geert wilders | Pandaemonium

A CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY OR OF LIBERALISM?

January 4, 2017 by Kenan Malik

I reworked my essay ‘From the End of History to 2016’ for Sunday’s Observer, developing the theme of the tension between liberalism and democracy, and of the distinction between the ‘politics of solidarity’ and of the ‘politics of identity’. It was published in the Observer under the headline ‘Liberalism is suffering but democracy is doing just fine’, and was slightly edited down from this original version. Welcome to 2017. It will be just like 2016. Only more so. This will be […]

Categories: Politics • Tags: brexit, democracy, donald trump, far right, front national, geert wilders, identity politics, left, liberalism, marine le pen, populism, solidarity, working class

JYLLANDS-POSTEN AND THE AYATOLLAH WITHIN

November 17, 2016 by Kenan Malik

Flemming Rose is the former culture editor of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten who, in 2005, published the Muhammed cartoons and launched a global controversy. In a new book, De Besatte (The Possessed), Rose claims that far from defending freedom of expression, Jyllands-Posten attempted to gag him and to prevent him from saying or writing anything controversial. The Danish paper Information interviewed me about the case. This is a (rough) translation of the article. ‘Jyllands-Posten viste sin indre ayatollah’ Hans Henrik Rasmussen, […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: censorship, danish cartoons, denmark, diversity, flemming rose, free speech, geert wilders, index on censorship, jytte klausen, rushdie affair, self-censorship, the satanic verses

LLOYD NEWSON IN DEFENCE OF ‘CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS?’

May 28, 2012 by Kenan Malik

Back in March I published a review of DV8’s extraordinary show Can We Talk About This?. I was both positive and critical of the show. It was I wrote, ‘unmissable theatre’, both ‘thought provoking and gut-wrenching, food for mind and heart’ and ‘the kind of bold, polemical spectacle that the theatre so badly needs’. Its weakness, I suggested, was as a polemic: The ambition of the show, and its willingness to stomp all over the debate, is its great strength; its […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech, Multiculturalism • Tags: dv8, free speech, geert wilders, lloyd newson, multiculturalism, muslims, ray honeyford

THE SPECTRE OF LE PEN AND THE SHAME OF THE LEFT

May 1, 2012 by Kenan Malik

The incumbent candidate falters badly. His main opponent fares barely any better. The candidates from so-called ‘fringe’ parties garner more votes than either of the mainstream ones. The far right gains its biggest success. The only thing striking about the first round of the French elections was that there was nothing striking about it. It followed the pattern of almost every election across Europe over the past few years. This Sunday Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande will slug it out […]

Categories: Race & Immigration • Tags: austerity, communist party, democracy, euro crisis, european union, francois hollande, french politics, front national, geert wilders, immigration, jean-luc melenchon, marine le pen, nikolas sarkozy, pcf, racism

WE SHOULD TALK ABOUT THIS

March 18, 2012 by Kenan Malik

Actually, I seem to have been talking about this for much of the past two decades; ‘this’ being free speech, multiculturalism, Islam, Islamism, the issues at the heart of DV8’s extraordinary new show Can We Talk About This? now playing at London’s National Theatre. Lloyd Newsom’s company has, for more than quarter of a century, blurred the lines between dance and theatre as a way of, in the company’s own words, ‘reinvesting dance with meaning, particularly where this has been […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech, Multiculturalism • Tags: cultural diversity, dance, danish cartoons, dv8, free speech, geert wilders, islamism, martin amis, multiculturalism, muslims, ray honeyford

FREE SPEECH AND DOUBLE STANDARDS

February 22, 2012 by Kenan Malik

I have written an essay for the upcoming 40th anniversary issue of Index on Censorship that explores the changing character of the free speech debate in recent decades. It includes an interview with Flemming Rose, the cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, whose challenge to cartoonists to depict the Prophet Muhammad helped launch the Danish cartoon controversy. I will publish the essay in full when the new issue of Index comes out in March. But here is a short extract that probes the question […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: ayaan hirsi ali, danish cartoons, flemming rose, free speech, geert wilders, islam, islamism, liberal hypocrisy, liberties, locke, martin amis, milton, muslims