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Bin Laden, Assassination and Democracy
Osama bin Laden is dead – assassinated a fortnight ago by bullets sprayed from the guns of special armed forces of the United States. During the wild celebrations that followed, the word “assassination” was never once used by politicians. There were instead euphemisms galore. Bin Laden was said to have been “struck down” or “eliminated”. [...]
Refolution in the Arab world
A new word is needed to describe these events of recent months. They should be called ‘refolutions’, radical refusals of the old choice between reform and revolution – remarkably sensitive to the grave dangers and high costs of using violent means to get their way. Read the text here
Refolution in the Arab world
Great revolutionary convulsions typically trigger long-lasting reflections on their causes and consequences. The European tradition of political thinking harbours many well-known examples, including Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Harold Laski’s Reflections on the Revolution of Our Times (1943) and Ralf Dahrendorf’s Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (1990). There are not [...]
Democracy in Egypt
The Egyptian revolution came not from the intellectual elite or opposition parties, but via Facebook and the Twitterverse, from the young men and women of Egypt fed up with autocratic, geriatric rule. Nor are they interested in a theocracy. Does this mean we’ve seen the end of an era which began with the Iranian Islamic [...]
Religion & Politics Related Books & Publications
Politika i strah (Politics and Fear) The Power of the Powerless Reflections on Violence
Prof. John Keane on Egypt’s revolution
There is no Khomeini and more than that I would say that there’s been a learning process in the region; that revolutions can devour their own children. There is an awareness that the main strategy is to set up checks and balances to prevent that kind of take over and I think that so far [...]
What’s So Good About Democracy?
We fight wars to defend it, vote to uphold it and pride ourselves upon it. But what’s so good about democracy?
Interview with Al Jazeera
John Keane is guest of Riz Khan at Al Jazeera’s One on One 6 July – 2009
The Beauty of Justice
Abdolkarim Soroush, Iran’s most prominent and controversial philosopher, talks with John Keane about Justice. This interview was published in the CSD Bulletin, Summer, 2006-07, Vol. 14 No. 1 & 2, University of Westminster Press. Read the interview in PDF format here