Salman Rushdie - Islamic Societies Are Based on "Honour & Shame" and the Repression

Imran Khan: Salman Rushdie Has the 'Mindset of a Small Man'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Imran Khan has stoked his growing feud with Sir Salman Rushdie, describing the Satanic Verses author as having "the mindset of a small man".

The two have exchanged angry words since Mr Khan, the former Pakistan cricket captain who now heads a political party, refused to share a platform with the writer at a conference in New Delhi at the weekend.

At the time, Mr Khan said he could not appear with a man who had offended the world's Muslims.

Sir Salman hit back at the event with a series of jibes. He asked the shocked audience if they "noticed a physical resemblance of Imran Khan and Gaddafi" and went on to describe Mr Khan as a dictator-in-waiting. » | Rob Crilly | Islamabad | Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Sir Salman Rushdie Accuses Indian Leaders of Failing to Defend Freedom of Expression
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Sir Salman Rushdie last night accused India's government and some of its political leaders of cowardice over their failure to defend his and other artists' freedom of expression in the face of protests by Muslim and Hindu extremists.

He also launched a withering attack on Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricket captain-turned-politician who withdrew from a conference in New Delhi in 'protest' at Sir Salman's appearance at the same event.

He said Mr Khan had lived a 'playboy' life as a young man, but had now "struck deals with the army and the Mullahs" in his quest for power in Pakistan. He was a "dictator in waiting", he said.

The celebrated Booker-winning author was speaking at a conclave of opinion formers organised by the leading Indian magazine group India Today, two months after he was forced to withdraw from the Jaipur Literature Festival following threats and protests from Islamic extremists over his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses. He backed out after police and government officials warned him an assassination team had been dispatched to kill him. » | Dean Nelson in New Delhi | Saturday, March 17, 2012

Imran Khan Pulls Out of India Visit to Avoid Salman Rushdie

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Imran Khan, the former Pakistani cricket captain, has abruptly pulled out of a visit to India after he learned that Sir Salman Rushdie would speak at the same conference.

Khan, whose political party draws some of its support from hardline religious elements in Pakistan, has been a frequent critic of The Satanic Verses author, a spat that is rapidly turning into a feud.

Shireen Mazari, a senior member of Khan's Movement for Justice party, said he was cancelling his appearance as a key note speaker at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi on Friday.

"He could not even think of participating in any programme that included Salman Rushdie, who has caused immeasurable hurt to Muslims across the globe," she said. » | Rob Crilly | Islamabad | Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Sir Salman Rushdie Decries India's Failure to Protect Free Speech at Jaipur Literary Festival
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Sir Salman Rushdie has launched a fierce attack on the Indian government for pandering to extremist Muslim groups and failing to protect freedom of speech after threats of violence forced him to withdraw from a top literature festival.

His planned appearance in conversation with a leading news presenter was cancelled at the last minute after the organisers of the Jaipur Literature Festival received death threats and the police warned of violence inside the venue and riots outside from Muslim protesters if it went ahead.

According to eyewitnesses, a group of around 50 Muslim men had infiltrated the crowd shortly before the session was due to begin an dwere intimidating members of the audience to give up their seats. Organisers were said to bewildered over how they managed to get past a bar code security pass system and hundreds of police.

Jaipur's police commissioner B. L Soni said protesters had earlier registered as delegates and were present inside in significant numbers.

In a television interview Sir Salman said he believed the government had sought to stop him from appearing at the festival to win Muslim votes in its key Uttar Pradesh state election campaign and had circuited [sic] “fantastically fishy” intelligence reports of assassination plots to stop him to force his withdrawal.

He said the arts were under assault from both Hindu and Muslim extremists and that “if it goes on, India will cease to be a free country.” India had been the first country in the world to ban his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, ahead of Muslim countries which denounced it as ‘blasphemous’, and today lagged behind countries like Turkey, Egypt and Libya which have lifted the ban. » | Dean Nelson, New Delhi and Rachel Rickard Straus in Jaipur | Tuesday, January 24, 2012

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Sir Salman Rushdie prevented from speaking by video link at Jaipur literature festival: Sir Salman Rushdie was prevented from speaking to the Jaipur literature festival audience by video link today after a Muslim mob infiltrated the venue, the police warned of violence and the organisers received death threats. » | Dean Nelson, New Delhi | Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Salman Rushdie in Mumbai Underworld Assassination Threat
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Sir Salman Rushdie has announced his withdrawal from a leading Indian literature festival after officials warned professional assassins were on their way to kill him.

He had been due to appear at the Jaipur Literature Festival in Rajasthan, Western India, along with leading authors and playwrights Tom Stoppard, Sir David Hare, Annie Proulx and Michael Ondaatje, despite threats of protests from Islamic fundamentalists.

Leaders of the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary, one of the most influential in the world, had earlier called for Sir Salman to be barred from India to stop him in appearing at the festival in protest over his controversial novel The Satanic Verses.

They said the author could never be forgiven for his narrator's claim blasphemous [sic] that disputed verses on the Koran were disclosed by the Archangel Gabriel.

The novel provoked anger throughout the Muslim world when it was published in 1988 and was also banned in India where the secular government feared it would cause communal tensions. Iran's then spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for him to be killed.

The threat was later lifted and the author eventually emerged from hiding and heavy security to return to normality, but according to Indian officials the controversy over his visit has brought a new threat to his life. » | Dean Nelson, Jaipur | Friday, January 20, 2012

THE GUARDIAN: Salman Rushdie pulls out of Jaipur literary festival over assassination fears: Salman Rushdie says intelligence sources warned him that 'paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld' might try to kill him » | Jason Burke in Jaipur | Friday, January 20, 2012

MAIL ONLINE: Salman Rushdie Cancels Indian Literary Festival Appearance over Death Threats from Muslim Extremists: Salman Rushdie cancelled plans to appear at an Indian literature festival today after warnings he could be targeted for assassination by Islamic extremists. » | Damien Gayle | Friday, January 20, 2012

Sir Salman Rushdie's Name Dropped from Indian Literature Festival over Safety Fears
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Sir Salman Rushdie's name has been dropped from an Indian literature festival amid fears for his safety after threats of protests by the country's most influential Islamic seminary.

The author of Midnight's Children, voted the best Booker Prize winner of the last 40 years, was quietly deleted from the Jaipur Literature Festival programme after the government voiced security concerns and said the opinions of protesters could not be ignored.

Sir Salman has spoken at Jaipur in the past without controversy but his scheduled appearance at this year's festival, which opens on Thursday, was seized on by political parties after the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary – one of Islam's most powerful bodies – called on the government to revoke his visa or stop him entering the country.

The seminary's head Abul Qasim Nomani said the author could never be forgiven for the 'blasphemy' contained in his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses, which provoked outrage throughout the Islamic world.

He went into hiding after the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian Shia leader, issued a fatwa calling for his death over claims made by the novel's narrator that disputed verses in the Koran had been disclosed by the Archangel Gabriel.

The novel was banned throughout the Islamic world, including India, which has a Muslim population of just under 180 million. » | Dean Nelson, New Delhi | Tuesday, January 17, 2012

How surprising! This is the religion of peace and love and tolerance and forgiveness we are talking about, isn't it? This must surely be a very unusual decision for Muslims! – © Mark

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Sir Salman Rushdie Facing Threats of Muslim Reprisals over Jaipur Literature Festival Appearance

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Sir Salman Rushdie faces the threat of reprisals from Indian Muslims after a leading Islamic institute demanded the government ban his scheduled appearance at the Jaipur Literature Festival.

The demand from the Islamic body revived divisions over 'The Satanic Verses,' his 1988 novel that Muslim groups have condemned as blasphemous.

The Rajasthan festival later this month is due to host leading writers and playwrights, including Annie Proulx, Ben Okri, David Hare and Richard Dawkins.

Fatwas from the Darul Uloom seminary in Deoband are observed throughout the world. Its vice chancellor said tens of millions of muslims [sic] remain 'hurt' the novel.

The Statanic [sic] Verses provoked outrage throughout the Muslim world over the narrator's claim that disputed verses in the Koran had been revealed by the Archangel Gabriel.

Sir Salman was forced into hiding after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa for his execution. India was one of the many countries which banned the book.

"I call upon the Muslim organisations of the country to mount pressure on the centre to withdraw the visa and prevent him visiting India where [tens of millions] community members still feel hurt owing to the anti-Islamic remarks in his writings The [sic] Muslims cannot pardon him at any cost," said Maulana Abul Qasim Nomani, the institute head. » | Dean Nelson, New Delhi | Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Salman Rushdie Still Receives Death Threats
MAIL ONLINE: Sir Salman Rushdie has revealed he receives a reminder every year from Iranian extremists that they still want to kill him.

The author said the threat comes in the form of a 'sort of Valentine's Day' card each February 14th.

Mr Rushdie said the card was a reminder from Iran that it had not given up on its 21-year-old promise to kill him.

Rushdie revealed details about the unusual card when he told the New York Times he was penning a book about his life during the years he was forced into hiding. Salman Rushdie still receives death threats from Iranian extremists 21 YEARS after fatwa >>> Paul Thompson | Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Rushdie: It's Time to Tell the Story of My Fatwa
THE INDEPENDENT: Author of 'The Satanic Verses' ready to describe his years under police protection

Salman Rushdie is to write a book about the decade he spent in hiding while living under a fatwa issued by the then-Supreme Leader of Iran, Grand Ayatollah Khomeini.

Rushdie, who is in the middle of a five-year stint as a lecturer at the Emory University in Atlanta, said: "It's my story, and at some point it needs to be told."

Rushdie was speaking at the opening of an exhibition of his manuscripts, letters and photographs that he donated to the university in 2006, and which have finally been catalogued and transferred into digital format.

"That point is getting closer, I think," added Rushdie. "When it was in cardboard boxes and dead computers, it would have been very, very difficult, but now it's all organised."

Rushdie, 62, was forced into hiding in 1989 when Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill the author, claiming that his book The Satanic Verses insulted Islam. >>> Tom Peck | Thursday, February 25, 2010

Henryk M. Broder – After Attack on Danish Cartoonist: The West Is Choked by Fear
A Somalian man broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard on Friday armed with an ax and a knife. He is accused of the attempted murder of the Danish cartoonist. Photograph: Spiegel Online International
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL – Editorial: The attack on illustrator Kurt Westergaard wasn't the first attempt to carry out a deadly fatwa. When Muslims tried to murder Salman Rushdie 20 years ago, the protests among intellectuals were loud. Today, though, Western writers and thinkers would rather take cover than defend basic rights.

In 1988, Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses" was published in its English-language original edition. Its publication led the Iranian state and its revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, to issue a "fatwa" against Rushdie and offer a hefty bounty for his murder. This triggered several attacks on the novel's translators and publishers, including the murder of Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi. Millions of Muslims around the world who had never read a single line of the book, and who had never even heard the name Salman Rushdie before, wanted to see the death sentence against the author carried out -- and the sooner the better, so that the stained honor of the prophet could be washed clean again with Rushdie's blood.

In that atmosphere, no German publisher had the courage to publish Rushdie's book. This led a handful of famous German authors, led by Günter Grass, to take the initiative to ensure that Rushdie's novel could appear in Germany by founding a publishing house exclusively for that purpose. It was called Artikel 19, named after the paragraph in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights that guarantees the freedom of opinion. Dozens of publishing houses, organizations, journalists, politicians and other prominent members of German society were involved in the joint venture, which was the broadest coalition that had ever been formed in postwar German history.

Sympathy for the Hurt Feelings of Muslims

Seventeen years later, after the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published a dozen Muhammad cartoons on a single page, there were similar reactions in the Islamic world to those that had followed the publication of "The Satanic Verses." Millions of Muslims from London to Jakarta who had never seen the caricatures or even heard the name of the newspaper, took to the streets in protests against an insult to the prophet and demanded the appropriate punishment for the offenders: death. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden even went so far as to demand the cartoonists' extradition so that they could be condemned by an Islamic court.

This time, however, in contrast to the Rushdie case, hardly anyone has showed any solidarity with the threatened Danish cartoonists -- to the contrary. Grass, who had initiated the Artikel 19 campaign, expressed his understanding for the hurt feelings of the Muslims and the violent reactions that resulted. Grass described them as a "fundamentalist response to a fundamentalist act," in the process drawing a moral equivalence between the 12 cartoons and the death threats against the cartoonists. Grass also stated that: "We have lost the right to seek protection under the umbrella of freedom of expression." >>> Henryk M. Broder | Monday, January 04, 2010

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: ’Islam Needs a Sexual Revolution’ >>>

Rushdie’s Knighthood: Christopher Hitchens on Rushdie and Tony Blair
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Der Fluch der «Satanischen Verse»
NZZ Online: Vor zwanzig Jahren erging gegen Salman Rushdie die Fatwa und radikalisierte die britischen Muslime

Die Aufgabe seines Berufsstandes, sagt der Dichter Baal in Salman Rushdies «Satanischen Versen», sei das Anzetteln von Auseinandersetzungen – «und wenn aus den Wunden, die seine Verse reissen, Ströme von Blut fliessen, so werden sie ihn nähren». Zweifellos hat Salman Rushdie seit dem Valentinstag 1989 oft über diese Äusserung nachgedacht. Angefangen hatte die Kampagne gegen ihn, als sein neuer Roman im Oktober 1988 in Indien offiziell gebannt wurde. Auf Verbote in Pakistan, Saudiarabien und Ägypten folgte im Januar 1989 die Kunde aus der englischen Stadt Bradford: Dort, auf einem öffentlichen Platz an einen Pfahl genagelt, wurde das Buch vor einer schaulustigen Menge verbrannt. Richter und Zuschauer waren extremistische Muslime.

Ein literarisches Werk verboten und verbrannt – weil es religiöse Gefühle verletzte? Westliche Verstandesmenschen, die so fragten, bekamen bald noch mehr zu hören. Am 14. Februar 1989 wurden Rushdie und seine Verleger vom schiitischen Ajatollah Khomeiny, dem Führer der Islamischen Revolution in Iran, zu madhur ad-dam (jene, deren Blut vergossen werden muss) erklärt. Die Fatwa und ihre Motive >>> Georges Waser | Samstag, 14. Februar 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Taschenbuch und Gebundene Ausgabe) – Versandkostenfrei innerhalb der Schweiz >>>

Rushdie ‘Pretended’ to Embrace Islam

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Salman Rushdie at Hofstra University

Mark Alexander

Breaking the Rushdie Taboo: German Writer Wants to Stir Things Up
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: German writer Günter Wallraff wants to stir things up in his hometown of Cologne. He is proposing reading the 'Satanic Verses' in a controversial new mosque. The religious foundation building the mosque says it'll think about it.

Günter Wallraff doesn't think of himself as a provocateur, he justs wants to get a dialogue going and to put the integration of Muslims in German society to the test. His method is somewhat radical. The well known German writer has said he wants to read aloud from "The Satanic Verses" in a Cologne mosque.

Wallraff denies that his proposal to read from a book regarded by many Muslims as blasphemous is a provocation. Rather, he says, he just wanted the Rushdie book to finally be discussed within the Muslim community. German Writer Wants to Read 'Satanic Verses' in Cologne Mosque (more)

Mark Alexander

The Holy War Against the West Goes On! Al-Qaïda Threatens UK with Reprisals for Salman Rushdie’s Knighthood
THE TELEGRAPH: Osama Bin Laden's second in command issued a warning yesterday that Britain faced fresh terror attacks as ''punishment'' for Salman Rushdie's knighthood.

The threat - addressed directly to Gordon Brown - came in a 20-minute audio-tape posted on jihadi websites by Ayman al-Zawahiri.

He threatened ''a very precise response'' in retaliation against Britain for having knighted the controversial novelist in the Queen's Birthday Honours last month. Salman Rushdie honour enrages Al-Qa'eda (more) Philip Johnston

TELEGRAPH SPEAKERS’ CORNER: Rushdie knighthood: Foolhardy or brave?

TIMESONLINE: Al-Qaeda deputy threatens retaliation for Rushdie knighthood Michael Evans

THE GUARDIAN: Al-Qaida’s deputy leader threatens retaliation for Rushdie’s knighthood Ian Black in Cairo

Al-Qaeda Threatens Britain Again
YAHOO NEWS (UK): DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, on Tuesday threatened more attacks on Britain, two weeks after failed bombings in London and Glasgow.

"I say to (Former Prime Minister Tony) Blair's successor that the policy of your predecessor drew catastrophes in Afghanistan and Iraq and even in the centre of London," the Egyptian cleric said in an audio tape posted on the Internet.

"If you did not learn the lesson then we are ready to repeat it, God willing, until we are sure you have fully understood." Zawahri threatens more attacks in UK (more) By Lin Noueihed

Mark Alexander

No Succour for Salman: No Hope of Genie Appearing from This Aladdin’s Lamp!
IRNA – TEHRAN: Head of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi said "Late Imam Khomeini's decree on Salman Rushdie is eternal and irrevocable." In a joint press conference here with his Norwegian counterpart Olaf Akselsson, Boroujerdi responding to his Norwegian counterpart's request for cancellation of death fatwa on Salman Rushdie said "Honoring religious sanctities is necessary and all societies must respect this."

He said, "All countries have a red line in their policies. For instance, in spite of freedom of speech a university professor and a political figure loses his job because of denying Holocaust in Europe, insulting Prophet of Islam (PBUH) has caused the late Imam to issue the decree (fatwa) which is irreversible." MP: Imam Khomeini's decree on Salman Rushdie irrevocable (more)

Mark Alexander

Muslim Fanatics Use Internet to Spread Terror in UK
Allowing all these people into the UK has turned
into a nightmare for us. And things will only get
worse as their population swells. Where is all the
money, and manpower, going to come from to
police them and their dangerous activities?

A far better solution would be to kick these
people out. We have to get tough with them. Our
politicians and leaders today seem never to have
learnt the art of being tough. It's no good being
'touchy-feely' when one is dealing with the likes
of these fanatics.

We had better get used to the fact that we are in
a fight to the death with these people: They want
our land, our country, our nation; and they're
going to get it, too, if we go on pussyfooting
around as we have been doing. - ©Mark Alexander
THE TELEGRAPH: It is 11pm on Tuesday and Omar Bakri Mohammed's loyal band of followers hunch over computers and laptops at secret locations across Britain to listen to his defiant message to the west.

Many are hoping that the Muslim cleric, who lives in the Lebanese capital Beirut after being banned from the UK, will spell out his views on the Government's decision to give Salman Rushdie a knighthood. Bakri does not disappoint them.

After listening to Bakri's lecture for more than two hours on a secretive internet chat room, one participant asks in a written question: "Is there a new fatwa against salman and the queen for giving [the knighthood]?"

Speaking with a heavy middle eastern accent, Bakri responds: "Salman Rushdie, no doubt what he did was an apostasy… not because he get knighthood but because he insulted the honour of the prophet Mohammed (with his book The Satanic Verses)… He is murtadd (a traitor for rejecting Islam) anyway so there isn't any need for a new fatwa… People like him deserve to get the capital punishment." Internet spreads terror to Britain (more) By Andrew Alderson and Miles Goslett

Mark Alexander