From Fatwa to Jihad | Pandaemonium

FROM THE SATANIC VERSES TO THE AGE OF ANGER

November 9, 2017 by Kenan Malik

There is a long and thoughtful essay by James Ley in the Sydney Review of Books entitled ‘The Pleasure of Hating’ that reviews my From Fatwa to Jihad in parallel with Pankaj Mishra’s The Age of Anger. Here is an extract; the whole essay is well worth reading. . Extract from ‘The Pleasure of Hating’ by James Ley Sydney Review of Books, 24 October 2017 There is ultimately something a little lopsided about Mishra’s despairing argument in Age of Anger, which […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Politics • Tags: From Fatwa to Jihad, kenan malik's books, pankaj mishra, the age of anger, the satanic verses

WHY UPDATE FROM FATWA TO JIHAD?

February 9, 2017 by Kenan Malik

My book From Fatwa to Jihad was first published in 2009, on the twentieth anniversary of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Eight years on, I have just published an updated version with a new Afterword. Why? In 1989 the fatwa against Salman Rushdie had come as a great shock, both in Britain and globally, and its consequences reverberated through both domestic and international politics in the two decades that followed. Much was written about it. Yet, there had been little […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Culture & Books, Kenan Malik • Tags: assimilationism, charlie hebdo, free speech, From Fatwa to Jihad, islamism, jihadism, kenan malik's books, radicalization, rushdie affair, the satanic verses

OUT NOW!

February 2, 2017 by Kenan Malik

. The new edition of From Fatwa to Jihad, with an Afterword (and a new subtitle) is published today. You can read an extract from the new Preface, and watch two Faculti videos I made about the original edition. You can buy the book from most bookshops, or from Amazon. Patrons of Pandaemonium who contribute more than $5 a month get a free copy. I will be in touch! . ‘Gripping… The Rushdie affair has shaped all our lives. This book […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Kenan Malik • Tags: british politics, charlie hebdo, free speech, From Fatwa to Jihad, islamism, kenan malik's books, rushdie affair, salman rushdie, the satanic verses

COMING SOON…

September 28, 2016 by Kenan Malik

My 2009 book From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and its Legacy will be published in a new edition next February. It will have an extended (12,000 word) Afterword to bring it up to date. It will also have a new subtitle – How the World Changed From The Satanic Verses to Charlie Hebdo. I will provide more details closer to the time. In the meantime, here is an extract from the Preface to the new edition: From the […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Kenan Malik • Tags: assimilationism, charlie hebdo, france, free speech, From Fatwa to Jihad, islamic state, jihadism, kenan malik's books, multiculturalism, rushdie affair, the satanic verses

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

IN THE SHADOW OF THE FATWA

February 14, 2014 by Kenan Malik

When he was a child Salman Rushdie’s father read to him ‘the great wonder tales of the East’ – the stories of Scheherazade from the Thousand and One Nights; the animal fables of the ancient Indian Panchatantra; ‘the marvels that poured like a waterfall from the Kathasaritsagara’, the famous 11th-century Sanskrit collection of myths; the ‘tales of the mighty heroes collected in the Hamzanama’ that tell of the legendary exploits of Amir Hamza, uncle to the Prophet Mohammed; and the ancient […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech • Tags: free speech, From Fatwa to Jihad, identity politics, liberalism, milton, peter mayer, rushdie affair, salman rushdie, the satanic verses, wendy denier

ANGELS AND DEVILS, MYTHS AND MONSTERS

February 1, 2014 by Kenan Malik

I was recently interviewed by Faculti, a superb website that publishes videos of authors and academics talking about their work. I discussed my book From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and its Legacy. Here are the two recordings from the Faculti interview. The first is a reading from the final section of From Fatwa to Jihad in which I argue that The Satanic Verses is not as most people imagine it to be; Salman Rushdie’s novel is not a critique […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech, Kenan Malik • Tags: From Fatwa to Jihad, kenan malik's books, rushdie affair, salma, the satanic verses

FROM STREETFIGHTERS TO BOOKBURNERS

March 30, 2012 by Kenan Malik

Earlier this week I published an extract from my book From Fatwa to Jihad, that told the story of how the Asian Youth Movements were created in Britain in the 1970s. This second extract explains how the British state and religious conservatives joined forces to marginalise secular radicals in the name of multiculturalism. This is the story of how Bradford came to be painted green. The same story could be told about towns all over Britain. In the summer of […]

Categories: Britain, Multiculturalism • Tags: asian youth movement, black identity, bradford, britain, british asians, From Fatwa to Jihad, identity politics, kenan malik's books, multiculturalism, racism, secularism

JASON BURKE ON ISLAMIC MILITANCY

August 23, 2011 by Kenan Malik

British journalist Jason Burke, one of the more perceptive writers on the issues of Islam, Islamism and the war on terror, has chosen five books on Islamic militancy for The Browser. And among the five is From Fatwa to Jihad. A snippet from his interview:

Categories: War on terror • Tags: british asians, british politics, From Fatwa to Jihad, identity politics, islamism, jason burke, jihadism, kenan malik's books, muslims, rushdie affair, terrorism, war on terror

‘NEEDS TO BE ON EVERY EDUCATED PERSON’S READING LIST’

March 4, 2011 by Kenan Malik

So says Charles Larson in Counterpunch about From Fatwa to Jihad: In his astonishing work From Fatwa to Jihad, Kenan Malik… contextualizes the growth of the jihadists in Europe, placing much of the blame on multiculturalism. But first he covers the response to the publication of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses in more detail and with more understanding than earlier critics… Rarely has a writer had his work so instantly validated… From Fatwa to Jihad needs to be on every […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Kenan Malik • Tags: From Fatwa to Jihad, kenan malik's books

WORDS AND DEEDS. AND THE SPACE BETWEEN

February 25, 2011 by Kenan Malik

I have had a lot of responses to the extracts from my interview on hate speech and the law, many of which argue that speech that does not directly incite violence but creates a climate in which such violence becomes more probable should be banned. As one respondent put it in a comment thread: If I say that all Moslems, Catholics, homosexuals, vegans, and so on, are terrorists and a danger to the nation, I’m not inciting DIRECTLY to violence, […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: danish cartoons, free speech, From Fatwa to Jihad, hate speech, incitement laws, kenan malik's books, law, rushdie affair

EGYPT’S SECULAR DICTATORS & THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

January 28, 2011 by Kenan Malik

The Egyptian government is clearly attempting to portray the current revolt as the work of the Muslim Brotherhood, in an attempt to retain Western support. ‘It’s me or the Islamists’, Mubarak is in effect telling Western leaders. It’s worth reflecting, therefore, on how successive Egyptian regimes, like so many in the Arab world, have relied on Islamists to restrain popular revolt:

Categories: Atheism & Religion, International • Tags: egypt, From Fatwa to Jihad, gilles kepel, islamism, kenan malik's books, muslim brotherhood, nasser, protests, secularism