Tag: islamism

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

EDITORIAL INTELLIGENCE COMMENT AWARD 2016

November 24, 2016 by Kenan Malik

Yay, I won an award. The Editorial Intelligence 2016 ‘Society and diversity’ comment award. (No, I am not quite sure, either, what ‘Society and diversity comment’ amounts to, but I am immensely pleased to have won it.) The Editorial Intelligence awards have grown over the past decade to become perhaps the most important journalistic comment awards in the UK. Other winners this year included Jonathan Freedland as ‘Commentariat of the Year’, Gary Younge for ‘Comment Piece of the Year’, Sam […]

Categories: Kenan Malik • Tags: assimilationism, awards, editorial intelligence, evil, identity politics, immigration, islam, islamism, jihadism, multiculturalism, ukip

TALKING SATANIC VERSES

October 13, 2016 by Kenan Malik

The copyediting of the Afterword for the new edition of From Fatwa to Jihad is complete. It’s inching towards publication… In the meantime I am reposting here two videos about the original edition that I made for Faculti, a website that publishes videos of authors and academics talking about their work. The first film is a reading from the final section of From Fatwa to Jihad, the second an exploration of the themes and arguments of the book.

Categories: Culture & Books, Kenan Malik • Tags: censorship, free speech, islam, islamism, left, multiculturalism, rushdie affair, salman rushdie, the satanic verses

BETWEEN RAGE AND TERROR

September 7, 2016 by Kenan Malik

This is the full version of the article I wrote last month for the International New York Times on the nature of comteporary terror. (I cannot publish my INYT articles on Pandaemonium until a month after it is published in the newspaper.) It was originally published under the headline These Days of Rage. On July 14, Bastille Day, in Nice, France, 85 people died after being mowed down on the promenade by a man driving a truck. Four days later, […]

Categories: War on terror • Tags: angela merkel, france, germany, islamism, jihadism, terrorism, war on terror

THESE DAYS OF RAGE

August 10, 2016 by Kenan Malik

An excerpt from my latest column for the International New York Times, on the nature of contemporary terrorism. In the past, the distinction between political violence and sociopathic rage was relatively clear. No longer. There seems today almost a continuum between ideological violence, disjointed fury and some degree of sociopathy or mental illness. What constitutes ideological violence has decayed; instead, amorphous rage has become a persistent feature of public life. Read the full article in the International New York Times. […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, War on terror • Tags: islamism, jihadism, terrorism

TALKING ABOUT RADICALIZATION

April 20, 2016 by Kenan Malik

I took part last month in a discussion about ‘Contemporary Understandings of Radicalization’ at King’s College, London. Organised by the King’s College War Studies Society and the Remote Control Project, the other speakers were Shiraz Maher and Claire Lauterbach of Privacy International. Here is my introduction. One of the problems with discussing the concept of radicalization is that it can mean all things to all people. In one sense it simply means ‘the process by which terrorists become terrorists’. But, radicalization, […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, War on terror • Tags: islam, islamism, jihadism, left, muslims, olivier roy, radicalization

THE FOURTH WAVE OF EUROPEAN JIHADIS

April 3, 2016 by Kenan Malik

Rik Coolsaet, Professor of International Relations at Ghent University and a Senior Associate Fellow at the Egmont-Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels, has just published an important and insightful paper on Belgian jihadis. It provides a comprehensive overview of jihadi scene in Belgium and, in doing so, challenges many of the myths about radicalization that I mentioned in my recent New York Times article. It is worth looking at Coolsaet’s argument in detail. Today’s European jihadis comprise, Coolsaet argues, […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, International, War on terror • Tags: europe, islamic state, islamism, jihadism, marc sageman, olivier roy, radicalization, rik coolsaet, terrorism

COUNTER-TERROR POLICY: THE MYTHS AND THE FAILURES

March 30, 2016 by Kenan Malik

An excerpt from my latest column for the International New York Times on why ‘radicalization’ is a flawed concept. It was published under the headline ‘The Little We Know About the Jihadists in Our Midst’. The evidence suggests that the concept is flawed and that such anti-jihadist measures are ineffective, even counterproductive. A secret British government memorandum leaked in 2010 dismissed the idea that there was ‘a linear ‘conveyor belt’ moving from grievance, through radicalization, to violence’. A 2010 American […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, War on terror • Tags: counter-terrorism, islam, islamism, jihadism, marc sageman, radicalization, war on terror

AFTER BRUSSELS: ONCE AGAIN THINKING THROUGH TERROR

March 23, 2016 by Kenan Malik

‘Solidarity and anger. Those were my immediate emotions’. So I wrote last November after the Paris attacks: ‘Solidarity with the people of Paris, anger at the depraved, nihilistic savagery of the terrorists.’ My emotions are much the same after the savage attacks in Brussels this week. ‘But, beyond solidarity and anger,’, I observed in November, ‘we need also analysis.’ I have written much over the past few years about why conventional views about radicalization and the making of European jihadis […]

Categories: International, War on terror • Tags: anti-imperialism, identity politics, islam, islamism, jihadism, left, migration crisis, muslims, radicalization, terrorism

TALKING MIGRATION, MUSLIMS AND MORALITY

March 17, 2016 by Kenan Malik

I recently gave an interview to Bread and Roses, the TV magazine hosted by Maryam Namazie and Fariborz Pooya, on Europe’s migration crisis, Muslim immigration, the open borders debate and the question of profiling. (The interview begins about 7 minutes in). There were a few errors in what I said, so before anyone else points them out, let me do so myself: The EU-Libya migration deal was concluded in 2010; the new EU-Turkey deal proposes that all irregular migrants crossing from Turkey […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Kenan Malik, Race & Immigration • Tags: european union, immigration, islam, islamism, migrant crisis, muslims, open borders, populism, profiling, racism

OF ANGELS AND DEVILS, OF MONSTERS AND MYTHS

February 28, 2016 by Kenan Malik

A new edition of my book From Fatwa to Jihad will be published next year, for which I am writing an Afterword to bring the story up to date. So, it seemed a good time to repost two videos I made about the current book for Faculti, a website that publishes videos of authors and academics talking about their work. The first film is a reading from the final section of From Fatwa to Jihad, the second an exploration of the […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Kenan Malik • Tags: free speech, islam, islamism, kenan malik's books, rushdie affair, the satanic verses

FREE SPEECH AND DOUBLE STANDARDS

February 4, 2016 by Kenan Malik

The Canadian journalist Duncan Pike interviewed me recently for an article he was writing for the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression on the question of free speech and double standards. It centred around the upcoming trial of Anjem Choudary for ‘inviting support’ for the Islamic State. The article is a very good exploration of the problems and dilemmas of free speech double standards. My thanks to Duncan Pike both for interviewing me and for allowing me to republish his article on Pandaemonium. […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: anjem choudary, charlie hebdo, douglas murray, free speech, free speech double standards, islamism, liberal hypocrisy, terrorism

BIGOTRY, DEBATE, CENSORSHIP AND THE LEFT

January 17, 2016 by Kenan Malik

This is the full version of my last column for the International New York Times on Maryam Namazie, Donald Trump and censorship, originally published on 21 December 2015. Donald J Trump and Maryam Namazie are divided by more than the width of the Atlantic. One is a reactionary, with bigoted ideas seemingly about everyone from Mexicans to Muslims. He is also currently a leading candidate to be the next president of the United States. The other is an Iranian feminist, […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: censorship, donald trump, free speech, islamism, islamophobia, left, maryam namazie, populism, racism

CHARLIE HEBDO, ONE YEAR ON

January 7, 2016 by Kenan Malik

It is a year today since Islamist gunmen burst into the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people, including eight of the magazine’s staff. A few days after the attack I was interviewed by the BBC. ‘Don’t you think’, the interviewer asked, ‘ that the degree of solidarity expressed towards Charlie Hebdo represents a turning in attitudes to free speech?’ ‘I doubt it’, I replied. ‘There may be expressions of solidarity now. But fundamentally little will change. If anything, […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: censorship, charlie hebdo, france, free speech, garry trudeau, hate speech, islam, islamism, laicite, left, racism, secularism