Pandaemonium

CAN SOCIAL COHESION BE IMPOSED?

November 7, 2015 by Kenan Malik

These are my introductory comments to a debate on ‘Can Social Cohesion be Imposed?’, part of the ‘Diverse or Divided?’ conference organised by the IPPR and Canada House, London. Other speakers in the debate were Julian Baginni, Marina Jimenez and Catherine Fieschi. Let me begin with a newspaper account of life in East London: The Bethnal Green poor are a caste apart, a race of whom we know nothing, whose lives are of quite different complexion from ours, persons with […]

Categories: Britain, Multiculturalism, Race & Immigration • Tags: britain, britishness, diversity, identity politics, immigration, multiculturalism, social cohesion, working class

IS EASTERN EUROPE MORE RACIST THAN THE WEST?

November 3, 2015 by Kenan Malik

An extract from my latest column for the International New York Times on the migrant crisis and the supposed ‘cultural gap’ between Eastern and Western Europe: Judging by the newspapers lately, one might be forgiven for thinking that until Hungary started putting up fences, the European Union had open borders and welcomed migrants with kindness and gentleness. In fact, over the past 25 years, the union has constructed what many justly call ‘Fortress Europe’, keeping out migrants not with fences […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: britain, eastern europe, european union, fortress europe, hungary, immigration, racism, xenophobia

IN THE FYNBOS, AND BEYOND

November 1, 2015 by Kenan Malik

‘Fynbos’ means ‘fine bush’ in Afrikaans. It describes a narrow coastal belt, up yo 200 km wide, in the Cape region of South Africa. The fynbos comprises much of the Cape Floral Kingdom, one of the world’s six Floral Kingdoms – and the tiniest. It is, though, incredibly rich and concentrated, considerably richer than rainforests. There are in the Cape Floral Kingdom more than 9,000 plant species, of which 70 per cent are endemic. The Cape Peninsula alone has more than 2000 […]

Categories: Photos • Tags: flowers, fynbos, photos, plants, south africa

THE STENCH OF A ROTTEN DEAL

October 28, 2015 by Kenan Malik

My latest column for Al Jazeera English is about the new EU-Turkey deal on migration. It was published under the headline ‘The EU’s stinking refugee deal with Turkey’. Over the past few weeks, the European Union has been stitching together a deal with Turkey to try to resolve Europe’s refugee crisis. More than half-a-million migrants and refugees have arrived at the EU’s southern and eastern borders this year alone. It has led to EU’s eastern borders being sealed off and bitter […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: angela merkel, erdogan, european union, fortress europe, immigration, refugees, turkey

DETROIT, DIEGO RIVERA AND THE WORTH OF ART

October 25, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Downtown Detroit looks almost like any other American city. Clusters of skyscrapers, huddles of cranes throwing up new high rises, expensive hotels with a dozens of valets lounging outside. Yet, look a bit closer, and you notice that in many of the blocks the windows are blacked over or broken, and bushes are growing on the ledges. Step outside the centre, and you find beautiful houses – standing in the middle of what appears like desolate fields. You spot kestrels […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: art, detroit, detroit industry murals, detroit institute of art, diego rivera, working class

EXTREMISM AND THE LAW

October 21, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Back in 2008, I gave a talk at an Index on Censorship conference on ‘Extremism and the Law: Free Speech in an Age of Terror’ in which I suggested that: One of the most significant shifts in recent years has been the mutation of the notion of ‘extremism’ from being a description of a political claim to being a quasi legal term. From the BNP to Hizb ut-Tahrir to Buju Banton’s homophobic lyrics, to label speech as extremist is to label it […]

Categories: Free Speech, War on terror • Tags: censorship, counter-extremism, free speech, war on terror

THE COLOUR OF FLIGHT

October 18, 2015 by Kenan Malik

I’m no twitcher. I probably couldn’t distinguish the call of a starling from that of a swift. But in South Africa, while the big beasts – the lions and the leopards, the elephants and the cheetahs, the giraffes and the rhinos – grab the wildlife headlines, what really caught my eye was the birdlife. South African birds are strikingly beautiful, varied and different. South Africa has almost 1000 different species, some 10 per cent of all the bird species in […]

Categories: Photos • Tags: birds, photos, south africa, wildlife

DAVID CAMERON AND THE CENTRE GROUND

October 11, 2015 by Kenan Malik

The Observer asked a number of commentators whether David Cameron’s speech to the Conservative Party conference last week, in which he staked a claim to the centre ground of politics, will reshape the political landscape. Here’s my response. All the responses (including ones from Michael Heseltine, Shirley Williams, Rob Ford and Stefan Collini) are in the Observer. There is nothing new in ideological clothes-swapping. Under Tony Blair, New Labour won three successive elections with the help of “triangulation” – stealing […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: british politics, centre ground, conservative party, david cameron, new labour, tony blair

RADICALIZATION IS NOT SO SIMPLE

October 7, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This is a transcript of my talk entitled ‘The Making of European Jihadis’ that I gave to the International Institute at the University of Michigan this week. (I have not had time to put in the links and references; I will do so soon.) Ifthekar Jaman was born in Portsmouth, on the south coast of England, one of four children. His parents, Enu Miah and Hena Choudhury, were first generation immigrants from Bangladesh, who had come to Portsmouth in 1981, opened […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, War on terror • Tags: europe, france, identity politics, islam, islamic state, islamism, jihadism, left, multiculturalism, racism, radicalization, working class

PEOPLE SMUGGLERS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM

October 4, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Hein de Haas is professor of sociology at the University of Amsterdam and a leading researcher on migration. This essay challenges the conventional way of thinking about people smugglers. It was first published on Hein de Haas’ blog, which is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in the issue. My thanks to Hein for allowing me to republish the essay on Pandaemonium. Hein de Haas Don’t blame the smugglers The billions spent on the militarisation of border controls over the […]

Categories: International, Race & Immigration • Tags: european union, fortress europe, immigration, migration, people smuggling

INTRODUCING… JESUS AND MO

September 30, 2015 by Kenan Malik

It is perhaps appropriate that a new Danish collection of Jesus and Mo cartoons should be published this week, the tenth anniversary of publication of the original Danish cartoons. This is the foreword that I have written for the new collection. Satire can be a deadly business these days. Especially for those satirists who see it as their business to mock religion. And most especially for those who dare to mock Islam. The murderous assault on the Paris office of […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Free Speech • Tags: free speech, islam, jesus and mo

ON FENCES AND FRACTURES

September 26, 2015 by Kenan Malik

This is a transcript of my Stephen Lissenburgh Memorial Lecture that I gave on 23 September at the National Institute for Economic and Social Research. It was entitled ‘What’s wrong with multiculturalism?’ It is inevitable that my starting point for this talk will be the refugee crisis that now engulfs Europe. For many, the crisis is a crisis because of the numbers coming to Europe. But large though they may be, the numbers are not unprecedented, either comparatively or historically. […]

Categories: Multiculturalism, Race & Immigration • Tags: anti-semitism, assimilationism, british politics, britishness, culture, danish cartoons, diversity, fortress europe, france, handsworth riots, immigration, islam, locke, multiculturalism, muslims, racism

SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EROSION OF HOPE

September 23, 2015 by Kenan Malik

From my latest column for the International New York Times, which was entitled ‘What Happened to South African Democracy?’: As the failure to transform the lives of the poor has eroded support for the party, many ANC politicians have turned to the politics of ethnicity and identity to strengthen their base. It is a development that has long been evident, but that has really gathered strength under the leadership of South Africa’s current president, Jacob G Zuma. Mr Zuma has unashamedly […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: anc, apartheid, south africa

THE POLITICS OF DISENCHANTMENT

September 22, 2015 by Kenan Malik

I will be writing a regular column for Aljazeera English. My first column is about Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party. Guardian journalist Seamus Milne hailed it as ‘a political eruption of historic proportions’. The Prime Minister David Cameron claimed it represented a threat to Britain’s national security. Whatever else it may achieve, Jeremy Corbyn’s success in gaining the leadership of the Labour Party, has certainly unleashed the surreal in British politics. To understand more soberly what the leftwing maverick’s […]

Categories: Britain, Politics • Tags: british politics, jeremy corbyn, labour party, left, tony blair

A TABLE AND ITS WINTER CLOTH

September 19, 2015 by Kenan Malik

I knew, of course, of Table Mountain and of its beauty and majesty . But nothing quite prepared me for just how spectacular it is – especially in the winter when the peculiar climatic conditions of Cape Town envelopes the Table with a shimmering cloth of cloud. The cloud does not simply sit atop the mountain; it flows over and down, in a manner I have never seen before. It being winter, Table Mountain was closed to the public for […]

Categories: Photos • Tags: cape town, photos, south africa, table mountain