Salman Rushdie Redefined Free Speech & Restructured 'Creative Audacity'
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
23
September 2023
“Nobody has the right to not be offended. That
right doesn't exist in any declaration I have ever read.
If you are offended it is your problem, and
frankly lots of things offend lots of people.
I can walk into a bookshop and point out a
number of books that I find very unattractive in what they say. But it doesn't
occur to me to burn the bookshop down. If you don't like a book, read another
book. If you start reading a book and you decide you don't like it, nobody is
telling you to finish it.
To read a 600-page novel and then say that it
has deeply offended you: well, you have done a lot of work to be offended.”
― Salman Rushdie
― Salman
Rushdie
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"In
August 2022, a Lebanese origin American Muslim Hadi Matar attacked him (Salman
Rushdie) on stage during a programme in New York. He sustained some injuries
but recovered soon though he lost his right eye. Still, he did not show any
signs of repentance or remorse. Instead, he defended his right to free speech."
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Also
Read: Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses and The Case of Free
Speech
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Why should
Salman Rushdie show any signs of repentance or remorse? When does a person show
repentance or remorse? When he feels that he did something wrong. Compunction
makes a person repent.
Rushdie is
convinced of his stand against Islam and all organized faiths. It's his right.
It's an individual's inalienable right to express what he or she wants to
express unambiguously as well as fearlessly. Repentance dilutes the intensity
of the cause one espouses. To stay unfazed in the face of threats and
uncertainty makes a man.
'Respect
for religion' has become a code phrase meaning 'fear of religion.' Religions,
like all other ideas, deserve criticism, derision, satire and of course, our
fearless disrespect. Unless a few maverick geniuses like Dawkins and Rushdie
condemn god and religion, how can the religiously inebriated mankind be
awakened and jolted out of their slumberous state for ages and aeons?
In fact,
Rushdie's ' The Satanic Verses' is the quintessence of free speech.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Granted, Salman Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses' is stylistically his
worst novel. It's marked by hopping and incoherence. It's also a tad uncouth
and lacks aesthetics. Yet, you cannot deny its impact and ramifications. It has
redefined the very concept of religious sanctity and sacredness.
Nothing is
sacrosanct in this world. Anyone has the right to blast a faith and its
associated revered figures. And what's freedom of expression? Without the
freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.
Rushdie
wanted to express his angst and anger regarding religion, esp. regressive
Islam. He expressed that through 'The Satanic Verses' where he says,
" From the beginning, men used God to justify the unjustifiable."
The
'modern' world should be thankful to Rushdie because he enabled us to ask
uncomfortable questions. He prodded the living zombies to doubt because he
believes that faith without doubt is addiction. He emboldened the world and
restructured the term 'creative audacity.' To be impudent is to be prudent. So,
instead of repenting, he should congratulate himself on being able to change
the religious mindset of a lot many individuals. On the contrary, his Muslim
attacker Hadi Matar must repent for his dastardly act. By the way, I'm waiting
for the news of the Nobel Committee conferring this year's Nobel for Literature
on Salman Rushdie. The dismal fate of Philip Roth and Milan Kundera shouldn't
befall Rushdie.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/salman-rushdie-free-speech-creative-audacity/d/130739
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