Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page xiv
xvi edly. This enraged the Western Muslim public even more and made an otherwise docile and law-abiding Muslim community living in peace for decades become militant and aggressive in its attitude. Thus, when Muslims in Britain tried to seek redress in the courts, their efforts were doomed from the start. In a multi-religious soci- ety, British blasphemy laws, it appeared, only protected Christians from injury, and not the members of other faiths, certainly not the Muslims. Needless to say, with all this publicity, the book became a best seller overnight. Despite bans in numerous countries, it sold hun- dreds of thousands of copies in the first year and has become one of Viking’s best sellers ever in history. Salman Rushdie’s fate, however was sealed. Threats and feelings of animosity from the opponents of the book forced him into hiding and he was compelled to change his home 54 times in the space of the first two years. However, with it came notoriety, and he was portrayed as a symbol of freedom and free speech. The British Government poured thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to fund his protection and he was given special audiences with the President of the United States, and the Prime Minister of Britain. This contrast in their attitude towards Rushdie by the Muslims on the one hand and the West on the other mirrors the stark dif- ference in their reaction. Rushdie: Haunted by his unholy ghosts charts a course that lies between the two. It rejects some of the ex- tremism expressed by the East, but also condemns the attitude of the West. The issuing of the fatwa, it shows, cannot be substantiated by Islamic teachings. Nor can these condone some of the excesses committed in protesting against the book. When condemning the attitude of the West, Arshad Ahmedi goes a step further in trying to reveal its sinister role in the whole af- fair. He demonstrates that the publication of such an injurious novel was not an isolated event but a product of hatred towards Islam and its founder that has been brewing up ever since its inception some 14 centuries ago. This is examined in detail from the intrigues that took