Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 173
Rushdie: Haunted By His Unholy Ghosts 173 Other writers like Taslima Nasreen, a Bengladshi Muslim, great friend of Rushdie, who was probably her tutor, is presently in exile after writing inflammatory material against Islam and its Prophet and also became a victim of the Fatwa issued by the Bengali Muslim Fundamentalists in 1993. Court cases are still going on for Blasphemy against Taslima Nasreen in Bangladeshi courts. One case was even filed by the Bangladeshi Government. Numerous other writers of no apparent significance have sur- faced, but when they are grouped together it does not deter from the fact that there seems to be a deeply sinister motive behind all this, and it does not require knowledge of rocket science to understand this motive. The very latest controversy that has recently emerged is, of course, the “Danish cartoons” fiasco which has positively set alight the latent fires of Islam/West relations. Jyllands-Posten’s derogatory images of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) in a Danish newspaper created the greatest ever storm of protest on a scale of epic proportions by Muslims all over the world in February 2006. But it is interesting to note that the same cartoons were first published in September 2005 in Denmark, but did not create the global controversy that is now visible. There is no doubt, that there is mischief afoot. The desired effect was not achieved by the “mischief makers” in September 2005, so they put together a plan to ensure global hurt to the Muslims via the English speaking media which was sure to attract more readership. Sad to say, and ironically, the minority of the vulnerable Muslims reacted in a most un-Islamic fashion by their over exuberant demonstra- tions, flag burning and violent threats to not only the Danish gov- ernment, but to all western governments in general. This has clearly re-opened and cut deep into previous wounds which had started to heal somewhat, but which will now require a lot of patient dialogue between prominent and influential members of western society and the Muslim world to take stock of what has transpired and build on the positives rather than the negatives.