Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 19, 1991 TAG: 9102190410
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
So deeply that Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini declared it the duty of any faithful follower of Mohammed to execute Rushdie. The cry was taken up in Islamic fundamentalist circles elsewhere, and threats of violence also were directed toward booksellers who stocked the novel.
That was nearly two years ago. Rushdie, a British citizen, went into hiding. Meantime, defenders of a free press - principally in the West - debated the effects of the threats:
Could the flow of ideas in a free country be confined by the prospect of physical retaliation ordered from abroad?
What should, and could, the threatened person's own government do to protect his rights?
Did booksellers and other agents have a responsibility to defy the threats and stand up for freedom by offering the offending work to the public?
The debate was inconclusive. It appears that - perhaps after initial hesitation - most book retailers made "Satanic Verses" available. There was little actual violence; sales were, if anything, hyped by the controversy.
The response of Western governments was somewhat disappointing. If free speech remained a precious right in Britain or the United States, it was hard to discern from the cautious, diplomatic language from London and Washington about this attempt to censor via terror.
Rushdie stayed out of sight but kept writing and, occasionally, made himself carefully available to interviewers. His marriage cracked under the strain, but the author apparently was proof against the pressure.
Until, perhaps, a few weeks ago. Emerging from hiding, Rushdie publicly embraced the Islamic faith. He insisted he had not "turned overnight into some doctrinaire zealot," but after a long inner struggle had concluded that "to try and find the spiritual life without mentioning the name of God - it was stupid to do." Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, successor to the late Khomeini, promptly renewed the death sentence. Rushdie has not yet, it seems, repented and recanted sufficiently.
One would like to leave it at that, to treat Rushdie's conversion as a private matter between him and Allah. Unfortunately, there are implications for countless other people.
Announcing his embrace of the faith, the author promised to allow no further translations of "Satanic Verses" and not to publish it in paperback.
He is free to believe as he chooses and to do with his works as he decides - freedoms he would not enjoy in many countries, including some where Islam is dominant. But it can easily appear, despite his protestations, that he has caved in and joined his tormentors.
They have turned to him a stony face: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, successor to the late Khomeini, promptly renewed the death sentence. Rushdie has not yet, it seems, repented and recanted sufficiently.
Assume that Rushdie hoped to save his life. He, not his critics, had the most to lose in this matter; and if he chose retreat, he has his own conscience to make peace with. The pressures on him certainly were unfair. They may have been intolerable. Or grant that Rushdie is sincere both in his conversion and satisfied to accept his religion's restrictions on his work.
Either way, the climax of what another novelist might call The Rushdie Affair leaves a sense of loss and disappointment.
The forces of intolerance, hatred, tyranny and censorship have won a victory. And still they are not satisfied. It was ever thus.
by CNB