Christopher Hitchens on the Satanic Verses Affair - Part 1 (1989)

February 21, 1989 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww....

Watch the full interview: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/07/christopher-hitchens-free-speech-...

The Satanic Verses controversy concerns Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. In particular it involves the novel's alleged blasphemy or unbelief; the 1989 fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie; and the killings, attempted killings, and bombings that resulted from Muslim anger over the novel.

The controversy was notable for being the first time in modern times a government had publicly called for the killing of a private individual in a foreign country; and the second time that a book, or calls for a book's censorship, caused an international diplomatic crisis.

The issue divided "Muslim from Westerners along the fault line of culture," pitting the core Western value of freedom of expression -- that no one "should be killed, or face a serious threat of being killed, for what they say or write" -- against the core belief of many Muslims -- that no one should be free to "insult and malign Muslims" by disparaging the "honour of the Prophet" Muhammad.

Even before the publication of The Satanic Verses, the books of Salman Rushdie stoked controversy. Rushdie himself saw his role as a writer "as including the function of antagonist to the state."

Daniel Pipes said of Rushdie: "Rushdie is a disaffected intellectual who criticizes or makes fun of nearly everything. One book attacks the Gandhis and modern India; another reviles the leadership in Pakistan; a third takes on American foreign policy; the fourth one blasts fundamentalist Islam and Britain. The assault comes easily ..."

His second book Midnight's Children angered Indira Gandhi because it seemed to suggest "that Mrs. Gandhi was responsible for the death of her husband through neglect." His 1983 novel Shame "took an aim on Pakistan, its political characters, its culture and its religion. ...[it covered] a central episode in Pakistan's internal life, which portrays as a family squabble between Iskander Harappa (Zulfikar Ali Bhutto) and his successor and executioner Raza Hyder (Zia ul-Haq). ...'The Virgin Ironpants'...has been identified as Benazir Bhutto, a Prime Minister of Pakistan."

Positions Rushdie took as a committed leftist prior to the publishing of his book were the source of some controversy. He defended many of those who later attacked him. Rushdie forcefully denounced the Shah's government and supported the Islamic Revolution of Iran, at least in its early stages. He condemned the U.S. bombing raid on Tripoli in 1986 but found himself threatened by Libya's leader Muammar al-Gaddafi three years later. He wrote a book bitterly critical of U.S. foreign policy in general and its war in Nicaragua in particular, for example calling the United States government, "the bandit posing as sheriff." After the Ayatollah's fatwa however, he was accused by Iranian government of being "an inferior CIA agent." A few years earlier, an official jury appointed by a ministry of the Iranian Islamic government had bestowed an award on the Persian translation of Rushdie's book Shame, perhaps the only time any government awarded Rushdie's work a prize.

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[MetrazolElectricity]

Salman Rushdie's a total fuckin' rockstar and Hitch is a good friend

[LadyScorpio39]

christopher was so cute when he was younger!

[hamzah938]

@Bot23 Yea right! - "just writing a novel" - Besmirch our Prophet (saw), you will suffer loss in this world, or the next one.

[Bot23]

@hamzah938 Maybe he was fed up with being hiding just for writing a novel.

[MetrazolElectricity]

@hamzah938 islam sucks and muslims are subhumans

[hamzah938]

@MetrazolElectricity Really? When he had tired of being hidden away from the world, he made a public announcement he wanted to take his Shihada (declaration of faith) to become Muslim. About a year later he reneged when he saw the majority of the Muslims weren't going to be swayed by his conversion. Rockstar? More like a rock-head!

[gextvedde]

@LadyScorpio39 I'd still have shagged him when he was older.

[FecklessCretin]

@RevoltBeginsNow *phallus. You actual fucking moron...