broadcasts | Pandaemonium

FREE SPEECH AND ITS DISCONTENTS

December 10, 2014 by Kenan Malik

As a coda to my debate with Anshuman Mondal on free speech, here are three videos and an audio clip in which I explore some of the issues, particularly in the context of the Rushdie affair. The first is a short film I made for Faculti, the academic video site, about my book From Fatwa to Jihad. The second is a debate about the Rushdie Affair that I had with Tariq Modood on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week in […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: broadcasts, free speech, hanif kureishi, rushdie affair, tariq modood

LIFE, IDENTITY, MORALITY, GOD AND EVERYTHING…

October 13, 2014 by Kenan Malik

I was a guest this weekend on Richard Holloway’s Sunday Morning show on Radio Scotland talking about life, childhood, racism, identity, morality, religion, politics, multiculturalism, the Rushdie affair, the Euthyphro dilemma… The full version is available on iPlayer – but only for the next 4 weeks (the conversation starts about 8.30 mins in). If you have missed that 4-week cut off, or cannot access the iPlayer for any reason, here is an extended extract embedded as an AudioBoom track (the third section of the […]

Categories: Kenan Malik, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: broadcasts, From Fatwa to Jihad, interviews, left, morality, multiculturalism, racism, religion, richard holloway, rushdie affair, the quest for a moral compass

ON THE ROAD

April 25, 2014 by Kenan Malik

I am giving a number of talks over the next couple of months, both about my new book The Quest for a Moral Compass and on other issues from freedom of expression to the Enlightenment. Do come along if you are able. . 3 May Belfast Free as a Bird? Belfast Exposed The Exchange Place 23 Donegall Street Belfast BT1 2FF 15.30-17.00 A discussion about artistic freedom of expression with Johnanna Schwartz, John Johnson, Sinead O’Donnell and myself. There will also […]

Categories: Kenan Malik • Tags: broadcasts, talks

AN OPEN DOOR TO DISASTER?

October 27, 2013 by Kenan Malik

As I am away this week, there are no new posts, but I am delving into the archives for material not previously published on Pandaemonium. Back in 2004 I made a programme for BBC Radio 4’s Analysis strand on the immigration debate, contrasting the arguments of open door, closed door and managed migration advocates. Among those taking part were David Coleman, Professor of Demography, University of Oxford; Geoff Dench, of the Institute of Community Studies; Nigel Harris, Emeritus Professor of Economics, University College London; Andrew Simms, Policy Director, New Economics Foundation; Sarah […]

Categories: Race & Immigration • Tags: broadcasts, diversity, immigration, migration

ISLAM AND FREE SPEECH: AN OLD DEBATE

July 7, 2013 by Kenan Malik

A 2006 debate, in fact, between myself and Imran Khan (the lawyer not the cricketer) on the issue of Islam, free speech and the Danish cartoons for a special Channel 4 Dispatches programme. I had not realized that the broadcast was available on YouTube. The issues we debated remain strikingly relevant. Perhaps the most telling moment came when the moderator Jon Snow announced an audience poll to see whether the cartoons should be shown on the programme. The audience overwhelmingly […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: broadcasts, danish cartoons, debates, free speech, islam, offence

WHO OWNS CULTURE?

December 11, 2012 by Kenan Malik

I mentioned in my last post the attempts by the UN, UNESCO and WIPO to give certain groups, particularly indigenous groups, control over traditional culture, and of the dangers inherent in such an approach. I am publishing here the transcript of a BBC Radio 4 Analysis programme that I wrote and presented in 2004 which explored the issue of ‘Who owns culture?’. You can listen to an audio of the programme, too. ‘Who owns culture?’, Analysis, BBC Radio 4, 29 July […]

Categories: Culture & Books • Tags: anthropology, british museum, broadcasts, cultural ownership, cultural policy, cultural repatriation, culture, human remains, indigenous culture, museum of london, museums, neil Macgregor, unesco

MULTICULTURALISM – THE BROADCAST

June 24, 2012 by Kenan Malik

My Milton K Wong lecture, ‘What’s wrong with multiculturalism?’, that I gave in Vancouver earlier this month, was broadcast on CBC on Friday. I have already posted the transcript of the talk, in two parts, here and here. (The broadcast has been slightly edited to fit the CBC schedule; the transcript is in full.) There is a Milton K Wong website dedicated to discussion and debate around the themes of the talk.

Categories: Multiculturalism • Tags: anders breivik, british asians, british politics, broadcasts, clash of civilizations, cultural diversity, danish cartoons, europe, far right, french politics, germany, guest workers, immigration, islam, multiculturalism, muslims, racism, riots, rushdie affair, turkish migrants

GETTING OFFENSIVE WITH NIHAL

February 26, 2012 by Kenan Malik

Another video (or rather audio) that I had not realised was online. I had been invited to Nihal’s show on the BBC’s Asian Network for a two-minute spot to promote the Festival of South Asian Literature, at which I was speaking. I ended up staying an hour debating free speech, multiculturalism and the giving of offence.

Categories: Free Speech, Multiculturalism • Tags: british asians, britishness, broadcasts, free speech, identity politics, islamism, multiculturalism, muslims, rushdie affair, salman rushdie

REFLECTIONS ON SCIENCE, MORALITY & THE MORAL MAZE

June 4, 2011 by Kenan Malik

The Moral Maze is a show with its strengths and weaknesses, a format better suited to debating some issues than others. This week’s programme, on the relationship between science and morality, was somewhat messy, inevitably perhaps given the complexity of the issue, the subtlety of many of the arguments and the depth of knowledge required. Nevertheless, there were, I thought, useful parts of the debate. I was particularly struck by Joshua Greene‘s skepticism about the ability of science to settle moral […]

Categories: Science • Tags: broadcasts, equality, ethics, human agency, human nature, joshua greene, kantianism, moral maze, neuroscience, psychology, rights, utilitarianism

HOMER, AESCHYLUS AND MELANIE PHILLIPS

March 3, 2011 by Kenan Malik

‘Vengeance is simply justice with bad pr’. So claimed melanie Phillips on The Moral Maze last night, in a programme that began as a discussion of the possibilities of penal redemption and ended as a debate on the role of vengeance in the judicial system. It was a great line (Phillips was defending another panelist Anne McElvoy who had argued for the importance of vengeance to justice). And it was, of course, partly tongue in cheek. But it also summed up […]

Categories: Justice & Liberties • Tags: aeschylus, broadcasts, greek philosophy, greek tragedy, history of moral thought, homer, law, melanie phillips, moral maze, trojan war

JESUS AND MO ON KENAN, DOUGLAS AND TARIQ

February 16, 2011 by Kenan Malik

My little contretemps with Douglas Murray on The Moral Maze seems to have inspired a Jesus and Mo cartoon: The original is here. (Follow the link on the board to see what led to the cartoon.) I’ve always loved Jesus and Mo. I do so even more now :-).

Categories: Kenan Malik, Multiculturalism • Tags: broadcasts, jesus and mo, moral maze, multiculturalism

I’M STILL A CRITIC OF MULTICULTURALISM, HONEST

February 10, 2011 by Kenan Malik

I have long been a critic of multiculturalism. And I have debated the issue with Tariq Modood more times than I care remember, including on Start the Week, Newsnight Review, and at public meetings in London, Bristol, Manchester and countless other places. So when The Moral Maze decided this week to debate multiculturalism, in the wake of David Cameron’s speech, and invited Modood to be one of the witnesses, it seemed inevitable that I would be grilling him. If only life […]

Categories: Kenan Malik, Multiculturalism • Tags: broadcasts, clash of civilizations, douglas murray, immigration, liberties, moral maze, multiculturalism, muslims, salman rushdie, samuel huntington, tariq modood, the satanic verses