What is Possible Now

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.

"Among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in German today."New York Review of Books"Navid Kermani shows us what it means to be a critical intellectual today."Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung"The most interesting voice Germany has."Die Welt"When reading Navid Kermani’s essays, Kent’s line from King Lear comes to mind: “I'll teach you differences.” Navid Kermani is a master of differences and an enemy of rash judgments. His analyses of current political and cultural crises are eye-opening and often disturbing in the best sense of the word."Wolf Lepenies, Rector Emeritus, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin"From a considered examination of the proposition that it was the Afghans who brought down the Berlin Wall to a scintillating essay on gender in language, What is Possible Now is a dazzling, provocative and thoroughly engaging survey of our times that is nothing less than essential reading for anyone who wants to understand where we are now and what is still possible."John Burnside, University of St Andrews

• Preface 1.   Islam versus IslamThe Judgement against the Egyptian Quran Scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd 2.   The Thousand Voices of SilenceThe Situation of Artists and Intellectuals in Iran 3.   Sympathy for the Satan After the Attacks of 11 September 4.   The Soft Words of ViolenceAfter the Beginning of the War in Afghanistan 5.   What Alternative?Before the War in Iraq 6.   Right Again, SadlyThe Attack on the Synagogue in Istanbul 7.   Strategy of EscalationOn the Hostages in Beslan 8.   Good Thing You’re Educating Me…Confusion in the Integration Debate 9.   Desperation and EnthusiasmAfter the French Referendum on the European Constitution 10.  Hate Pictures and HysteriaThe Dispute over the Muhammad Cartoons 11.  Relying Only on Strength Makes Israel WeakerOn the War in Lebanon 12.  We are Murat KurnazBefore Foreign Minister Steinmeier’s Testimony to the Bundestag Investigative Committee 13.  The Message of CologneThe Discussion on Building a Grand Mosque 14.  Death on Wednesday?The Trial of Ayatollah Boroujerdi in Tehran 15.  Rejection of EuropeThe Swiss Referendum on the Prohibition of Minarets 16.  State Without a PeopleThe Recent Mass Protests in Iran 17.  Allianz Lecture on Europe 18.  Triumph of Vulgar RationalismThe Outcry over Martin Mosebach and the Ban on Circumcision 19.  Too Late for Good ConscienceThe Civil War in Syria 20.  Farewell to the Middle EastThe ‘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 SinkingThe Mediterranean Sea as a Mass Grave 23.  At Our Children’s CostEurope after Brexit 24.  What We Can Do in This SituationAfter the Attacks in Ansbach, Würzburg and Munich 25.  The Weight of Two SacksIn Search of the Last Blind Spots of Progress in China 26.  The Laughter of Nasrin SotoudehIran on International Human Rights Day 27.  For Three Dollars a DayAfter the West’s Withdrawal from Afghanistan 28.  No Programme but PoliticsThe Chancellorship of Angela Merkel 29.  Afghanistan? Already a Non-IssueGerman Apathy Towards the World 30.  The Price of JusticeThe Disappearance of the Generic Masculine in German 31.  War as a Means of PoliticsAfter Vladimir Putin’s Announcement of a Russian Troop Deployment to Donbas 32.  Through the NightUkraine at War 33.  Woman Life FreedomThe Uprising in Iran, July – December 2022