Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 112
112 Mohamed Arshad Ahmedi able to one who differs. He may genuinely feel that his religion has been assaulted, yet the ‘blasphemy’ may exist only in his mind and not necessarily in that of the offender. T H E T E AC H I NG I N T H E BI BLE The Bible is unequivocal in its condemnation of blasphemy. It advocates death for the blasphemer. Leviticus 24:16 fixed the precedent in Judeo-Christian history for punishing blasphemy as a crime: ‘He who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him; the sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death. ’ For centuries, the Jews bore the brunt of the Church’s strict and scrupulous adherence to the blasphemy laws; however, no-one was safe from this edict, not even Christians themselves. An ironic exam- ple is that of Giordano Bruno, the foremost philosopher of the Italian Renaissance who lived in the 16th century. His case especially makes interesting reading vis-a-vis the plight of Salman Rushdie. COM PA R ISON W I T H RUSH DI E The case of Bruno has an eerie similarity with that of Rushdie in facets of literary expression without any boundaries, in his insist- ence on having the freedom to air his views no matter how contro- versial and also in the way that he went into hiding. Giordano Bruno was neither a scientist nor a theologian; he sought to reconcile science and religion, but his philosophy sub- verted basic theological premises. He said of himself that he had ‘given freedom to the human spirit and made its knowledge free. It was suffocating in the close air of narrow prison-house, whence,. . it gazed at the far-off stars. ’ (Ash Wednesday Supper, Giordano Bruno, 1584).