Salman Rushdie’s days of freedom seem to be headed for an eclipse. The death warrant–fatwa–has just been renewed– after 16 years.

During his address to the pilgrims, Ayatollah Khamenei said: “They talk about respect towards all religion but they support such a mahdour al-damm mortad as Salman Rushdie.” The word mortad is used to describe someone who has committed apostasy by leaving Islam while mahroud al-damm refers to someone whose blood may be shed.

Meanwhile, it is informative to read the reactions from various quarters. Rushdie himself,

He recalled that when The Satanic Verses was attacked in 1989, “all (British) political parties were united in their condemnation of the violence and their support for the principle of freedom of expression.”

Today, the situation is different, more so after Britain has resumed relations with Iran:

Yesterday, British officials played down the latest fatwa, which was reported by the Iranian media. A Foreign Office spokesman told The Times: “The key thing from our point of view is that the Iranian government formally withdrew their support for the fatwa on Salman Rushdie in 1998 which is when Britain and Iran formally upgraded their relationship to the level of ambassador.”

(underlining mine)
But there’s no telling whether one of the Faithful will still kill Rushdie: for the Faithful, the Iranian government’s withdrawal is hardly significant. The case of Iran itself is telling: whatever progress it had achieved under the Shah was undone in a matter of months fuelled as it was by Kohemini’s hate-preaching “revolution.” Iran’s is certainly a story of transformation: from the Shah’s days to the “modern” Islamic Republic of Iran. For a first-hand account of how life was during the days of the Iranian revolution, I highly recommend Naipaul’s Among the Believers.

Britain’s apparent downplaying of the event might also have a lot to do with Rushdie’s behaviour: I’m of course, purely guessing. After feeding off living in incognito for years on end, Rushdie didn’t show the common courtesy of being grateful to the country. On the contrary, he began criticizing it on real and imaginary grounds, which, if memory serves me well, had led to a mini public outcry against the writer.

However, our Islamists are more zealous than their Iranian brethren:

Even after Tehran’s official withdrawal of support for the fatwa in 1998,…Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, continued to urge Indian Muslims to “pursue Rushdie relentlessly” if he were to set foot in India.

The World of Fatwas is indeed, interesting… which reminds me to buy the book.

Tags: Terrorism & Pakistan