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Satanic Verses controversy

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The Satanic Verses Controversy refers to the controversy surrounding Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. Specifically it refers to the novel's alleged blashemy, the February 14, 1989 fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie, and the killings, attempted killings, and bombings that resulted from the fatwa.

File:The Satanic Verses.jpg
The Satanic Verses (1988), 2006 Vintage paperback edition

History

Further information: The Satanic Verses (novel)

Upon its publication the book garnered great critical acclaim in the author's home, the United Kingdom, where it was a 1988 Booker Prize Finalist. But in the Muslim world the novel began causing controversy almost at once because of what many Muslims considered its blasphemous references. The book was first banned in Singapore followed by India. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, a Shi'a Muslim scholar, issued a fatwa that called for the death of Rushdie and claimed that it was the duty of every Muslim to obey, despite having at first ignored the book and never having read it.

On February 14, 1989, the Ayatollah broadcast the following message on Iranian radio:

Fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini

In the name of God the Almighty. We belong to God and to Him we shall return. I would like to inform all intrepid Muslims in the world that the author of the book Satanic Verses, which has been compiled, printed, and published in opposition to Islam, the Prophet, and the Qor'an, and those publishers who were aware of its contents, are sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them quickly, where they find them, so that no one will dare to insult the Islamic sanctities. Whoever is killed on this path will be regarded as a martyr, God willing. In addition, if anyone has access to the author of the book but does not possess the power to execute him, he should point him out to the people so that he may be punished for his actions. May God's blessing be on you all. Rullah Musavi al-Khomeini. [1]

A bounty was offered for the death of Rushdie, who was thus forced to live under police protection for years to come. On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.

In the mean time there were several attacks on those involved in the publishing of the book and "were aware" of the its "contents." Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese language translator of the book was stabbed to death on July 11, 1991. Ettore Capriolo, the Italian language translator, was seriously injured in a stabbing the same month. William Nygaard, the publisher in Norway, survived an attempted assassination in Oslo in October of 1993. Muslim communities in several nations held public rallies in which copies of the book were burned.

Rushdie's apology

Taking a cue from Iranian President Khamene'i (a former "favourite pupil" [2] and long-time lieutenant of Khomeini), who suggested that if Rushdie `apologizes and disowns the book, people may forgive him,` Rushdie issued "a carefully worded statement" two days later regretting

profoundly the distress the publication has occasioned to the sincere followers of Islam. Living as we do in a world of many faiths, this experience has served to remind us that we must all be conscious of the sensibilities of others.` [3]

This "was relayed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran via official channels before being release to the press."

Refusal of Rushdie's apology

Around Feb. 19 Khomeini's office replied

The imperialist foreign media falsely alleged that the officials of the Islamic Republic have said the sentence of death on the author of The Satanic Verses will be retracted if he repents. His Excellency, Imam Khomeini, long may he live, has said:

This is denied 100%. Even if Salman Rushdie repents and become the most pious man of all time, it is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has got, his life and wealth, to send him to Hell.

The Imam added:

If a non-Muslim becomes aware of Rushdie's whereabouts and has the ability to execute him quicker than Muslims, it is incumbent on Muslims to pay a reward or a fee in return for this action. [4]

Attempts to revoke the fatwa

On 24 September 1998, as a precondition to the restoration of diplomatic relations with Britain, the Iranian government, then headed by moderate Mohammad Khatami, gave a public commitment that it would do nothing to harm Rushdie.[5] But the hardliners in Iran have continued to reaffirm the death sentence.[6] In early 2005, Khomeini's fatwa was reaffirmed by Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.[7] Additionally, the Revolutionary Guards have declared that the death sentence on him is still valid.[8] Iran has rejected requests to withdraw the fatwa on the basis that only the person who issued it may withdraw it.[7] (The person who issued it is dead.)

On February 14, 2006, the Iranian state news agency reported that the fatwa will remain in place permanently.[9]

Salman Rushdie reported that he still receives a "sort of Valentine's card" from Iran each year on February 14 letting him know the country has not forgotten the vow to kill him. He was also quoted saying, "It's reached the point where it's a piece of rhetoric rather than a real threat."[10]

Criticism of Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa

While most Westerners condemned Khomeini's fatwa on the grounds that it violated the universal human rights of free speech, freedom of religion, and that Khomeini had no right to condemn to death a citizen of another country living in that country, the death sentence was also criticized on Islamic grounds.

According to some a death warrant without trial, defense, etc. violates Islamic jurisprudence. While apostasy by a mentally sound adult male is indeed a capital crime in Islamic fiqh. Fiqh also

lays down procedures according to which a person accused of an offense is to be brought to trial, confronted with his accuser, and given the opportunity to defend himself. A judge will then give a verdict and if he finds the accused guilty, pronounce sentence. ...

Even the most rigorous and extreme of the classical jurist only require a Muslims to kill anyone who insults the Prophet in his hearing and in his presence. They say nothing about a hired killing for a reported insult in a distant country.

[11]

Some speculated that Khomeini had motives for issuing the fatwa other than his duty to protect Islam by punishing blasphemy/apostasy, namely:

  • To distract attention from his capitulation seven months earlier to a truce with Iraq (20 July 1988) ending the long and bloody Iran-Iraq War, (a truce Iraq would have eagerly given him six years and hundreds of thousands of lives earlier). [12] [13]
  • To strengthen the revolutionary ardur worn down by the bloodshed and privation of the long War with Iraq. According to journalist Robin Wright, "as the international furor grew, Khomeini declared that the book had been a `godsend` that had helped Iran out of a `naive foreign policy`". [14]
  • To steal the thunder of Khomeini's two least favorite enemy states, Saudi Arabia and the United States, who were basking in the glory of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. This withdrawal, seen by many as a great victory of Islamic faith over an atheist superpower, was made possible by billions of dollars in aid to the Afghan mujahideen by those two countries. Khomeini issued the fatwa on Feb. 14 1989. The next day came the official announcement of the completion of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, lost in the news cycle of the fatwa. [15]
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Satanic Verses controversy.

Reception: Timeline

  • September 26, 1988: The novel is published in the UK.
  • October 5, 1988: India bans the novel's importation, after Indian parliamentarian and editor of the monthly magazine "Muslim India" Syed Shahabuddin petitioned the government of Rajiv Gandhi to ban the book.[16][17][18] In 1993 Syed Shahabuddin tried unsuccessfully to ban another book (Ram Swarup's "Hindu View of Christianity and Islam").[19][20]
  • November 21, 1988: Grand sheik of Egypt's Al-Azhar calls on Islamic organizations in Britain to take legal action to prevent the novel's distribution
  • November 24, 1988: The novel is banned in South Africa and Pakistan; bans follow within weeks in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sudan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Qatar.
  • December 1988-January 1989: British Muslims hold book burnings in Bolton and Bradford; Islamic Defense Council demands that Penguin Books apologise, withdraw the novel, destroy any extant copies, and never reprint it.
  • February 12, 1989: Six people are killed and 100 injured during anti-Rushdie protests in Islamabad, Pakistan.
  • February 13, 1989: One person is killed and 60 injured in anti-Rushdie riots in Srinagar, India.
  • February 14, 1989: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issues a fatwa calling on all Muslims to execute all those involved in the publication of the novel; the 15 Khordad Foundation, an Iranian religious foundation or bonyad, offers a monetary reward for the murder of Rushdie.
  • February 16, 1989: Rushdie enters the protection program of the British government and issues a statement regretting the offence the novel has caused; Khomeini responds by reiterating: "It is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has, his life and his wealth, to send [Rushdie] to hell."
  • February 17, 1989: Iranian leader Ali Khamenei says Rushdie could be pardoned if he apologises.[21]
  • February 18, 1989: Rushdie apologizes just as Khamenei has suggested; initially, Irna (the official Iranian news agency) says Rushdie's statement "is generally seen as sufficient enough to warrant his pardon".[22]
  • February 22, 1989: The novel is published in the U.S.A.; major bookstore chains Barnes and Noble and Waldenbooks, under threat, remove the novel from one-third of the nation's bookstores.
  • February 24, 1989: Iranian businessman offers a $3 million bounty for the death of Rushdie.
  • February 24, 1989: Twelve people die in anti-Rushdie rioting in Bombay, India.
  • February 28, 1989: Two bookstores in Berkeley, California, are firebombed for selling the novel.
  • March 7, 1989: Britain breaks diplomatic relations with Iran.
  • March 1989: The Organization of the Islamic Conference calls on its 46 member governments to prohibit the novel. The Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar sets the punishment for possession of the book as three years in prison and a fine of $2,500; in Malaysia, three years in prison and a fine of $7,400; in Indonesia, a month in prison or a fine. The only nation with a predominantly Muslim population where the novel remains legal is Turkey. Several nations with large Muslim minorities, including Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Tanzania, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, also impose penalties for possessing the novel.
  • May 1989: Popular musician Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) gives indirect support for the fatwa and states during a British television documentary, according to the New York Times, that if Rushdie shows up at his door, he "might ring somebody who might do more damage to him than he would like... I'd try to phone the Ayatollah Khomeini and tell him exactly where this man is." Yusuf Islam later denies giving any support to the fatwa.[23] For more on this topic see Cat Stevens: Rushdie Controversy
  • June 3, 1989: Khomeini dies.
  • 1990: Rushdie apologised to Muslims and even formally converted to Islam,[24] but recanted a short time later describing it as the "biggest mistake of my life" in an interview he gave to Anne McElvoy of The Times published on August 26, 1995.
  • 1990: Rushdie publishes an essay on Khomeini's death, "In Good Faith", to appease his critics and issues an apology in which he seems to reaffirm his respect for Islam; however, Iranian clerics do not retract the fatwa.
  • 1990: Five bombings target bookstores in England.
  • July 1991: Hitoshi Igarashi, the novel's Japanese translator, is stabbed to death; and Ettore Capriolo, its Italian translator, is seriously wounded.
  • July 2, 1993: Thirty-seven Turkish intellectuals and locals participating in the Pir Sultan Abdal Literary Festival, die when their hotel in Sivas, Turkey, namely the Madimak Hotel, is burnt down by 2000 members of various anti-democratic, pro-sharia radical islamist groups protesting against Aziz Nesin, Rushdie's Turkish translator.
  • October 1993: The novel's Norwegian publisher, William Nygaard, is shot and seriously injured.
  • 1993: The 15 Khordad Foundation in Iran raises the reward for Rushdie's murder to $300,000.
  • 1997: The bounty is doubled, to $600,000.
  • 1998: Iranian government publicly declares that it will not carry out the death sentence against Rushdie. This is announced as part of a wider agreement to normalize relations between Iran and the United Kingdom. Rushdie subsequently declares that he will stop living in hiding, and that he regrets attempts to appease his critics by making statements to the effect that he is a practicing Muslim. Rushdie affirms that he is not, in fact, religious. Despite the death of Khomeini and the Iranian government's official declaration, the fatwa remains in force, according to certain members of the Islamic fundamentalist media:

"The responsibility for carrying out the fatwa was not the exclusive responsibility of Iran. It is the religious duty of all Muslims – those who have the ability or the means – to carry it out. It does not require any reward. In fact, those who carry out this edict in hopes of a monetary reward are acting against Islamic injunctions."[citation needed]

  • 1999: An Iranian foundation places a $2.8 million bounty on Rushdie's life.
  • January 2002: South Africa lifts its ban on the Satanic Verses ."[25]
  • February 16, 2003: Iran's Revolutionary Guards reiterate the call for the assassination of Rushdie. As reported by the Sunday Herald, "Ayatollah Hassan Saneii, head of the semi-official Khordad Foundation that has placed a $2.8 million bounty on Rushdie's head, was quoted by the Jomhuri Islami newspaper as saying that his foundation would now pay $3 million to anyone who kills Rushdie."[26]
  • March 2004: 16 years after the first English edition Hungarian translation is published, translator's name not specified for security reasons.
  • Early 2005: Khomeini's fatwa against Rushdie is reaffirmed by Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Iran has rejected requests to withdraw the fatwa on the basis that only the person who issued it may withdraw it.
  • February 14, 2006: Iran’s official state news agency reports on the anniversary of the decree that the government-run Martyrs Foundation has announced, "The fatwa by Imam Khomeini in regard to the apostate Salman Rushdie will be in effect forever", and that one of Iran’s state bonyad, or foundations, has offered a $2.8 million bounty on his life.[9]
  • June 15, 2007: Rushdie receives knighthood for services to literature sparking an outcry from Islamic groups.

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ "Ayatollah sentences author to death". BBC. 1989-02-14. Retrieved 2007-01-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Biography of H. E. Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei
  3. ^ from Moin, Khomeini, (2001), p.284, (Issued 18 February, Obtained by Baqer Moin from the Archbishop of Canterbury's aides.)]
  4. ^ Moin, Khomeini, (2001), p.284
  5. ^ "26 December 1990: Iranian leader upholds Rushdie fatwa". BBC News: On This Day. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
  6. ^ Rubin, Michael (1 September 2006). "Can Iran Be Trusted?". The Middle East Forum: Promoting American Interests. Retrieved 2006-10-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ a b Webster, Philip, Ben Hoyle and Ramita Navai (January 20 2005). "Ayatollah revives the death fatwa on Salman Rushdie". The Times Online. Retrieved 2006-10-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ "Iran adamant over Rushdie fatwa". BBC News. 12 February 2005. Retrieved 2006-10-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ a b "Iran says Rushdie fatwa still stands". Iran Focus. 2006-02-14. Retrieved 2007-01-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "Rushdie's term". Retrieved 2007-02-15.
  11. ^ Bernard Lewis commenting on Rushdie fatwa in The Crisis of Islam : Holy War and Unholy Terror, 2003 by Bernard Lewis, p.141-2
  12. ^ Moin, Baqer, Khomeini, (2001), p.267,
  13. ^ The Gulf War : It's Origins, History and Consequences by John Bulloch and Harvey Morris, 1989, (p.xvi)]
  14. ^ Wright, In the Name of God, (c1989), p.201
  15. ^ Kepel, Jihad, (2001), p.135)
  16. ^ "Being God's Postman Is No Fun, Yaar": Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. Srinivas Aravamudan.Diacritics, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1989), pp. 3-20
  17. ^ Postmodernist Perceptions of Islam: Observing the Observer. Akbar S. Ahmed. Asian Survey, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Mar., 1991), pp. 213-231
  18. ^ Shahabuddin, Syed. “You did this with satanic forethought, Mr. Rushdie.” Times of India. 13 October 1988.
  19. ^ Arun Shourie: How should we respond? In The Observer of Business and Politics, New Delhi, 26 November 1993, also published in many other Indian newspapers and periodicals and reprinted in Sita Ram Goel (ed.): Freedom of Expression - Secular Theocracy Versus Liberal Democracy, 1998 ISBN 81-85990-55-7. [1]
  20. ^ Statement by Indian intellectuals on Syed Shahabuddin's attempt to make the authorities impose a ban on the book Hindu View of Christianity and Islam by Ram Swarup, Delhi, 18 November. Reprinted in Sita Ram Goel (ed.): Freedom of Expression - Secular Theocracy Versus Liberal Democracy 1998 ISBN 81-85990-55-7 [2]
  21. ^ Article "Iran suggests an apology could save life of Rushdie; Rushdie controversy." The Times (London, England), 1989-02-18, accessed via Infotrac.
  22. ^ Article "Iranians in confusion after Rushdie apologizes; Rushdie controversy." The Sunday Times (London, England), 1989-02-19, accessed via Infotrac.
  23. ^ R. Whitney, Craig (1989-05-23). "Cat Stevens Gives Support To Call for Death of Rushdie". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-01-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ [3]
  25. ^ "SA unbans Satanic Verses at library's request". Star. 2002-01-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ Hamilton, James (2003-02-16). "Revived fatwa puts $3m bounty on Rushdie". Sunday Herald. Retrieved 2003-04-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Bibliography

  • 100 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature', Nicholas J. Karolides, Margaret Bald & Dawn B. Sova, Checkmark Books, New York, 1999. ISBN 0-8160-4059-1
  • Harris, David (2004). The Crisis: the President, the Prophet, and the Shah — 1979 and the Coming of Militant Islam. Little, Brown.
  • Hoveyda, Fereydoun (2003). The Shah and the Ayatollah: Iranian mythology and Islamic revolution. Praeger.
  • Elst, Koenraad: The Rushdie Rules Middle East Quarterly, June 1998
  • Keddie, Nikki (2003). Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution. Yale University Press.
  • Kepel, Gilles (2002). Jihad: on the Trail fo Political Islam. Harvard University Press.
  • Mackey, Sandra (1996). The Iranians: Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation. Dutton.
  • Moin, Baqer (2000). Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah. Thomas Dunne Books.
  • Daniel Pipes: The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West (1990), Transaction Publishers, (2003), with a postscript by Koenraad Elst. ISBN 0-7658-0996-6
  • Ruthven, Malise (2000). Islam in the World. Oxford University Press.
  • Schirazi, Asghar (1997). The Constitution of Iran. Tauris.
  • Shirley, Edward (1997). Know Thine Enemy. Farra.
  • Wright, Robin (c1989). In the Name of God: The Khomeini Decade. Simon and Schuster. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • Bulloch, John (1989). The Gulf War : It's Origins, History and Consequences by John Bulloch and Harvey Morris. Methuen London.
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