speech and respect - College of Social Sciences and International ...

The Struggle for Respect
susceptibilities of countless citizens" and called for legislation prohibiting
"socially intolerable conduct calculated or likely to incite
revulsion or violence by holding up religious beliefs to scurrilous
contempt." 31 The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano
expressed respect for the "offended sensibilities and religious consciences
[of millions of believers] .... [l]t is not the first time that,
by invoking artistic motives or the principle of free expression,
people have sought to justify the improper use of sacred texts . . .
," 32 Yet Islam was not monolithic. Fadia Faquir recounted the
history of Islamic censorship, which she also had suffered. 33 And
Southall Black Sisters joined the Southall women's section of the
Labour Party in proclaiming: "We have struggled for many years in
this country and across the world to express ourselves as we choose
within and outside our communities. We will not be dictated to by
fundamentalists." 34
Rebuffed by both publisher and government, British Muslims
resorted to direct action. When their first public meeting was ignored
by the media they decided to burn the book in front of Bradford
police headquarters. Sayyid Abdul Quddus of the Council of
Mosques notified the press. More than a thousand Muslims participated,
holding placards reading "Rushdie Eat Your Words" and
"Rushdie Stinks." Liaqat Hussein of the Jamiaat Tabligh ul Islam
expressed both jubilation and outrage: "All the newspapers commented.
Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Yorkshire Post. They
compared us to Hitler!" 35 Rushdie broke a silence of more than four
months to denounce the "contemporary Thought Police" and
observe how life was imitating art.
"Battle lines are being drawn up in India today," one of my
characters remarks. "Secular versus religious, the light versus the
dark. Better you choose which side you are on." Now that the
battle has spread to Britain, I can only hope it will not be lost by
default. It is time for us to choose.
When Mohammed seized power in Mecca he executed two writers
and two actresses for performing satirical texts.
14
Now there you have an image that I thought was worth exploring:
at the very beginning of Islam you find a conflict between the
sacred text and the profane text, between revealed literature and
imagined literature. ... It seems to me completely legitimate that
there should be dissent from orthodoxy, not just about Islam, but