Tag: multiculturalism

BRITAIN AND FRANCE, CENSORSHIP AND IDENTITY

February 11, 2015 by Kenan Malik

I took part in a discussion at the Institut Français in London featuring the French film-maker Karim Miské, whose debut novel Arab Jazz, a noirish policier set in a Parisian banlieue, has just been published. The discussion, in the shadow of the Charlie Hebdo killings, focussed on questions of Islam, identity, free speech and the differences between British and French social policy. Also taking part in the discussion were the translator Ben Faccini, Jo Glanville, director of English PEN, and the journalist Suzanne […]

Categories: Free Speech, International, Multiculturalism • Tags: anti-semitism, assimilationism, britain, censorship, charlie hebdo, france, free speech, identity politics, islam, jihadism, multiculturalism, muslims, national identity, racism, secularism

ASSIMILATIONISM VS MULTICULTURALISM

January 12, 2015 by Kenan Malik

One of the key debates in European social policy has been that between multiculturalism and assimilationism. French ‘assimilationist’ policies are generally seen as the polar opposite of British-style multiculturalism. French politicians pride themselves in having rejected the divisive consequences of multiculturalism. Unlike in the rest of Europe, they insist, in France every individual is treated as a citizen, not as a member of a particular racial or cultural group. The question of French social policy, and of social divisions, has […]

Categories: International, Multiculturalism, Race & Immigration • Tags: assimilationism, bernard-henri levy, britain, burqa bans, charlie hebdo, enlightenment, france, islam, jihadism, multiculturalism, muslims, racism, universalism

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH MULTICULTURALISM?

October 16, 2014 by Kenan Malik

This is a transcript of my talk about multiculturalism that I gave to the Secularism 2014 conference in London last week. For a more detailed discussion of multiculturalism, see my Milton K Wong lecture ‘What is wrong with multiculturalism?’ or my extended essay Multiculturalism and its Discontents. Before we can discuss multiculturalism, we need to distinguish between two processes or phenomena that all too often get confused. On the one hand, the lived experience of diversity; and, on the other, […]

Categories: Multiculturalism • Tags: anti-racism, cultural diversity, equality, identity politics, multiculturalism, muslims, racism

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

FROM THE ARCHIVES: ILLUSIONS OF IDENTITY

August 18, 2014 by Kenan Malik

As I am away for a couple of weeks, I am plundering the archives. This is the second in a series of old book reviews on the themes of race, difference and identity material that I have not previously published on Pandaemonium. This is an interview with Amartya Sen, and a review of his book Identity and Violence, first published in Prospect, August 2006. . Review of Amartya Sen, Identity and Violence: The Illusions of Destiny (Allen Lane, 2006) Just […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Culture & Books, Multiculturalism • Tags: amartya sen, british politics, identity politics, islam, multiculturalism

…BUT AGAINST MULTICULTURALISM

November 28, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Earlier this week, I posted an essay ‘In defence of diversity’. But if I am in favour of diversity, I am most certainly critical of multiculturalism. I have long argued that while we should value diversity as a form of lived experience, we should scorn multiculturalism as a political policy. So, as a complement to my defence of diversity, here are extracts from a series of essays and talks from over the years which sum up my critique of multicuturalism. […]

Categories: Multiculturalism • Tags: behzti, british asians, british politics, clash of civilizations, cultural diversity, david goodhart, edmund burke, free speech, immigration, integration, multiculturalism, muslims, rushdie affair

TRUST IN A DIVERSE SOCIETY

November 4, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Sociologists have traditionally thought about the consequences of ethnic diversity in one of two ways. The ‘conflict’ model claims that the more that diverse groups interact, the more social tension there will be. The ‘contact’ model, on the other hand, suggests that the more that different groups interact, the less they will fear each other. Unsurprisingly the first model is favoured by conservatives to justify restrictions on immigration, while liberals often call on the second in arguing for multicultural education. […]

Categories: Politics, Race & Immigration • Tags: cultural diversity, david goodhart, diversity, immigration, london, migration, multiculturalism, paul collier, robert putnam, social cohesion, trust

MIGRATION AND MORALITY

October 5, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Review of Exodus by Paul Collier (Allen Lane) Migration, Paul Collier observes ‘affects many groups, but only one has the practical power to control it: the indigenous population of host societies.’ So, he asks, ‘Should that group act in its self-interest, or balance the interests of all groups?’. That question is at the heart of Collier’s new book which aims to reframe the immigration debate. Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and co-Director […]

Categories: Race & Immigration • Tags: diversity, exodus, immigration, migration, multiculturalism, paul collier, racism, robert putnam

BEYOND THE VEIL

September 22, 2013 by Kenan Malik

The question of the Muslim veil seems never to leave the headlines for long. If the debate is not about whether states, such as France or Belgium, should have the right to ban the face veil in public, it is about what limits there should be to the wearing of the burqa or niqab in those countries, such as Britain or Germany, that do not ban it. The latest controversies have erupted in Britain after a defendant in a criminal trial […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Justice & Liberties • Tags: bernard-henri levy, burqa bans, civil society, law, liberalism, liberties, multiculturalism, religious freedom, secularism, women's rights

THE PLEASURES OF PLURALISM, THE PAIN OF OFFENCE

June 17, 2013 by Kenan Malik

I gave two talks this weekend. One was on ‘Turning diversity on its head’ at the sixth anniversary celebration of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), the other on’Offence and censorship’ at an Artangel ‘Party for Freedom’. The two talks overlapped, so here I have stitched them together into a single post. The cartoons are from the wonderful Jesus and Mo. Almost twenty years ago, in 1994, the Independent newspaper asked me to write an essay on Tom Paine, the eighteenth-century […]

Categories: Free Speech, Multiculturalism • Tags: behzti, diversity, free speech, multiculturalism, offence, rushdie affair, tom paine

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘INTEGRATION’?

June 12, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Last month, I reviewed David Goodhart’s book The British Dream which explores, in the words of its subtitle, the ‘successes and failures of post-war immigration’. Goodhart, I suggested, ‘touches on some of the critical issues that we face today’. But ‘his insistence on seeing contemporary problems primarily through the lens of immigration only obscures those issues and makes it more difficult to formulate adequate responses’. In his response to the review, Goodhart raised three main issues. First, he suggested that […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: britain, britishness, david goodhart, identity politics, immigration, integration, multiculturalism, racism

THERE IS MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SKIN A COMMUNITY

May 6, 2013 by Kenan Malik

David Goodhart, in his response to my review of his book The British Dream, raised three major issues. First, he suggested, mass immigration undermines stability and continuity. Second, he claimed that I ignored the fact that immigrants come not as individuals but as members of communities and cultures. And third, he challenged me to set out my concept of integration. I dealt with the question of stability and change in a pervious post. I will write about the meaning of […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, david goodhart, immigration, liberalism, multiculturalism, working class movements

IMMIGRATION AND LOSS

April 26, 2013 by Kenan Malik

On Saturday I reviewed David Goodhart’s book The British Dream which explores, in the words of its subtitle, the ‘successes and failures of post-war immigration’. Goodhart, I suggested, ‘touches on some of the critical issues that we face today’. But ‘his insistence on seeing contemporary problems primarily through the lens of immigration only obscures those issues and makes it more difficult to formulate adequate responses’. Goodhart responded to that review, suggesting that my attempt to marry a critique of multiculturalism […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, Class, david goodhart, debates, immigration, labour party, multiculturalism, working class

DAVID GOODHART RESPONDS

April 22, 2013 by Kenan Malik

On Saturday I posted my review of David Goodhart’s book The British Dream. Here is Goodhart’s response to that review. My thanks to David for a generous reply. I will post something later this week in response to the main challenge he raises about immigration, multiculturalism and integration, and about whether I adopt the left version of ‘there is no such thing as society’. I have also added a comment to this post which deals with some of the other […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, david goodhart, debates, immigration, multiculturalism

THE PROBLEM IS NOT IMMIGRATION. IT’S THE OBSESSION WITH IT.

April 20, 2013 by Kenan Malik

In 2004, David Goodhart wrote an essay called ‘Too Diverse?’ in Prospect magazine, of which he was then editor. Liberals, he suggested, had to face up to a ‘progressive dilemma’. Too much immigration undermined social solidarity, particularly in a welfare state. We had to choose between the two. The essay caused considerable controversy, but became a key point of reference for many communitarian thinkers, both Labour and Conservative. Goodhart, now director of the centre-left think tank Demos, has developed that essay […]

Categories: Britain, Race & Immigration • Tags: british politics, david goodhart, immigration, labour party, multiculturalism, race, racism