Tag: terrorism

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

ON THE DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER

November 13, 2014 by Kenan Malik

In October 1985, four members of the Palestinian Liberation Front seized a cruise liner, the Achille Lauro, in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Egypt. Holding the passengers and crew hostage, the hijackers demanded the release of 50 Palestinians then held in Israeli prisons. They failed to achieve their demands. But, in a vicious and seemingly inexplicable act, the hijackers murdered Leon Klinghoffer, a retired, wheelchair-bound Jewish-American businessman, shooting him in the forehead and chest, then forcing the ship’s barber […]

Categories: Culture & Books, Free Speech • Tags: anti-semitism, free speech, islam, israel, john adams, music, nakba, opera, palestine, salman rushdie, terrorism, the death of klinghoffer, the satanic verses

THE MAKING OF A BRITISH JIHADI

June 6, 2013 by Kenan Malik

As a follow-up to my earlier post on ‘Myths of radicalisation’, which questioned the conventional narrative about how some Muslims get drawn to jihadism, here is an extract from my book From Fatwa to Jihad, telling the story of Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the 7/7 bombings, and of how he became a jihadi. From Fatwa to Jihad, pp 81-83, 98-104, 107-110 In the days following 7/7, thousands of journalists decamped to Beeston, a suburb of Leeds where the […]

Categories: Britain, War on terror • Tags: 7/7, asian youth movement, britain, british asians, ed husain, islam, islamism, mohammed sidique khan, mullah boys, terrorism, war on terror

MYTHS OF RADICALISATION

June 2, 2013 by Kenan Malik

How do we stop young Muslims becoming radicalized? That has been the question posed by many politicians, policy makers, analysts and journalists in the aftermath of the killing of Lee Rigby in Woolwich last week. Indeed, it has been the question posed ever since the 7/7 bombings first raised the issue of ‘homegrown’ terrorism. The idea of ‘radicalization’ as the process by which young Muslims get drawn into jihadist circles has become received wisdom within security forces and among politicians, […]

Categories: Britain, War on terror • Tags: 7/7, britain, identity politics, islam, islamism, liberties, marc sageman, radicalisation, terrorism, war on terror

REFLECTIONS ON WOOLWICH

May 23, 2013 by Kenan Malik

1 It was a mad, barbarous attack, more akin to a particularly savage form of street violence than to a politically motivated act. What was striking about the incident was not just its depravity but the desire of the murderers for that depravity to be captured on film. This was narcissistic horror, an attempt to create a spectacle, enact a performance, and generate media frenzy. In that it succeeded. We should not provide the act with greater legitimacy by rationalizing […]

Categories: Britain, War on terror • Tags: britain, islam, islamism, terrorism, war on terror

REASONING ABOUT TERROR

May 2, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, has stirred up controversy with his claim, on Iran’s Press TV, that behind the Boston bombings lay anger about Western foreign policy and its attitudes to Islam: There was such ignorance in the Bush White House about Islam and about the history of so many disputes that exist in the Middle East. People get angry. They lash out. It’s the whole squalid intervention that has disfigured the record of the Western democracies. I […]

Categories: War on terror • Tags: chechnya, islam, islamism, olivier roy, terrorism, usa, war on terror

OUT OF BOUNDS

August 5, 2012 by Kenan Malik

As a coda to my previous post on abuse and how to deal with it, I am republishing this essay on changing notions of incitement that was first published in Index on Censorship in 2008. The essay was written in the context of the debate about the war on terror – it is an edited version of a talk I gave at an Index on Censorship conference on ‘Extremism and the Law: Free Speech in an Age of Terror’. It does not […]

Categories: Free Speech • Tags: free speech, hate speech, incitement laws, iqbal sacranie, liberties, lyrical terrorist, offence, rushdie affair, salman rushdie, terrorism, war on terror

THE TERRORISTS THAT ARE AND THE TERRORISTS THAT AREN’T

January 16, 2012 by Kenan Malik

When is a terrorist not a terrorist? When, apparently, he is ‘our’ terrorist. Last week Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a professor at Tehran’s technical university, and deputy director of commerce at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, was blown up by a bomb attached to his car. He was the fourth Iranian nuclear scientist to be killed in the past two years, part of what appears to be a concerted assassination campaign against people deemed key to Teheran’s nuclear ambitions. It is […]

Categories: War on terror • Tags: britain, iran, israel, libya, rendition, terrorism, war on terror, western policy

MYTHS AND REALITIES OF 9/11

September 9, 2011 by Kenan Malik

A recent poll by the Pew Trust showed that virtually every American can remember where they were on the morning of 11 September 2001. Most recognize the profound changes that 9/11 has wrought to the nation. But America is divided down the middle on the question of whether the USA brought the attack upon itself. Forty-three percent of those polled thought that 9/11 was caused by US ‘wrongdoing’; 45% disagreed. Perhaps no set of statistics better expresses the confusions and ambiguities […]

Categories: International, War on terror • Tags: 7/7, 9/11, 9/11 commission, anders breivik, anti-imperialism, anti-terror laws, charles kurzman, clash of civilizations, culture of fear, ground zero mosque, guantanamo bay, identity politics, imperialism, islamism, islamophobia, jason burke, jihadism, liberties, mary beard, muslims, osama bin laden, phillip zelikow, stephen howe, tariq ali, terrorism, tzvetan todorov, usa, war on terror, western civilization, western policy

JASON BURKE ON ISLAMIC MILITANCY

August 23, 2011 by Kenan Malik

British journalist Jason Burke, one of the more perceptive writers on the issues of Islam, Islamism and the war on terror, has chosen five books on Islamic militancy for The Browser. And among the five is From Fatwa to Jihad. A snippet from his interview:

Categories: War on terror • Tags: british asians, british politics, From Fatwa to Jihad, identity politics, islamism, jason burke, jihadism, kenan malik's books, muslims, rushdie affair, terrorism, war on terror

THE TRAGIC IRONIES OF BREIVIK’S TERROR

July 30, 2011 by Kenan Malik

Three weeks ago London marked the sixth anniversary of the 7/7 tube bombings. Now Oslo will have its own heart-wrenching day of remembrance every year. Even for those who lived through 7/7 – not to mention countless other bombings, from IRA to neo-Nazi, that London has witnessed in the past few decades – there was still something viscerally shocking about Anders Breivik’s murderous rampage through Oslo and Utoya, the mindlessness of the massacre combined with its cold-eyed homicidal brutality. It […]

Categories: Multiculturalism, War on terror • Tags: 7/7, anders breivik, anti-terror laws, christianity, diversity, far right, identity politics, immigration, islamism, jihadism, liberties, multiculturalism, muslims, racism, terrorism, war on terror

MULTICULTURALISM AND THE ROAD TO 7/7

July 7, 2011 by Kenan Malik

This is my debut op-ed essay for the New York Times, a reflection on 7/7, multiculturalism and Islamism, which was published today under the title ‘Assimilation’s Failure, Terrorism’s Rise’. The NYT version is (very) slightly shorter than this. Six years ago today, on July 7, 2005, Islamic suicide bombers attacked London’s transit system. They blew up three subway trains and a bus, leaving 52 people dead and a nation groping for answers. In one sense the meaning of 7/7 is as clear to […]

Categories: Britain, Multiculturalism, War on terror • Tags: 7/7, british politics, immigration, islamism, mcb, multiculturalism, muslims, racism, terrorism