Salman
Rushdie is one of those names that is etched on
the mind of a generation of adults. Better that
than have it inscribed on a grim tombstone in memory
of a writer murdered by some theocrat in the service
of Allah or the prophet. In the H-Blocks at the
time of the fatwa issued against Rushdie, I recall
the poem by a fellow republican prisoner, the writer
Gino McCormack, protesting the edict to murder.
The Derry man's chant-like prose 'Salman, Rushdie,
Salman Rushdie,' glided effortlessly to 'some
man must die, some man must die.' Rushdie had
received the fatwa from Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran
in 1989 as punishment for blasphemy over his depiction
of the Prophet Mohammed in The Satanic Verses
written the previous year. That the term blasphemy
can have any meaning in the modern world rather
than being a quaint relic of a bygone age is a reminder
of how contaminated with the poison of religion
the well of human society remains. Presumably for
this reason Rushdie opposed the British government's
proposed introduction of the Racial and Religious
Hatred Act.
That
religion is often a noxious substance is evident
from its toxic adulteration of the language contained
in the fatwa issued against Rushdie by Ruhollah
Musavi Khomeini.
In
the name of God Almighty. There is only one God,
to whom we shall all return. I would like to inform
all intrepid Muslims in the world that the author
of the book entitled The Satanic Verses, which has
been compiled, printed, and published in opposition
to Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur'an, as well as
those publishers who were aware of its contents,
have been sentenced to death. I call on all zealous
Muslims to execute them quickly, wherever they find
them, so that no one will dare insult the Islamic
sanctities. Whoever is killed on this path will
be regarded as a martyr, God willing.
So
much for a loving and peaceful God.
In
his 2002 book Step Across the Line Rushdie
dealt with his attitude to that fatwa and the life
he felt compelled to live during 'the plague years'
in which he endured almost a decade of round the
clock protection, secret locations and looking over
the shoulder until Iran lifted the Fatwa in 1998.
At one point he slept in thirteen different beds
over a twenty day period. He hoped that his book
based on a series of lectures he had delivered at
Yale in the same year would lay the matter to rest
allowing him 'really never have to talk about it
again.' In spite of this in 2003 Iran's Revolutionary
Guards once again called for Rushdie's murder.
Salman
Rushdie was born in Bombay in 1947 but moved with
his family to Pakistan while still a teenager. The
partition of India cut his family in half. He arrived
at England just around the time the Berlin Wall
was being built and the first thought to strike
him was that Europe was now facing partition as
well. Crossing partitioned lines, both literal and
metaphorical, has been a preoccupation for him since.
He graduated from Cambridge in 1968. During his
student years he experienced racism. On leaving
England to reside in New York he was subjected to
the wrath of the 'attack dogs' in the British press,
who had previously welcomed him with open arms.
Seemingly his departure was an act of apostasy.
New
York for Rushdie is 'a city whose culture is created
by successive waves of migration' and therefore
not surprisingly happens to be the only city in
the world since Bombay where he feels normal 'or
at least everybody else is abnormal in the same
way.' He denies feeling American but very much feels
a New Yorker.
He
holds a certain ambivalence towards Islam which
he has characterised as 'that least huggable of
faiths.' Describing Islam as 'an extraordinarily
civilized culture with a great interest in beauty,
a great interest in poetry and architecture and
philosophy' he also views it as a belief system
which can 'cut people's hands off if they're thieves,
stone them to death if they're adulteresses.' He
strenuously opposes the way in which 'Muslim societies
have constructed themselves into prisons …
into places where people are constantly instructed
and commanded and ordered around.' He has always
felt 'that dichotomy inside Muslim culture. It's
got something to do with the exclusion of women
from the central places of the culture.' Consequently,
he believes that women will lead the fight to reform
Islam.
I
remember receiving enormous numbers of very moving
letters from Muslim readers of The Satanic Verses.
Particularly from Muslim women, who thanked me for
opening a door, you know … I think the Islamic
reformation probably does start in the West and
it probably starts with Muslim women. Because they're
the people who've understood the problem of Islam
better than anyone else, certainly better than Muslim
men.
He
mourns the cultural death of cities like Beirut,
Kabul and Damascus which were 'fantastically open'
cities of culture but which have since suffocated
under the weight of the veil. 'It just won't do
to endlessly blame the West. Because these are self-inflicted
wounds.' He is a fan of the Czech writer Milan Kundera
and in particular the way Kundera has been shaped
by the endless shifting borders within European
society. Kundera is also one of the great writers
to emerge from within the anti-totalitarian tradition.
Because Rushdie accepts that where there is power
there is resistance he refuses to despair:
If
you look, everywhere in the Muslim world there are
all kinds of very courageous and forward-thinking
people. Islam is not just the mullahs and the Taliban.
It's not just al-Qaida and the Taliban. In fact,
remember that those people oppressed Muslims before
they attacked the West. The first victims of the
Taliban were Afghans. The first victims of the Iranian
mullahs were the people of Iran. And from my knowledge
of those countries the most hated group in any Muslim
country is always the mullahs. Always, always hate
them everywhere, for good reason … One of the
things I know about the Muslim world is that the
mullahs are the most hated figures in it. Mullahs
in Pakistan are notorious for their corruption and
their misbehavior, and it's not even their sexual
misbehavior.
Unlike
some of those writers he has he has lined up alongside
to face down totalitarianism he does not hold to
the view that Islam must always equal repression
and reaction. When interviewed by Irshad
Manji, who asked him if Islam can be divorced
from oppression, he responded:
it's
difficult. It was difficult in Afghanistan. But
you know there are places in the Muslim world where
a much more open society does begin to obtain, if
you go to Dubai …women walk around non-shrouded
and actually dressed in western dress and so on,
and people don't stone them or abuse them or call
them names.
A
writer of some substance prior to the publication
of the Satanic Verses, it was this 1988 novel that
established his reputation and placed his name on
the tips of many tongues. It was banned in India,
then South Africa. With the die cast, further prohibitions
on the book followed. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt,
Somalia, Bangladesh, Sudan, Malaysia, Indonesia
and Qatar amongst them.
The
book was publicly burned in Bradford. A bookstore
which stocked the novel was torched in California,
as were the offices of a New York newspaper which
ran an editorial defending the right of people to
read what Rushdie had written. The Japanese translator
for the book was stabbed to death near Tokyo. Its
Italian translator was lucky to escape with his
life when stabbed in Milan. A Belgian Mullah who
defended Rushdie's right to publish was murdered
in Brussels. The book's Norwegian publisher was
shot and wounded in Oslo. Deaths occurred elsewhere
as a result of clashes between police and protestors
and in one case 37 people died as a result of an
arson attack on a hotel in Sivas in protest against
Rushdie's Turkish translator.
A
year after the book appeared Rushdie offered a public
apology of sorts which did him little good and only
won him opprobrium from some of those who had sided
with him during the dispute. Taslima
Nasrin who signed the Manifesto
Against Totalitarianism with him was one of
the critics.
Rushdie
has irritated many people throughout his career
and not just with his writing. He is said to be
haughty and pompous. But it is his writing that
has thrust him into mortal combat with the totalitarian
theocrats. His rejoinder to those who urge caution
in the face of the theocrats is blunt but inspirational:
'freedom
is scary, and it's not peaceful either. It's turbulent.
'Speak' is what I would say. How many people can
they shut up?'
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