Hanif Kureishi & London Bombings III
“an eye for an eye is not the only way…”
Hanif Kueishi is probably most famous for My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985, however before that he was best known as a playwright. He is Pakistani-British and his themes tends to be about race, sexuality, nationalism…
He makes some forceful and interesting points about religion, violence and war, in the Guardian.
“We also have little idea of what it is to burn with a sense of injustice and oppression, and what it is to give our lives for a cause, to be so desperate or earnest. We think of these acts as mad, random and criminal, rather than as part of a recognisable exchange of violences.”
He goes on to say … “The only way out is to condemn all violence or to recognise that violence is a useful and important moral option in the world. Despite our self-deception, we are quite aware of how necessary it is, at times, to kill others to achieve our own ends and to protect ourselves. If we take this position we cannot pretend it is morally easy and seek to evade the consequences.”
And in one of the more convincing criticisms of war that I’ve read he ends with
“War debases our intelligence and derides what we have called “civilisation” and “culture” and “freedom”. If it is true that we have entered a spiral of violence, repression and despair that will take years to unravel, our only hope is moral honesty about what we have brought about.
And not only us. If we need to ensure that what we call “civilisation” retains its own critical position towards violence, religious groups have to purge themselves of their own intolerant and deeply authoritarian aspects.
The body hatred and terror of sexuality that characterise most religions can lead people not only to cover their bodies in shame but to think of themselves as human bombs. This criticism on both sides is the only way to temper an inevitable legacy of bitterness, hatred and conflict.”
In terms of theatre, I don’t think so many plays at the moment deals with both sides of this. It’s partly because I think that understanding the mind of a suicide bomber as HK suggests is so difficult for “us in the West”. It’s easier for those I know who have spent some time in Israel or any area of continuing conflict.
Many of these conflicts embody the notion of “an eye for an eye”. So from the suicide bombers and their supporters pint of view, this act may simply be fulfilling “an eye for an eye” an exchange of violences that happens in war.
I feel great resonance with what the late Ron Todd, trade unionist, said
“an eye for an eye is not the only way…”
And here is where theatre and other cultural mediums have an essential role to play and increasingly so in the world as it is developing.
To give voices to those caught up in the conflicts
To breathe hope and strength into the idea that violence and retribution is not the only way
To ultimately douse the fires of conflict, hatred, bile and bitterness that we have left the world.
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About me
I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.
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Recent Work
Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).
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Nakamitsu
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Yellow Gentlemen
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