Keith Kahn-Harris

I can't think of a witty subheading - any suggestions?

Can Islamophobia be Radical?

One criticism sometimes levelled at Satanism and black metal is that anti-Christianity is an easy option in places like Norway and that if they'd have any guts they'd attack Islam. I am torn over this question as I believe Islamophobia to be a real problem and that western societies hardly need to have more abuse directed at Islamic minorities, but at the same time I cannot deny that blasphemy should never be ruled artistically out of bounds. More than that - blasphemy can, in certain contexts be a radical act. Such might (and I stressmight) be  the case with the Arabic Anti-Islamic Legion, a small grouping of black metal acts based in the Islamic world. Some of these may undoubtedly be brave (although they keep themselves anonymous), such as the woman behind the Iraqi solo act Janaza . I can't deny that such a project could be an act of resistance against fundamentalist domination. Yet my worry is that in a western context, anti-Islamic black metal may simply fuel racism and Islamophobia.

Yes I know, I am a confused lefty metal-lover trying to have my cake and eat it: I enjoy the  thrill of transgression but abhore oppression, bigotry and racism; I respect Islam immensely (honestly) but also respect blasphemous art. Is such a position viable? Well in the sense that I manage to get up in the morning and live a fairly normal life I guess that it is. Of course, life is easy for me as a middle class Londoner. Where would I jump if I had to make hard choices? I don't know, but I guess I have lived my life so far with the aim of avoiding those choices. I am 39 now, if I can just manage to keep this ludicrous position going for another 40 or so years, then I guess I will have  showed it's possible to have my cake and eat it too. 

Metal and the far right

I'm very conscious of the fact that I am posting pretty rarely on this blog and when I do my posts are generally brief. This post won't change things - I'm still too busy with other stuff for now - but I'm glad to have the opportunity to recommend two excellent posts by Graeme on black metal and the extreme right: here and here.

Later this year I am planning to submit a couple of research grant applications looking at NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal).

Dialogue session at Limmud

I organised and facilitated a diallgue at Limmud between David Newman and Gerald Steinberg. Both of them are UK-born Israel academics who, in recent years, have often been on different sides on debates about Israeli politics. The aim of the session was to encourage them to 'talk about talking' , to talk about the tone of debates on Israel. I also challenged them to dialogue rather than debate with each other. You can see a video of the session here: As you can see in the video, some of the audience members were unhappy with the session. They felt that Newman and  Steinberg were debating rather than dialoguing and that they were scoring points off each other. I was more positive about the session. I felt that Newman and Steinberg were largely civil to each other and in these times that is something of an achievment! There's no doubt though that this is difficult stuff and that public dialogues are hard to organise. Hopefully, the idea of civility will become more widespread and such experiments will become commonplace.