The # 1 international bestseller A Finalist for the George Orwell Book Prize “It would be absurd to think that a book can cause riots,” Salman Rushdie asserted just months before the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses. But that’s exactly what eventually happened. In England, protests started just months after the book’s publication, with Muslim protestors, mainly from immigrant backgrounds, coming by the thousands from the outer suburbs of London and from England’s old industrial centers-places like Bradford, Bolton, and Macclesfield-to denounce Rushdie’s novel as blasphemous and to burn it. In February of 1988, the protests spread to Pakistan, where riots broke out, killing five. That same month, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called for Rushdie’s assassination, and for the killing of anyone involved with the book’s publication. It was this frightening chain of events, Kenan Malik argues in his enlightened personal and political account of the period, that transformed the relationship between Islam and the West: From then on, Islam was a domestic issue for residents of Europe and the United States, a matter of terror and geopolitics that was no longer geographically constrained to the Middle East and South Asia. Malik investigates the communities from which the anti-Rushdie activists emerged, showing the subtleties of immigrant life in 1980s England. He depicts the growth of the anti-racist and Asian youth movements, and shows how young Britons went from supporting these progressive movements to embracing a conservative strain of Islam. Malik also controversially tackles England’s peculiar strain of “multiculturalism,” arguing that policymakers there failed to integrate Muslim immigrants, which many politicians saw as incompatible with their own “Western values.” It was a perception that led many to appeal to Muslims not as citizens, but as people whose primary loyalty was to their faith and who could be engaged only by their “community leaders.” It was a also policy that encouraged Muslims to view themselves as semi-detached citizens-and that inevitably played into the hands of radical Islamists. Twenty years later, the questions raised by the Rushdie affair-Islam’s relationship to the West, the meaning of multiculturalism, the limits of tolerance in a liberal society-have become the defining issues of our time.

The Singapore Perspectives series is a yearly publication that provides critical analysis of emerging trends and issues Singapore faces in terms of social, economic and political development. It is a quick and essential reference for understanding the broad policy discussions that animate thought leaders, policy-makers and the public in the country during the immediate period or that are likely to do so in the short and medium term. This edition focuses on how Singapore will cope with the social impact of, first, the development of a dual economy and, second, the adoption of new communications technologies. There is a section on the political implications of an aggressive new policy to promote immigration as Singapore's response to the global competition for talent, and, finally, the future of regionalism and ASEAN. Co-published by the think-tank, the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore, this is a useful publication for those with an interest in understanding the governance challenges facing a small, highly globalised economy and nation-state, or those who want a quick feel of the pulse of Singapore.

The Singapore Perspectives series is a yearly publication that provides critical analysis of emerging trends and issues Singapore faces in terms of social, economic and political development. It is a quick and essential reference for understanding the broad policy discussions that animate thought leaders, policy-makers and the public in the country during the immediate period or that are likely to do so in the short and medium term.This edition focuses on how Singapore will cope with the social impact of, first, the development of a dual economy and, second, the adoption of new communications technologies. There is a section on the political implications of an aggressive new policy to promote immigration as Singapore's response to the global competition for talent, and, finally, the future of regionalism and ASEAN.Co-published by the think-tank, the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore, this is a useful publication for those with an interest in understanding the governance challenges facing a small, highly globalised economy and nation-state, or those who want a quick feel of the pulse of Singapore.

As in other societies, Singapore's politics can be described either in terms of the political parties that have competed for power over the course of its history, or in terms of the citizens who have defined our polity and have driven our democratic processes. Naturally, as Singaporeans have become better informed and more engaged in fashioning their own future, the nature of the contest among the political parties has also shifted.This book is a collection of speeches presented at Singapore Perspectives 2020 by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat, as well as Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing. It also features speeches and discussions by public intellectuals and civic leaders. Each speaker presents a perspective on their 'experience' of politics, both in the traditional sense of elections and governance as well as beyond those formal structures.

This book presents insights on Singapore's politics and governance from leading thinkers, based on selected commentaries from Singapore Perspectives conference series co-published by Institute of Policy Studies and World Scientific. Contributed by the who's who of Singapore's government, business and academia circles, they provide diverse viewpoints over state-society relations, governing principles, electoral politics, foreign policy, among other important issues.Will consensus or contest secure Singapore's future? Should pragmatism be retained as Singapore's governing philosophy? What if the nation-state is no longer the key organisational unit of the international community? What if Singapore has to choose between China and the United States? What if Singapore becomes a two- or multi-party system? This volume explores a range of possible answers to these questions and more.

In 2015, Singapore celebrated 50 years of independence. The Institute of Policy took stock of how the choices people made have led the city-state to where she is today. As achievements are being celebrated, a conversation about the road ahead also begins. With much nation-building efforts premised upon the existence of this imagined community known as 'Singapore', it is an opportune moment to question and reimagine who 'we' are.The book documents the conference proceedings at Singapore Perspectives 2016 where the fourth generation of government ministers presented their thoughts on the social, economic and political future of Singapore and engaged in dialogues with panelists and audience members on the directions the country should take.