Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 142
142 Mohamed Arshad Ahmedi ‘The Satanic Verses is a novel that many of its readers have found to be of value. I cannot betray them. ’ How noble of him to care for the sensibilities of a few people at the expense of millions ! Rushdie’s true colours are loudly exposed. He had made an un- written pact with the enemies of Islam and he not only ‘cannot’ but he ‘dare’ not betray them. Rushdie, the mercenary who grasped the opportunity offered to him with both hands, did not care in the least that he would be betraying the trust of all Muslims in the world for whom he had hypocritically admitted amity. One certainly begins to wonder, as in the time-old adage, that with friends like Rushdie, who needs enemies ? Rushdie ends his statement with his tongue firmly in his cheek when he appeals to all Muslims to join in the process of healing that he says has begun : ‘What I know of Islam is that tolerance, compas- sion and love are at its very heart. ’ In all his books to date the message of Islam according to him has been the antithesis of the above statement and he must take Muslims for fools if he thought that they would fall for this conde- scending plea. He also believes that ‘the language of enmity will be replaced by the language of love’. How mockingly tedious is his wish; it is the foul and vindictive language used in his book that has to be replaced and until that is done few Muslims will ever be able to forgive him or hold any meaningful dialogue with him. The ball was now very much in Mr. Rushdie’s court! As time went by Rushdie became more and more anxious as there seemed to be no relenting on the edict of the fatwa. His time in exile had, understandably, become unbearable. He used whatever opportunity he was availed to vent his views and he used them to the full with the Western media always at his side. He felt that the British Government had betrayed him and that it had side-lined his case; he expressed this quite openly to attract sympathy because he