Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 144
144 Mohamed Arshad Ahmedi His only hope lay with the very conspirators who had in part been responsible for putting him where he found himself now. And at the same time he was reverting to his original defence of his book: ‘Satanic Verses is a serious novel, a moral novel. . . It is neither filthy nor degrading nor abusive. . . . It is a work of art. ’ How can a work of fiction be considered ‘serious’ and ‘moral’? Another statement that he makes in his speech is like a self-in- flicted nail in his own coffin. In talking about freedom of speech and expression he compares himself to other Muslim writers in Islamic countries : ‘A distinguished Saudi novelist is stripped of his citizenship, and what’s the charge? He has been anti-Islamic. An Egyptian novelist, his publisher and printer are jailed for eight years, and what’s the charge? Blasphemy again. They, too, have been anti-Islamic. ’ By comparing himself to these Muslim writers, he has admitted to being in the same boat as them and has inadvertently charged himself with being anti-Islamic, something that he has tried to deny all along. Clearly his time in hiding had been devoted largely to drum- ming up support world-wide in trying to neutralise the situation that was on the brink of the perilous as well as the ludicrous. There was no shortage of support from the Western literary world for whom he had become a symbol of the freedom of speech and expres- sion. During this time in hiding he also found time to write some more books, and again, there was assistance readily available. The first of his books since his exile was Haroun And The Sea Of Stories published in 1990. H A ROU N A N D T H E SE A OF STOR I E S This is supposed to be a children’s book as it is designated to that section of the library. The publishers were again Penguin, but I am