secularism | Pandaemonium

AGAINST THE BURQA BAN

April 11, 2011 by Kenan Malik

As the French ban on the burqa comes into force today, here is part of an essay I wrote last year, when the French debate first kicked off, for the Swedish newspaper Göteborgs-Posten. THERE IS CERTAINLY SOMETHING MEDIEVAL ABOUT THE BURQA AND THE NIQAB. The idea that in the 21st century women should be hidden from view for reasons of modesty or religious belief is both troubling and astonishing. Yet, there is also something surreal about the way that this […]

Categories: Justice & Liberties • Tags: bernard-henri levy, burqa bans, france, identity politics, law, liberalism, liberties, secularism

A REVOLT FOR WHOSE BENEFIT?

February 7, 2011 by Kenan Malik

How can Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak be eased out of office without causing too much turmoil, or without providing a political opportunity for the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood? That’s the question with which many Western leaders are now grappling. The growing consensus seems to be that what Egypt needs is, in the words of Hillary Clinton, an ‘ordered transition’ to a post-Mubarak Egypt and that vice-president Omar Suleiman is the man to manage this. The idea of an ‘ordered transition’ that […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties • Tags: cia, democracy, egypt, fareed zakaria, freedom struggles, hillary clinton, hosni mubarak, ian johnson, islamism, muslim brotherhood, nasser, protests, secularism, tony blair, usa, working class movements

HOW IRONIC IF FEAR OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD SHOULD LEAD TO POLICIES THAT ENHANCE ITS CLAIM TO POWER

January 31, 2011 by Kenan Malik

The spread of the contagion of protest across North Africa, from Tunisia to Egypt and beyond, has not just been exhilarating. It has also given the lie to one of the great myths about the Muslim world – the belief that people in Muslim countries have a different mindset to those in the West, that democracy and secularism are ‘Western’ concepts alien to the political culture of Egypt or Jordan or Yemen. What the demonstrators in Cairo and Tunis have […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, International • Tags: democracy, egypt, gilles kepel, iranian revolution, islamism, muslim brotherhood, nasser, secularism

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