Mohsin Hamid on the rise of nationalism: 'In the land of the pure, no one is pure enough'

From Myanmar to Pakistan, the US and Britain, an obsession with purity is driving political, religious and moral agendas. But a retreat from complexity is no guarantee of future harmony.

No one can ever be sufficiently pure to be lastingly safe. In the land of the pure, no one is pure enough. No Muslim is Muslim enough. And so all are suspect. All are at risk. And many are killed by others who find their purity lacking, and many of their killers are in turn killed for the same reason. And on and on, in a chain reaction. The politics of purity is the politics of fission.