FAIR organises public reading from "The Satanic Verses" in solidarity with Salman Rushdie
The ongoing row the modern world is having with Islamism on the issue of “blasphemy” is a depressing one. Nothing seems to progress, and every time the right to free speech comes into collision with religious zealots of the Islamic flavour, the liberal resistance appears to go AWOL.
Just in very recent memory, this was true of the (latest) attacks on the HQ of Charlie Hebdo over cartoons. This is true of the poor teacher from Batley, currently abandoned and living in hiding just for for doing his job. This was true of poor Samuel Paty, beheaded on a French street for attempting to do his job. This is true of Cinema chains pulling movies in response to theocratic mobs that wish to decide what the rest of us can or can’t watch.
And it is especially true of what has been dubbed “The Rushdie Affair”. Salman Rushdie is an Indian born writer whose life was forever turned upside down when a work of fiction he authored in 1988 resulted in a Fatwa placed on his head by Ayatollah Khomeini. A number of failed assassination attempts followed. Some of those associated with publishing or translating the book have been seriously injured or murdered.
Unfortunately, Rushdie was targeted with greater success recently at a public appearance from a New York stage. He was left with life-changing injuries, suffering damage to his liver and severed nerves in an arm and eye according to the BBC.
His attacker was not shy about voicing the predictable motivation behind his attack, saying:
"He's someone who attacked Islam, he attacked their beliefs, the belief systems."
Luckily, it appears Salman Rushdie will pull through. And as with Charlie Hebdo, the actions of violent theocratic thugs have backfired once again—as The Satanic Verses entered the best-selling lists shortly after.
I can’t imagine any other context where an attempted murder of a man can take place on a stage in New York—for the ‘crime’ of writing a book—that would lead to so much cowardice, victim-blaming and moral confusion.
The Islamist response to being offended comes as no surprise. What is incredible to witness however is the deafening silence from those that presumably would demand the right not to be stabbed in the face for what they (or their loved ones) write. This was as true now as it was at the time of publication in the 80s, with authors like Roald Dahl throwing Rushdie under the bus .
Once again, those that take full advantage of free expression cannot seem to muster the basic courage to defend it against actual fascists. I sometimes wonder how people can value a right they are not willing to defend for others. Even Sky News published an article titled ‘Why Is Salman Rushdie So Controversial?’. A better use of their time may have been to ask 'Why does Islam reliably produce a surplus of easily offended thugs'? But it seems we still aren’t ready for that conversation in mainstream circles.
Happily, one such rare deviation from the norm is the response from FAIR (Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism). They stuck their head above the parapet and organised for a number of public figures to bee seen reading a section of The Satanic Verses:
This is the sort of moral courage and response that should be on show from any organisation, outlet or prominent writer that claims to care about free expression and anti-fascism.
Thank-you.
Thank you 🙏🏽