Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 108
108 Mohamed Arshad Ahmedi It is almost as if (God forbid), that Muhammad(sa) had suc- cumbed to satanic thoughts right at the end of his life. Could these ever be the thoughts of someone who throughout his life had preached the Unity of God with the firmness of faith never witnessed before? Rushdie must have been living in a fools’ paradise to insinuate such ludicrous and farcical claims. He fooled no-one in trying to pass all this off as fiction. This has been a deliber- ate and pre-meditated attack on anything and everything to do with Islam and it was meant to hurt all Muslims around the world. Salman Rushdie could never have dreamt of this alone; nor could he have taken the risk of inciting the latent passions of the Muslim fundamentalists on his own; unless, of course, he was prom- ised more money than he could handle, more fame than he could live with and promised comprehensive protection should things get out of hand. It would be interesting to look at the after-math of the reaction to the publication of The Satanic Verses, the pronouncement of the fatwa, the explanations and excuses given by Salman Rushdie him- self and the continuation of the anti-Islamic theme of the western media. But, first, I would like to discuss the subject of blasphemy and the burning of books which has accompanied the ‘Rushdie Affair’ hand-in-hand and which just might enlighten the reader as to why the Muslims reacted as they did.