syria | Pandaemonium

FROM THE GREAT MIGRATION TO THE SYRIAN WAR

February 8, 2020 by Kenan Malik

Jacob Lawrence was one of the great painters of 20th century America. His Great Migration series is an extraordinary work both of art and social history, documenting the migration of African Americans from the South to the Northern cities. I have published the full set of 60 paintings over a series of six posts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Helen Zughaib, a Lebanese-born American artist, has taken Lawrence’s series as a template for a new set of paintings on […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Philosophy & Ethics • Tags: america, art, Helen zughaib, jacob lawrence, painting, syria, the great migration

WHAT MAY BE LOST WITH ROJAVA

October 28, 2019 by Kenan Malik

This essay, on the deeper loss presaged by the Turkish invasion of northern Syria, was my Observer column this week. It was published on 27 October 2019, under the headline ‘Syria’s Kurds dreamt of a ‘Rojava revolution’. Assad will snuff this out’. 300,000 people displaced. Villages and infrastructure destroyed. Allegations of white phosphorus use. The costs of the Turkish invasion of northern Syria to create a ‘safe zone’ are immense, the latest twist in the seemingly intractable Syrian war. Beyond the immediate human costs, there […]

Categories: International, Justice & Liberties, Women • Tags: abdullah ocalan, assad, democracy, freedom struggles, islamic state, kurds, murray bookchin, omar aziz, pkk, pyd, rojava, sdf, syria, syrian civil war, syrian democratic forces, tev-dem, turkey, women's rights, ypg, ypj

AFTER THE VOTE, THREE QUESTIONS

December 3, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Parliament voted on Wednesday to extend British airstrikes to targets in Syria. Within hours, British Tornados had taken off on new missions inside Syria. I am writing a longer piece on some of the issues raised that will be published soon. In the meantime, three questions for both sides of the debate (Yes, the questions are largely rhetorical and I hope to address some of these issues over the coming week): . 1 By any rational account, Britain’s decision to extend […]

Categories: Politics, War on terror • Tags: british politics, islamic state, kurds, syria, terrorism, war on terror, western policy

AFTER PARIS

November 15, 2015 by Kenan Malik

Solidarity and anger. Those were my immediate emotions, watching the carnage unfold on the streets of Paris. Solidarity with the people of Paris, anger at the depraved, nihilistic savagery of the terrorists. Those remain my main emotions, even now. But, beyond solidarity and anger, we need also analysis. So here are two articles, thinking through some of the issues. The first looks at, and challenges, two popular explanations for why the carnage was unleashed – Western foreign policy, on the […]

Categories: Atheism & Religion, International, Politics, War on terror • Tags: anti-imperialism, assimilationism, british politics, france, imperialism, islamic state, islamism, jihadism, multiculturalism, syria, terrorism

THE WAR OF THE CYNICS

September 15, 2013 by Kenan Malik

There are two wars being fought over Syria. There is a civil war on the streets of Homs and Aleppo and Ma’loula and Damascus, a war played out in the currency of bombs and bullets and (possibly) sarin. The consequences of this war are, so far, 100,000 dead, seven million displaced and a nation turned to rubble. Then there is the war on the global stage between outside players, a war played out in the grand halls of the UN, […]

Categories: International • Tags: chemical weapons, imperialism, russia, syria, war on terror, western policy

SYRIA: MORALITY AND REALITY

September 4, 2013 by Kenan Malik

First, the British parliament rejects David Cameron’s demand for an immediate military strike on Syria. Then, Barack Obama, seemingly all set to bomb Syria, decides to postpone any action until it wins backing from Congress (which is by no means a foregone conclusion). The extraordinary flip-flops and u-turns over policy towards Syria on both sides of the Atlantic last week might seem to express the triumph of the democratic process over hasty belligerence. They speak also, however, to the confusion […]

Categories: International, Politics • Tags: arab spring, britain, cia, freedom struggles, imperialism, iraq, morality, syria, use, war on terror, western policy