From Fatwa
to Jihad:
The Rushdie Affair and its Legacy

 

 

"Gripping...
The Rushdie affair has shaped all our lives.
This book shows us how."

Hanif Kureishi

"Riveting political history... Impeccably researched, brimming with detail, yet razor-sharp in its argument"

Lisa Appignanesi
Independent

"An important intervention in the debate on freedom of expression"

Monica Ali

"Few writers have untangled the paradoxes and unintended consequences of political Islam as deftly as Malik"

Maureen Freely
Washington Post

"Enthralling"

Robert McCrum
Observer

"Terrific"

Bryan Appleyard
Sunday Times

"Valuable and sophisticated"

Theodore Dalrymple
City Journal

"Seldom can a book have had a more searing relevance to contemporary events"

Lindsay Johns
New Humanist

"One of the best analysis of today's conflicts"

Henrik Gade Jensen,
Jyllands-Posten

"Indepensable"

Bent Blüdnikow,
Berlingske Tidende

"Dazzlingly well written...indispensable "

Henning Lyngsbo,
Historie-online.dk

"Elegant...
A necessary book"

Nazneen Khan-Østrem
Aftenposten

"An admirable piece of reportage... subtle and intelligent"

Stuart Kelly
Scotsman

"Scalpel-sharp"

Saif Shahin
Mail Today

"Detailed and arresting"

Sudeep Paul
Indian Express

"For the left, Breivik’s warped mind reveals the dangers of rightwing anti-Muslim bigotry and of the conservative challenge to multiculturalism. For the right, his murderous rampage exposes the perils of mainstream politicians refusing to take a stand against immigration and multiculturalism. The problem that neither side seems willing to address is the way that both right and left, both multiculturalists and clash of civilization warriors, continue to feed the culture of delusion."

'Breivik's jihad'
Expressen
25 April 2012








" Tolerance, in other words, used to mean the acceptance of diversity and difference. Today it has come to mean the very opposite: the refusal to accept diversity and difference, the insistence that others abide by my views of what is acceptable and unacceptable. Once every group insists that other groups have to respect its boundaries then every social conversation has to take place across a barbed wire fence of ‘tolerance’."

'Enemies of Free Speech'
Index on Censorship
vol 41, no 1, 2012








" Imagine being held in solitary confinement, not for a day, not for a year, but for forty years. Imagine entering a cell, four paces long, three paces wide, when Richard Nixon was in the White House and still being confined to that cell, as Barack Obama gears up for re-election. Imagine being confined to that cell for every minute of those forty years apart from time out to shower and a walk around an outdoor cage three times a week. That has been the fate of Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, two black prisoners whose story tells not simply of personal injustice, but of the inhumanity that lies at the heart of America’s prison system."

'Shawshank without the redemption'
Bergens Tidende
11 April 2012








" Abortion is not about the killing of another human being but about a woman exercising her right to control her own body. The moral status of a fetus that is wanted, and that the woman sees as an unborn child, is different from the moral status of an unwanted fetus that she wishes to abort. Birth transforms that relationship. An entirely physical attachment becomes primarily, and increasingly, social. A fetus is part of the physical body of a woman. A newborn is part of the moral community of humans. In that change lies the moral difference between a fetus and a newborn, and between abortion and infanticide."

'Killing babies'
Göteborgs Posten
18 March 2012

26 May 2012
Where do you draw the line?
Brighton Dome,
Corn Exchange
Church Street, Brighton,
BN1 1UG
16.30

I am chairing a discussion with audience and panelists about how, when and why we censor ourselves. Part of the Brighton Festival, it is organized by Index on Censorship in collaboration with tthe DV8 dance company, and its show Can We Talk About This? Details and tickets from the Brigton Festival.

3 June 2012
What's wrong with multiculturalism?
A European perspective
Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
University of British Columbia
Vancouver
19.00

I am giving the 2012 Milton K Wong Lecture. Organized by the University of British Columbia, the Laurier Institution and CBC Radio One. For details and tickets phone 604.822.1444.

27 June 2012
The Moral Maze
BBC Radio 4
20.00

Also on the panel are Clifford Longley, Claire Fox and Anne McElvoy.