10 An audience of one.
Every now and again, nobody turns up for one of my talks except for one person who has a grudge against me. It's not always the same person.
9 Snakes.
Not even my children know that I used to have a younger sister who died when she was two. I was six and still living in Pakistan. My mother and I used to visit her grave. One day there was a large cobra sitting on top of it. It became part of my consciousness, and I had nightmares of my younger sister being eaten by a snake.
8 Old age.
I'm always working on several things at once. I fear that I will lose that ability. There is nothing worse than having an active mind and a body that has given up.
7 My relatives.
I am part of an extended family of several hundred people, most of them in Pakistan, and each relative rightly thinks that he or she has a right to me. I fear having so many relatives with demands on me that I cannot fulfil. They all send me emails.
6 Muslim women.
I have never met a submissive Muslim woman. Muslim women that I know are all too happy to put me in my place. I fear them, especially if they wear a hijab, then they think they can get away with anything. They are very assertive. Maybe I'm more in awe of them than afraid.
5 Islam not reforming itself.
As a Muslim, one of my fears is that Islam will not undertake the long overdue reforms regarding Islamic laws, gender relations, minority relations and so on. There is the baggage of 500 years of history to contend with. A related fear is violence connected with Muslim sectarianism.
4 American empire.
America is the most formidable power in history. When you combine that power with the sense of fear that America has, you have a very lethal brew. What scares me is the Christian right wing. Imagine Jerry Falwell as president - it's not inconceivable.
3 Sameness.
After spending several weeks in the Borneo rainforest, the first three things I saw in Kuching were a KFC, a Body Shop and an Ikea. It terrified me. The diversity of the world is disappearing.
2 The acceleration of the rate of change.
Most of us are perpetually out of breath. There is seldom time for us, both as individuals and as a society, to discuss and debate whether we desire certain changes or not. This society is very complex and has feedback loops, which can accelerate into catastrophes. For example, terrorism: it has become a global phenomenon so quickly because they are all networked via mobile phones and the internet.
1 Genetic engineering.
We are transforming what it means to be human. There is an acute danger of eugenics. Genetic engineering is progressing at such a rate that we just do not know where it will take us. We are daring to define what it is to be human artificially, without realising the kind of transformation we are introducing in society. This could lead to catastrophe.
