What is Possible Now

Navid Kermani is one of the outstanding public intellectuals of his generation. Not one for drawing hard and fast conclusions, his style of thought is probing, observant, often straying from well-trodden paths and always peering beyond the present moment to trace connections and grasp the bigger picture.Well known for his prize-winning novels and major works of nonfiction, Kermani has also written for newspapers and magazines ever since he started working at the local desk of a newspaper at the age of 15. Reporting from war zones and crisis hot spots, he gained widespread acclaim as a journalist, displaying a rare political sensitivity which manages to illuminate what politicians fail to see and to seek out solutions where all appears hopeless. This volume brings together his brilliantly perceptive writing from the last thirty years, on topics ranging from terror in the Middle East to crisis in Europe and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. As a record of Kermani's uniquely compassionate curiosity, this absorbing book is an antidote to the spectre of confusion and despair that stalks global politics today.

Auteur

Navid Kermani is a writer and scholar who lives in Cologne, Germany. He has received numerous accolades for his literary and academic work, including the 2015 Peace Prize of the German Publishers' Association, Germany's most prestigious cultural award.

Contenu

Preface 1. Islam versus Islam The Judgement against the Egyptian Quran Scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd 2. The Thousand Voices of Silence The Situation of Artists and Intellectuals in Iran 3. Sympathy for the Satan After the Attacks of 11 September 4. The Soft Words of Violence After the Beginning of the War in Afghanistan 5. What Alternative? Before the War in Iraq 6. Right Again, Sadly The Attack on the Synagogue in Istanbul 7. Strategy of Escalation On the Hostages in Beslan 8. Good Thing You're Educating Me... Confusion in the Integration Debate 9. Desperation and Enthusiasm After the French Referendum on the European Constitution 10. Hate Pictures and Hysteria The Dispute over the Muhammad Cartoons 11. Relying Only on Strength Makes Israel Weaker On the War in Lebanon 12. We are Murat Kurnaz Before Foreign Minister Steinmeier's Testimony to the Bundestag Investigative Committee 13. The Message of Cologne The Discussion on Building a Grand Mosque 14. Death on Wednesday? The Trial of Ayatollah Boroujerdi in Tehran 15. Rejection of Europe The Swiss Referendum on the Prohibition of Minarets 16. State Without a People The Recent Mass Protests in Iran 17. Allianz Lecture on Europe 18. Triumph of Vulgar Rationalism The Outcry over Martin Mosebach and the Ban on Circumcision 19. Too Late for Good Conscience The Civil War in Syria 20. Farewell to the Middle East The 'Islamic State's' March on Baghdad 21. Stop the 'Islamic State'! The Threat of Genocide against Christians, Yazidis and other Ethnic Groups in Iraq 22. The European Ideal is Sinking The Mediterranean Sea as a Mass Grave 23. At Our Children's Cost Europe after Brexit 24. What We Can Do in This Situation After the Attacks in Ansbach, Würzburg and Munich 25. The Weight of Two Sacks In Search of the Last Blind Spots of Progress in China 26. The Laughter of Nasrin Sotoudeh Iran on International Human Rights Day 27. For Three Dollars a Day After the West's Withdrawal from Afghanistan 28. No Programme but Politics The Chancellorship of Angela Merkel 29. Afghanistan? Already a Non-Issue German Apathy Towards the World 30. The Price of Justice The Disappearance of the Generic Masculine in German 31. War as a Means of Politics After Vladimir Putin's Announcement of a Russian Troop Deployment to Donbas 32. Through the Night Ukraine at War 33. Woman Life Freedom The Uprising in Iran, July - December 2022