Writers are queueing up to offer unqualified support to Salman Rushdie… but, 34 years ago, when the Satanic Verses was published, the literary landscape was rather different. A few fellow writers decried him for disrespecting Islam. Roald Dahl called the book “sensationalist” and Rushdie "a dangerous opportunist”. John le Carré criticised Rushdie, writing that “I don't think it is given to any of us to be impertinent to great religions with impunity.”
Others, including Hugh Trevor-Roper, accused Rushdie of insulting Islam, practising Western-style cultural colonialism and condescension, and damaging race relations. However, the freedom to speak our minds is a freedom which predates the Western concept: the freedom to experiment with ideas and language, and to defy the prescriptions of holy writ. Holding religious doctrines to account is both our right and our duty.
The events of the last few days remind us that this is a freedom worth fighting for, and that a fatwa is easy to issue, but hard to revoke. There will continue to be a few people who will accept the fatwa at face value, and hope to win eternal bliss by carrying it out. A fatwa doesn’t come with any time constraints. As one Iranian ayatollah has declared, executing Rushdie will remain a duty incumbent on all Muslims “until the day of resurrection”…
Spotted in the Guardian today: the Green Dragon pub, Hardraw in the Yorkshire Dales…
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