From Fatwa to Jihad

Title: From Fatwa to Jihad – The Rushdie Affair and its Legacy

Author: Kenan Malik

Publisher: Atlantic Books, 2009 (First)

ISBN: 9781843548256

Pages: 266

The publication of a post-Modernist novel in 1988 resulted in the eruption of a Muslim fundamentalist volcano. The fury and violence ejected by the inferno was unmatched and had irrevocably changed the landscape of liberal discourse everywhere in the world. Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ was a game changer for Western democracies. The Rushdie affair, closely followed by the fall of Communism resulted in a clash of civilizations, with ‘the West, with its liberal democratic traditions, a scientific worldview and a secular rationalist culture drawn from the Enlightenment on one side; and Islam, rooted in pre-medieval theology, with its disrespect for democracy, disdain for scientific rationalism and deeply illiberal attitudes on everything from crime to women’s rights on the other’. The Rushdie affair was hence the first major cultural conflict after the two great wars. Immediately after Khomeini’s fatwa against Rushdie, Islamism spread in the West and its pinnacle was reached on 9/11. Jihadi violence has stunned European cities ever since. This book is an endeavour to take stock of the legacy of the Rushdie affair and its aftermath with special emphasis on the change in fortunes for free speech. Kenan Malik is an Indian-born British writer, lecturer and broadcaster. Trained in neurobiology, his focus is on the philosophy of biology, contemporary theories of multiculturalism, pluralism and race. Malik is a trustee of the free-speech magazine ‘Index on Censorship’.

The event which escalated the issue with ‘Satanic Verses’ was the fatwa (religious edict) issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s supreme leader on Feb 13, 1989, which directed the faithful to kill Rushdie. Days later, Hossein San’ei, leader of the 15 Khordad, a Teheran-based charitable foundation set up to uphold Islamic principles in Iran, offered a $ 3 million reward for the murder (or $ 1 million if the assassin happened to be a non-Muslim). The greatest uproar had occurred in Britain and the Indian subcontinent. The hatred the intimidating and violent protests spawned in Europe stoked anger, especially in Bosnia where the Muslims themselves were at the receiving end of ethnic cleansing. The unbridled growth of Muslim population had alarmed the Serbs as their numbers dwindled from 43 to 31 per cent in just three decades while that of the Muslims catapulted from 26 to 44 per cent. Men were forcibly castrated in the horrible communal violence that followed.

What makes this book a notch out of the ordinary is the analysis it provides on the reasons for the growth of jihadism. Like most liberal thinkers, religious fanaticism is not even mentioned as one of the reasons, but multiculturalism is arraigned as the culprit. In the 1980s, the emphasis on various nationalities residing in Britain asserted themselves and wanted recognition of their cultural differences rather than each group fusing into the British mainstream. It treated different communities differently to ensure equality. A kind of tribal mentality was born as a result. Each group was represented by its own leaders who were not democratically elected, with whom the government dealt with all aspects related to the group, akin to tribal elders. Malik also portrays the social skills of the terrorists and comes up with a surprising conclusion that they are not unlike others. In fact, most of them are professionals or semi-professionals hailing from caring, middle class families. The ghetto politics and the ideas of self-organization originated from strategy to combat racism mutated over time into cultural separation. The Asian communities began to live separately in the 1980s. The Council of Mosques was set up, so also the federation of Sikh and Hindu organizations in 1984. However, Malik’s reasoning does not spell out why suicide bombers appear only in Muslim societies and not in Hindu or Sikh communities which are also equally subject to racist abuse and marginalization.

Malik wrestles with novel ideas to explain the rise of extremism in second generation Muslim youths in Britain. He argues that it was not the piety of the first generation that led to the Islamization of many small towns such as Bradford. It was ascribed to the power, influence and money that accrued to religious leaders as a result of the government’s multicultural policies. In another twist, the author claims that radical Islam is a product of Western societies. He even quotes some naïve Western philosophers who genuinely believe that the spirit that animates a suicidal jihadi is the same that fires up the imagination of a radical in a Western country. It is true that Islamists were encouraged by the West to stem the tide of Left-wing revolutionaries. In Egypt, Palestine and Afghanistan, they let loose the demon to counter the Left. The jihadis waged America’s war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. As things stand now, it is a global phenomenon that Islamic extremists operate under the guise of Leftist politics.

The Moderates in Muslim societies are an elusive lot. You don’t find them often; as they are silent most of the time and let the hardliners do all the talking. When atrocities come to light in which the extremists are to be blamed such as the assault on Malala Yusufzai in Pakistan or the acid attacks on girls who refuse to wear the hijab, the Moderates maintain a studious silence from which even the sharpest jibe won’t dislodge them. But their loquacity is regained when the slightest offence, actual or imagined, is made on their short-fused religious sentiments. They came up in arms against Rushdie’s novel and when a Danish journal published caricatures of the Prophet in 2005. Even in the so called ‘secular’ India, Haji Yaqub Quraishi, a minister in the Uttar Pradesh state government offered in February 2006 a reward of $ 11 million to anyone who beheaded the cartoonists of the Danish journal. In fact, the offered prize is even greater than Khomeini offered to the would-be assassins of Rushdie. The Moderates, unwittingly or not, have become the handmaidens of terrorists, when they raise false alarms of Islamophobia. Muslims are said to be subjected to police stop and search operations more often than others. This is quite logical, as almost all of the terrorists come from their ranks. But the Moderates make a hue and cry alleging discrimination and upset the law enforcement protocol. Thus, the very laws crafted to preserve the basic freedoms of democracy are prostituted to serve the interests of terrorists and their accomplices. Malik proves by statistical figures that the percentages of each group searched are indeed in proportion to their share of the total population. The most ridiculous part is that the BBC has stopped referring to ‘Islamic terrorists’ after protests from the Muslim Council of Britain. Somebody is genuinely reluctant to call a spade by its name!

The book ends with a grave reminder on the dwindling freedom of expression in democracies. The writers and publishing houses practice self-censorship out of fear of the backlash. The withdrawal of the novel ‘Jewel of Medina’ which is based on the life of Aisha, the Prophet’s wife, was a case in point. Controversial opinion no longer finds support from the administration. The author rues that preservation of diversity under multiculturalism requires us to leave less room for a diversity of views. It has come to the point that argument against offensive speech is the modern secularized version of the old idea of blasphemy, by reinventing the sacred for a godless age. Malik sums up the paranoia of European Muslim communities with a succinct remark that once you begin to hear the echo of jack boots in the high street, once you start believing that your neighbours are really SS guards in waiting, then it is but a small step to imagine that blowing them up on a bus might be a virtuous idea (p.141).

The author makes a frontal attack on orthodoxy by quoting passages from the ‘Satanic Verses’ at the beginning of each chapter. The book is a first-hand experience of the author who lived through the whole episode. His definition of fundamentalism as a thing that even the fundamentalists can’t agree upon is thought-provoking. Many of them are pawns in the game for the leadership of the Muslim world played out between Iran and Saudi Arabia, who are said to be like two dogs fighting over a single piece of bone.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star