Tag: free speech

VIEWPOINT DIVERSITY AGAINST FREE SPEECH

April 23, 2025 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on viewpoint diversity, academic objectivity and free speech, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 20 April 2025, under the headline “Trump’s political bullying of Harvard will do nothing to foster diversity of thought”. Few people want to live in an echo chamber. Many have no problem being friends with those who vote differently to the way they do. And many would probably agree with John Stuart Mill that “he who knows only his own side of the case, […]

Categories: Academia, Free Speech, International • Tags: academic objectivity, affirmative action, anti-woke, donald trump, eric kaufmann, free speech, harvard university, heterodox academy, identity politics, jonathan haidt, michael roth, richard redding, richard shweder

FEAR AND SOCIAL ORDER

April 2, 2025 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on fear as a means of enforcing social order, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 30 March 2025, under the headline “Just like McCarthy, Trump spreads fear everywhere before picking off his targets”. “Gold, mister, is worth what it is because of the human labor that goes into the finding and getting of it.” It’s a line spoken by Walter Huston in the 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, a story about greed and moral corruption directed […]

Categories: Free Speech, International, Justice & Liberties, Politics • Tags: age of fear, columbia university, deportations, donald trump, fear, free speech, jd vance, joseph mccarthy, mass deportations, mccarthyism, michael roth, social conflict, thought control

ON ALLISON PEARSON’S RIGHT TO BE OBNOXIOUS

November 27, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on Allison Pearson and the meaning of free speech, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 24 November 2024, under the headline “I’ll defend Allison Pearson’s right to be obnoxious – as she should defend mine”. There are few columnists with whom I disagree more than I do with the Daily Telegraph’s Allison Pearson. Yet, I welcome the decision by the police to drop their investigation into her alleged tweet. This should never have been a matter for the police. […]

Categories: Britain, Free Speech • Tags: allison pearson, birmingham six, censorship, dave bradshaw, essex police, free speech, free speech union, police state, shrewsbury 24, two-tier policing, winston silcott

CASTING OUT THE UNJEWS

February 14, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the history of ostracism of Jewish supporters of the Palestinian people, was published in the Observer on 11 February 2024 under the headline “Denouncing critics of Israel as ‘un-Jews’ or antisemites is a perversion of history”. William Zuckerman was born in 1885 in the Pale of Settlement, that part of the Russian empire to which Jews were largely confined, a place of poverty and pogroms. His family managed to escape, emigrating to America in 1900. During the First World […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Justice & Liberties, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: 7 october attack, american jewish committee, antisemitism, claudine gay, derek penslar, don peretz, emily dische-becker, eyal weizman, free speech, geoffrey levin, germany, hamas, israel, palestinian solidarity, susan neiman, tablet, un-jews, usa, william zuckerman, zionism

MAKING A MESS OF CLAUDINE GAY

January 10, 2024 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the Claudine Gay controversy, was published in the Observer on 7 January 2024 under the headline “Claudine Gay’s ousting reveals that the messenger is still an easier target than the message”. For some, she is the wretched epitome of the liberal elite; for others, the victim of a “racist mob”. She herself condemns her critics for having “recycled tired racial stereotypes”. As an illustration of the way that culture wars warp political judgment and push people into tribal corners, […]

Categories: Academia, International, Race & Immigration • Tags: antisemitism, claudine gay, dei, diversity, elise stefanik, elitte, equality, free speech, gaza war, genocide, harvard, intifadas, israel, palestine solidarity, plagiarism, racism

CENSORSHIP CANNOT BE THE FOUNDATION OF JUSTICE

December 6, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the censorship of those expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 3 December 2023, under the headline “Solidarity with Palestinians is not hate speech, whatever would-be censors say”. An award ceremony for the Palestine-born novelist and essayist Adania Shibli is cancelled by the Frankfurt book fair because of “the war started by Hamas”. A cultural centre in Berlin has its funding cut and will be shut down after hosting an event from the organisation […]

Categories: Free Speech, International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: adania shibli, cansorship, david velasco, deborah feldman, free speech, genevieve lakier, germany, left, michael eisen, palestine, palestine solidarity, susan neiman

SUELLA BRAVERMAN AND THE PROBLEMS OF MULTICULTURALISM

October 4, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the real problems with multicultuiralism, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 1 October 2023, under the headline “Suella Braverman’s bigoted attack on multiculturalism shouldn’t blind us to its problems”. “Has multiculturalism failed?” It is a debate that raged a decade ago but had seemed to have faded into the political background in recent years. Until, that is, the home secretary, Suella Braverman, attempted to light the fires again, in a speech she gave last week to the […]

Categories: Britain, Multiculturalism, Race & Immigration • Tags: diversity, free speech, identity politics, multiculturalism, racism, suella braverman, white identity

FREE SPEECH ADVOCATES DENYING FREE SPEECH

June 1, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on “free speech advocates” who seek to restrict free speech, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 28 May 2023, under the headline “If you defend free speech, you must defend it all and not silence those you disagree with”. Normally, I’m keen for this column to be widely read. This time, though, I hope not too widely. I’d be happy if it doesn’t catch the attention of Jacob Rees-Mogg or of government officials. I’m due to […]

Categories: Academia, Britain, Free Speech • Tags: censorship, dan kaszeta, free speech, free speech union, gender critical feminism, jacob rees-mogg, prevent, trans rights, universities

WHEN CRITICISM BECOMES SEDITION

February 23, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the new climate of censorship in India, was my Observer column this week. It was published 19 February 2023, under the headline “India enjoyed a free and vibrant media. Narendra Modi’s brazen attacks are a catastrophe”. In January, the BBC broadcast a two-part series, India: The Modi Question, which looked forensically at the role of Narendra Modi in fomenting the Gujarat anti-Muslim riots of 2002 in which at least 1,000 people were killed. Now the prime minister of India, Modi […]

Categories: Free Speech, International • Tags: bbc, bjp, censorship, free press, free speech, gujarat riots, india, narendra modi, rss

TO SAY THE UNSAYABLE

August 18, 2022 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on Salman Rushdie and free speech, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 14 August 2022, under the headline “Where Salman Rushdie defied those who would silence him, today too many fear causing offence”. “A poet’s work,” one of the characters in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses observes, is “to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep.” “And if rivers of blood flow from […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Culture & Books, Free Speech • Tags: ayatollah khomeini, censorship, fatwa, free speech, islam, muslims, offence, peter mayer, salman rushdie, the satanic verses

OFFENDING THE GATEKEEPERS

June 15, 2022 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on attempts to ban the film The Lady of Heaven, was my Observer column on 12 June 2022. It was published under the headline “Film bans are less about offence, more ‘community leaders’ showing who’s boss”. “Birmingham will not tolerate the disrespect of our Prophet… You will have repercussions for your actions.” So claimed a leader of a Muslim protest against the film The Lady of Heaven. There were similar protests in cities from Bradford to London. Fear of “repercussions” led the cinema chain […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain, Free Speech • Tags: censorship, charlie hebdo, fatimah, free speech, gatekeepers, gurpreet kaur bhatti, hanif kureishi, hudud, islam, mf husain, muslims, offence, roshan muhammad sakih, salman rushdie, sharia, shia, sunni, the lady of heaven

FORGETTING THE LESSONS OF FREE SPEECH STRUGGLES

February 2, 2022 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the history of free speech and the lessons we are in danger of forgetting, was my Observer column this week. It was published 30 January 2022, under the headline “Freedom of speech was too hard won to be cavalier now about censorship”. If the great campaigners for free speech of the past, such as Baruch Spinoza or Mary Wollstonecraft or Frederick Douglass, were alive today, “they would surely declare the 21st century an unprecedented golden age”. So suggests Jacob […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech • Tags: antisemitism, censorship, charlie hebdo, der sturmer, eleanor roosevelt, free speech, hate speech, jacob mchangama, nazism, social justice, the satanic verses, weimar republic

ON THE FLAUNTING OF DOUBLE STANDARDS

October 19, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on immigration, free speech and double standards, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 17 October 2021, under the headline “Whether freedom of speech or fairness to migrants, some principles are sacred”. “Why is hypocrisy so odious?” asked the political theorist Judith Shklar almost half a century ago. Hypocrisy, she argued, is a necessity, a recognition that we are human and imperfect and that we cannot but transgress. The calling out of hypocrisy, Shklar observed, can often be more […]

Categories: Britain, Politics, Race & Immigration, Women • Tags: channel migrants, chimamanda ngozi adichie, double standards, feminism, free speech, gender critical feminism, home office, hypocrisy, immigration policy, judith shklar, michelle donelan, no platform, priti patel, priyamvada gopal, selina todd, transgender

FREE SPEECH AND POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY

May 18, 2021 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the government’s plans for free speech, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on Michel Barnier’s immigration comments.) It was published on 16 May 2021, under the headline “Challenge bigotry by all means, but outlaw it? I’d rather not”. “Blacks are genetically less intelligent.” “Muslims do not belong in this country.” “It is right to discriminate against gays.” Three bigoted statements. According to a new draft law, the Online Safety Bill, social media companies […]

Categories: Britain, Free Speech • Tags: censorship, free speech, gavin williamson, higher education (freedom of speech) bill, michelle donelan, online harm, online safety bill, prevent, social media, tories, universities

PROTESTS & POLICING AFTER THE PANDEMIC

March 16, 2021 by Kenan Malik

. This essay, on the government’s new policing bill, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on the new government policy of “unlevelling down”.) It was published on 14 March 2021, under the headline “If you thought the right to protest was inalienable, then think again”. The next time you take part in a protest, don’t shout too loudly, don’t get in anybody’s way and don’t cause a commotion. Best to sit quietly in a corner […]

Categories: Britain, Justice & Liberties, Politics • Tags: cressida dick, free speech, police, priti patel, protests, reclaim these streets, right to protest, rights, sarah everard