Tag: secularism

THERE IS NO RELIGIOUS TEST

March 2, 2023 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the debate over Kate Forbes’ socially conservative views and the SNP leadership race, was my Observer column this week. It was published 26 February 2023, under the headline “Politicians have the right to strong religious views. But not to be shielded from scrutiny”. “Secularism now means a ban on religious people in public life.” “We seem to have ushered in a kind of reverse religious test.” “Does her faith and her refusal to renounce any elements of it effectively debar […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain, Politics • Tags: christianity, free church of scotland, gender recognition act, hate crimes, humza yousaf, kate forbes, scottish national party, secularism, snp, social conservatism, unwoke, woke

TERROR, HYPOCRISY AND ILLIBERALISM

November 10, 2020 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on responses to Islamist terrorism, was my Observer column this week. (The column included also a short piece on Poland, abortion and the power of polar protest.) It was published on 8 November 2020, under the headline “Fanatics have no right to censor critics. But neither does Emmanuel Macron”. Letters complaining about newspaper articles are unexceptional. Not so letters from the Élysée Palace. Last week, the Financial Times published, after the killing of teacher Samuel Paty in Paris and of churchgoers in Nice, an article by its […]

Categories: Free Speech, International, War on terror • Tags: blasphemy, censorship, charlie hebdo, emmanuel macron, farhad khosrokhavar, financial rimes, france, islamism, jihadism, racism, samuel paty, secularism, terrorism, vienna attaack

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

TALKING GOD AND GODLESSNESS

December 25, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Not a sermon for Christmas Day, but a conversation I had with sociologist and broadcaster Laurie Taylor on God and godlessness. It was one in a ‘daisy chain’ of discussions on belief organized by 5×15 at the Wellcome Collection in London in December 2012. The daisy chain featured, as well as Laurie Taylor and myself, Laurie’s son Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the RSA, Nick Spencer, director of research at the religious think tank Theos, and Linda Woodhead, Professor of the […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion • Tags: atheism, god, laurie taylor, secularism

FROM THE ARCHIVES: KAUFMANN ON RELIGION

August 25, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Continuing my series of old book reviews that I am publishing while I am away in South Africa, here is my review of Eric Kaufmann’s Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?, originally published in the Observer, 1 May 2010. Review of Eric Kaufmann, Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? Demography and Politics in the 21st Century Observer, 1 May 2010 Europe, 2020. The Islamists have stormed to power right across the continent. No English pub can sell alcohol. Every French woman […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Culture & Books • Tags: demography, eric kaufmann, islam, mark steyn, religion, secularism

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

FACING RELIGION’S DILEMMA

January 22, 2014 by Kenan Malik

This is the full version of the essay published in the International New York Times last month under the headline ‘British Catholics’ quandary’. They call it the Francis effect: the impact of Pope Francis in galvanizing the Catholic faithful. Since he arrived at the Vatican, church attendance has surged across the world, while, in his homeland of Argentina, the number of people defining themselves as believers has risen by a reported 12 percent. Not just Catholics but those of other faiths, […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain • Tags: anglicanism, atheism, catholicism, christianity, islam, linda woodhead, pope francis, religion, secularism

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, SECULAR WORLD

January 12, 2014 by Kenan Malik

My latest column for the International New York Times is on the debate about segregated public meetings and the meaning of religious freedom. It is published in the INYT under the headline ‘Religious Freedom, Secular Forum’. Should gender segregation be allowed in Muslim public meetings? That question has created a surprising degree of political heat in Britain over recent weeks. The controversy began after a number of hardline Muslim student groups insisted that men and women must sit separately at their […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain, Justice & Liberties • Tags: islam, islamophobia, religion, religious freedom, secularism

RELIGION’S QUANDARY

December 17, 2013 by Kenan Malik

My latest essay for the International New York Times is on the quandary faced by contemporary religious institutions, and the light this throws upon Pope Francis’ attempt to transform the Catholic Church. Here are the opening paragraphs and a link though to the INYT article (where it published under the headline British Catholics’ Quandary). I will publish the full essay on Pandaemonium next month. They call it the Francis effect: the impact of Pope Francis in galvanizing the Catholic faithful. […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain • Tags: anglicanism, atheism, catholicism, christianity, islam, linda woodhead, pope francis, religion, secularism

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

RELIGION IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE

August 15, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Linda Woodhead is one of the most acute observers of contemporary religion. Professor of sociology of religion at Lancaster University, director of the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society research programme, and organizer of the Westminster Faith Debates, her empirical work has helped shape the understanding of the ways in which the meaning of faith has transformed in recent decades. I am delighted that she has written an essay for Pandaemonium on the changing landscape of religious identity in Britain. The essay presents an […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion • Tags: britain, catholicism, christianity, church of england, fundamentalism, linda woodhead, religion, secularism, thatcherism

WHAT DO BELIEVERS BELIEVE? (NOT WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT)

August 11, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Linda Woodhead is professor of sociology of religion at Lancaster University and Director of the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society research programme. She is also one of the most acute observers of contemporary religion and religious identity. She has been conducting a series of surveys with YouGov on social and personal morality for the Westminster Faith Debates, of which she is the organiser. Linda is writing an essay for Pandaemonium on the changing character of religious identity, which I will publish that next […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Britain • Tags: abortion, assisted suicide, atheism, catholicism, christianity, islam, linda woodhead, morality, religion, same sex marriage, secularism

IN DEFENCE OF DEMOCRACY

November 21, 2012 by Kenan Malik

Jacques Berlinerblau has responded to my review of his book How to Be Secular. He thinks that, unlike his conservative Christian critics, I have not ‘take[n] the time to understand what [his] arguments actually are’ and have made instead a series of ‘misleading claims’ about them. I disagree with most of Berlinerblau’s list of what he regards as my misleading claims. I don’t want to go line by line through that list refuting each and every claim. I do, however, […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, Culture & Books, Politics • Tags: democracy, jacques berlinerblau, locke, religion, secularism

A FOX DOES NOT MAKE A GOOD PROTECTOR OF THE HEN COOP

November 2, 2012 by Kenan Malik

The Canadian government is in the process of setting up an Office of Religious Freedom. Religious freedom is about the right of people to hold certain beliefs, and to act upon them, so long as in so doing they do not harm others or discriminate against them in the public sphere. It is the right to be free from interference from other faiths and from the state. For a government to set up an official body to oversee religious freedom […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion • Tags: canada, identity politics, multiculturalism, religion, religious freedom, secularism

HOW TO BE SECULAR [PART 2]

October 29, 2012 by Kenan Malik

Jacques Berlinerblau, whoses book How to be Secular I reviewed in my last post, took umbrage on Twitter at my characterisation of his argument as anti-democratic. Twitter is not the best medium to have nuanced debate on these kinds of issues, but it was an interesting discussion (the heart of which was a debate not so much about secularism as about democracy) so I have curated the tweets via Storify (slightly reordered to make better sense of the discussion), with some comments thrown in. I hope, however that Jacques […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion • Tags: atheism, democracy, religion, religious freedom, secularism