Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 124
124 Mohamed Arshad Ahmedi to the extremist views of young Muslims in Bradford entitled Holy warriors volunteer to kill; but the rational and modest views of those Muslims who did not endorse the death penalty were added at the end in fi ne print. Anthony Burgess of The Independent (16 February 1989), likens the fatwa to ‘Islam’s gangster tactics’ and does not mince his words in condemning some Islamic laws. He is certainly in his right to express his views but the tone arouses feelings of deep hatred for Islam. As he writes : ‘They (Muslims) have no right to call for the destruction of Mr. Rushdie’s book. If they do not like secular society, they must fly to the arms of the Ayatollah or some other self-righteous guardian of strict Islamic morality. ’ Muslims are almost regarded as if from another planet, whose teachings and beliefs do not seem to fit in with the rest of the ‘civi- lised’ world. RE LIGION CON F USED W I T H C U LT U R E ? Robert Kilroy-Silk, a former Labour politician, and presently a TV broadcaster, makes equally damaging remarks against Muslims in Britain; in an article in The Times (17 Feb 1989) his views ex- pressed could have led someone to believe that, perhaps, he had transferred his loyalties from the British Labour Party to the British National Party! In the article entitled Defending ethnic majorities, he condemns Britain’s timid and ‘pusillanimous’ response to the Ayatollah’s death sentence and Britain’s ‘constant compromise’ to ‘resident ayatollahs’, with the result that ‘British traditions, culture and laws have had to be amended to meet the needs of those with values and morals fashioned in less civilised times and places. ’ With the subject of the burning of The Satanic Verses, Kilroy- Silk is equally condescending on the uncultured status of the ethnic minorities, especially those from the Indian sub-continent. He seems