Describe the main issues in the Rushdie affair and suggest ways in which it should be resolved.

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Describe the main issues in the Rushdie affair and suggest ways in which it should be resolved.

 

Modern day Britain can be called a good example of a multi-cultural society, there are a number of different ethnic groups, all with diverse religious, cultural values and practices. There are fundamental differences, which distinguish such groups, but it is widely accepted that all individuals living in the United Kingdom should also abide by a common set of laws and values that maintain the structure of our modern liberal framework of society.

 The impact of the ‘Rushdie affair’ created much controversy surrounding the Muslim community, their allegiance to their faith and how they responded to   attacks on it. In addition, questions surrounding apparent cultural difficulties in accepting liberal values and an inability for the Muslim community to both live side by side and become accepted within British society were asked. Parekh B sums up his point with ‘From time to time a multicultural society is bound throw up situations in which deep cultural and moral disagreements between its different communities come to the fore and create a crisis’ (B Parekh, 1991, p295) This ‘crisis’, as it is called by Parekh, came in the form a book.  

   The Satanic Verses (1988) is a novel written in the style of ‘magic – realism’, where fantastical themes, scenes and plots are set along side a realistic and believable story line. ‘The Satanic Verses is thus a work of fantasy, not of pure fiction, of a imaginatively reinterpreted but not a radically reconstituted reality’ (B Parekh, 1991, p296) Why should a book create a crisis within our multi-cultural society? There was wide spread protest concerning the Satanic Verses. Two months after the books publication (26/9/1988) it won the Whitbread Price for literature, it was also banned in India (which has the largest non majority Muslim population in the world) in the same month. Much protest and opposition followed this. Both locally and globally Muslim individuals and groups were opposed to the books. Examples of such protest were seen by the organised burning of the book in Bradford and demonstrations leaving 6 dead in Islamabad. The Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) urged its members to boycott book publishers and ban the book in protest, and perhaps most notably is the fatwah or death warrant, which is of religious decree and seen as irreversible by the laws of Islam, placed upon the author by the Ayatollah Khomeini on 14/ 2/1989.

  This resentment towards the Satanic Verses was seen as extreme and fundamentalist and it was to and extent portrayed within society as the feelings of a large proportion of the Muslim community as a whole. This subsequently led to the debate becoming politicised and Solomos points out, therefore ‘influenced popular and elite debate about the future of minority communities in British society.’ (J Solomos, 1993, p222).

   The content Of the Satanic Verses that the resentment was aimed included, metaphorical links between the Islamic pilgrimages to Mecca to images of the Prophet Mohammad’s wives as whores working in a brothel. As J.S Esposito points out; ‘The very symbol Quaranic symbol or their (Mohammad’s wives) protection, “The Curtain” is transformed into the image of a brothel, which men circumbulate as worshippers do the sacred shrine during the pilgrimage to Mecca’ (Esposito 1999). The name of the character portrayed as Mohammad was called Mahound and this is a sacrilegious name for Muslims, as it was used by Christian authors to denounce and vilify Mohammad. Such writing was seen as a direct attack against Islam and its believers.

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   Religion in its essence is seen as sacred and holy, on a level, which can only be understood though a spiritual connection with your faith and the explanations this gives you for life and existence. As Islamic opponents to Rushdie say that they have no problems with logical work and research questioning the sincerity of their faith, or scientific arguments questioning the logical existence of religion, The Satanic Verses was seen as a fictional piece, which was blasphemous and dangerous to the credibility of such a well-established religion with such a huge number of believers. It can be understood ...

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