Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 111
Rushdie: Haunted By His Unholy Ghosts 111 In view of all these historical facts, does it now become a lit- tle easier for the West to understand the passionate Muslim reac- tion to Salman Rushdie’s portrait of Muhammad(sa) in The Satanic Verses? Does it now seem less incredible that a novel could inspire such hatred and animosity ? Does this now allay the fears of people in the West that Muslim communities live in their own cities according to alien values and are ready to defend them to the death ? For those astute enough to be aware of the historical facts this tragic affair must have served as an uncomfortable reminder of the Western past. Furthermore, the public was left in ignorance and so when they watched the Muslims of Bradford burning the novel they did not relate this to the bonfires of books that had blazed in Christian Europe over the centuries but they related this as proof of the incurable intolerance of Islam, a picture that has been painted for centuries. The general members of the public, especially the British, are a very fair-minded people and when things are presented before them in a rational form, they do judge autonomously and fairly; but if facts are presented with prejudice and couched in a disdainful disguise as is the wont of the majority of the western media, then it is no surprise that the public sways with the views of those who control this most powerful of mediums. BL A SP H E M Y A N D F R E E D OM OF SPE EC H There is an undeniable link between blasphemy and the burn- ing of offensive books. The ‘Rushdie Affair’ has certainly triggered both, and raised a far more important question as regards freedom of speech. In this section I shall comment, giving examples, on the early cases of blasphemy, their connection to contemporary inci- dents and the true Islamic teaching on the subject. Historically the word ‘blasphemy’ has functioned as a term to aggravate or blacken an opinion on sacred matters that is objection-