Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 143
Rushdie: Haunted By His Unholy Ghosts 143 knew that his only hope of being protected was behind the shield of a powerful government like Britain. He was invited to give a speech at the Stationer’s Hall in London on 14 February 1992, the edited version of which appeared in The Times the next day headlined ‘I must not be forgotten’. This was a direct call to Britain not to sell him out : ‘I have no wish to be in adversial relationship with the British government, because it has protected me and remains my best hope of a solution, but I wish that the government would make it a little easier for me to believe that they’re strongly and resolutely on my side. ’ He even has the audacity to make specific demands and urges the government that ‘any deal with Iran which excludes a full, public and effective settlement of the Rushdie case will be unacceptable. ’ Perhaps the reason why he is so daring in exacting demands on the government is that he had been promised beforehand that the situation would never reach the extreme stage that it now had. Obviously he cannot name any names. He was like an agitated, wounded animal in a cage, not knowing which way to turn. His weak and feeble attempt to be accepted back into the Muslim community had failed miserably; everyone saw through his insidious and guileful embrace of Islam. This is borne out in greater detail in a rare interview that Rushdie gave to Anne McElvoy of The Times published on 26 August 1995 which will be interesting to read in the interviewer’s own words : ‘Once, he tried to make amends with his enemies. At Christmas 1990, he converted to Islam, a move he now describes as ‘the biggest mistake of my life’. Brought up in a relaxed Muslim home, he abandoned the faith as a teenager and retains a cultural, although not a spiritual, affinity with it. ‘At the time, I was trying to protect The Satanic Verses as the work of someone who really knew Islam. But it was wrong, because I don’t believe in God, so I should not have suggested that I did. ’