Shah Rukh Khan, the cheesiest but most loved Bollywood actor was detained at Newark Airport because of his name on August 15th: Indian Independence Day. Ironically, he was in the US to promote his new movie, My Name is Khan, which is about racial profiling! Wajahat Ali points out, the…
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Sometimes it’s funny how you come across something that tallies completely with what you are thinking/writing at the moment. This video speak to the paper I am writing now on ‘Post-race, post-politics: the paradoxical rise of culture after multiculturalism’. Excerpts to come and comments welcome on the writing in progress.…
Comments closedProponents of the notion that European populations are falling in to decline because of the increased birth rate among the ‘wrong type’ of people are gaining influence. There is a close link to be observed between these types of arguments and those of populist writers such as Christopher Caldwell who,…
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This article is also published on Multiculturality
The funeral of Marwa Sherbini was held in Alexandria on Monday July 6, 2009. 32 year old Marwa, who was three months pregnant, was stabbed eighteen times in thirty seconds by Axel W, a 28 year old German man in a court in Dresden in front of her husband and 3-year old son among countless others. While stabbing Marwa, Axel W shouted “you have no right to live.” Her husband was also injured when he was shot in the leg by a German security officer while he was trying to protect his wife.
“Ms Sherbini had sued her killer after he called her a “terrorist” because of her headscarf… Axel W and Ms Sherbini and family were in court for his appeal against a fine of 750 euros ($1,050) for insulting her in 2008, apparently because she was wearing the Muslim headscarf or Hijab.” (BBC News)
As reported here, Axel W also called Marwa Sherbini “islamist” and “bitch” when she asked him to make room for her son to play on swings at a local park.
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The following is the transcript of a presentation on the Questioning the European ‘Crisis of Multiculturalism’ project given at the Edge Hill University Centre for Local Policy Studies Summer School on July 1 2009.
What exemplifies the ‘crisis’?
The last few days have provided us several neatly packaged examples of the type of thing that passes as emblematic of the by-now almost undisputed ‘fact’ that multiculturalism in Europe is in crisis.
In the UK, Gordon Brown has announced what was quickly dubbed as a ‘British homes for British workers’ scheme. Under this, what have been described as ‘local’ British people waiting for local social housing will be given preference over ‘outsiders’ .The terms of this proposal pit the ‘deserving’ over the ‘undeserving’ in the barely veiled implication that the divide between the two is culturally defined.
The first teaching day of my Erasmus Visit to the Transdisciplinary Gender Studies Institute at the Humboldt University in Berlin got off to a good start yesterday. The first session was held at Bebel Platz, opposite the main building of the University on the famous Unter den Linden. We met the students and picked up a megaphone and went to the Platz where we settled on the steps of the Church. Amused tourists passed by, literally walking over the students to get into the church. The point of all this?
Comments closedI am speaking today on ‘Race, Gender, and Sexuality’ at 16h00 in Bebelplatz, Berlin, the site where Nazis burned ‘un-German’ books in the 1930s. ALL WELCOME!
Comments closedI am engaged in an Erasmus Teaching Visit to the Institute for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies at the Humboldt University from June 15-19. Due to a national education strike being called in Germany this week, the seminars will be held in public spaces on the Humboldt University site. The first seminar…
Comments closed“Lentin’s book is not only an accessible survey of scholarly writing on the nature of racism but is also a powerful intervention in its own right.” Arun Kundnani of the Institute of Race Relations, and author of the excellent The End of Tolerance, has written a thoughtful review of Racism:…
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