The Jaipur Literature Festival is scheduled to be held between the 20th and 24th of January. One of the star speakers that was being advertised was the extremely popular and controversial British author of Indian origin, Salman Rushdie.
As soon as the Uttar Pradesh polls were announced, several voices were heard opposing Rushdie's presence. They were from little known groups claiming that his presence would hurt Muslim sentiments because of his writings. Ironically none of these voices were around when Rushdie had visited India on 2 previous occasions.
What exactly was the objection about ? Rushdie is the author of the novel "Satanic Verses", which was first published in 1988. Several Muslim groups accused Rushdie of blasphemy and in 1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie.
Numerous killings, attempted killings, and bombings resulted from Muslim anger over the novel.Most people, especially those who oppose Rushdie have not read Satanic Verses and those who have, have no idea as to which part is objectionable. In fact its my opinion that this book would not have sold even 5% of the copies it did, had it not been for the controversies raised.
You can read about the conroversy at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses_controversy
Yet a small group of fanatics use religious sentiment to whip up frenzy. At the end of the day, I guess the basic idea is to generate enough hype for the organizers of these protests and gain sympathy from the minority community. They then assume that this sympathy will translate into votes during the elections.
In this time of cashing in on sentiment, I found the words of Maulana Wahiddudin Khan extremely sensible. He said that Rushdie had the freedom to write his thoughts and that it would be wrong to prevent him from visiting India which is a democratic country guided by a secular constitution.
His article "No Thought Crime" which appeared in Today's Speaking Tree is definitely worth reading.
http://cpsglobal.org/content/no-thought-crime
Wise words indeed. Thank God, and you can take your pick, that when political leaders in the guise of religious leaders use religion for politics, there are still a few religious leaders left that preach Sense and Peace.
As soon as the Uttar Pradesh polls were announced, several voices were heard opposing Rushdie's presence. They were from little known groups claiming that his presence would hurt Muslim sentiments because of his writings. Ironically none of these voices were around when Rushdie had visited India on 2 previous occasions.
What exactly was the objection about ? Rushdie is the author of the novel "Satanic Verses", which was first published in 1988. Several Muslim groups accused Rushdie of blasphemy and in 1989 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie.
Numerous killings, attempted killings, and bombings resulted from Muslim anger over the novel.Most people, especially those who oppose Rushdie have not read Satanic Verses and those who have, have no idea as to which part is objectionable. In fact its my opinion that this book would not have sold even 5% of the copies it did, had it not been for the controversies raised.
You can read about the conroversy at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses_controversy
Yet a small group of fanatics use religious sentiment to whip up frenzy. At the end of the day, I guess the basic idea is to generate enough hype for the organizers of these protests and gain sympathy from the minority community. They then assume that this sympathy will translate into votes during the elections.
In this time of cashing in on sentiment, I found the words of Maulana Wahiddudin Khan extremely sensible. He said that Rushdie had the freedom to write his thoughts and that it would be wrong to prevent him from visiting India which is a democratic country guided by a secular constitution.
His article "No Thought Crime" which appeared in Today's Speaking Tree is definitely worth reading.
http://cpsglobal.org/content/no-thought-crime
Wise words indeed. Thank God, and you can take your pick, that when political leaders in the guise of religious leaders use religion for politics, there are still a few religious leaders left that preach Sense and Peace.
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