, equality, jonathan israel, locke, radical enlightenment, religion

DESCARTES’ GHOST

May 12, 2013 by Kenan Malik

In completing my book on the history of moral thought I had to reduce the original manuscript by some 30,000 words to get it to a reasonable size. Much of what has been lost is better off left on the cutting room floor. There are, however, some sections coherent enough to be worth reading. So, I am running an occasional series publishing some of the more cogent ‘lost pages’ from the book. The first was on Machiavelli. This extract is on Descrates and […]

Categories: History of moral thought • Tags: descartes, dualism, history of ideas, history of moral thought, human nature, renaissance

REFLECTIONS ON UKIP – AND ON REFLECTIONS ABOUT UKIP

May 9, 2013 by Kenan Malik

A week on from the local elections, and there seems to be no end to the debate about UKIP’s success. Explanations fall into two broad categories. Some insist that UKIP garnered merely a temporary midterm protest vote. Others see Nigel Farage’s outfit as a lasting threat to which the main parties must respond by adopting more hardline policies, especially on Europe, immigration and welfare. Both views are right. And both are wrong. UKIP does draw the protest vote. But the […]

Categories: Britain, Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, conservative party, european union, immigration, labour party, racism, ukip, working class

THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SKIN A COMMUNITY

May 6, 2013 by Kenan Malik

David Goodhart, in his response to my review of his book The British Dream, raised three major issues. First, he suggested, mass immigration undermines stability and continuity. Second, he claimed that I ignored the fact that immigrants come not as individuals but as members of communities and cultures. And third, he challenged me to set out my concept of integration. I dealt with the question of stability and change in a pervious post. I will write about the meaning of […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, david goodhart, immigration, liberalism, multiculturalism, working class movements

REASONING ABOUT TERROR

May 2, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, has stirred up controversy with his claim, on Iran’s Press TV, that behind the Boston bombings lay anger about Western foreign policy and its attitudes to Islam: There was such ignorance in the Bush White House about Islam and about the history of so many disputes that exist in the Middle East. People get angry. They lash out. It’s the whole squalid intervention that has disfigured the record of the Western democracies. I […]

Categories: War on terror • Tags: chechnya, islam, islamism, olivier roy, terrorism, usa, war on terror

BETWEEN TATE MODERN AND ST PAUL’S…

April 28, 2013 by Kenan Malik

…lies a cityscape that’s built for black and white:

Categories: Photos • Tags: london, photos

IMMIGRATION AND LOSS

April 26, 2013 by Kenan Malik

On Saturday I reviewed David Goodhart’s book The British Dream which explores, in the words of its subtitle, the ‘successes and failures of post-war immigration’. Goodhart, I suggested, ‘touches on some of the critical issues that we face today’. But ‘his insistence on seeing contemporary problems primarily through the lens of immigration only obscures those issues and makes it more difficult to formulate adequate responses’. Goodhart responded to that review, suggesting that my attempt to marry a critique of multiculturalism […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, Class, david goodhart, debates, immigration, labour party, multiculturalism, working class

DAVID GOODHART RESPONDS

April 22, 2013 by Kenan Malik

On Saturday I posted my review of David Goodhart’s book The British Dream. Here is Goodhart’s response to that review. My thanks to David for a generous reply. I will post something later this week in response to the main challenge he raises about immigration, multiculturalism and integration, and about whether I adopt the left version of ‘there is no such thing as society’. I have also added a comment to this post which deals with some of the other […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, david goodhart, debates, immigration, multiculturalism