[lit-ideas] Re: In Search of the Moderate European Muslim
- From: "Judith Evans" <judithevans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 19:27:13 +0100
LH(quoting)>It's the same story in Britain, where in 1989 Muslims, for the
most part
LH>Pakistani immigrants, erupted with anger against Salman Rushdie
LH> and shouted for his death, with nary a protest against such barbarity.
Do you know how the British Muslim (not all British Muslims, fyi) outcry about
the Satanic verses took off? Some Bradford Muslims went to a non-Muslim
English lawyer to ask whether there was any legal action they could take re the
book. He told them they'd get further if they burned the book publicly. The
rest is history... but I will recap it here
"On the 21st of October British Muslims handed over a petition with
hundreds of thousands of signatures to Viking/Penguin calling for the
withdrawal of the novel, the publishing company responded by stating
that the offence has been due to a "misreading of the book", and that
any moves to cease publication of the novel would be "wholly inconsistent
with our position as a serious publisher who believes in freedom of
expression" (Letter and press statement issued by Penguin reprinted
in Ahsan and Kidwai, Sacrilege versus Civility, Appendix 1, pp.318-20).
Two more events took place that have now come to characterise the
Muslim position in the Rushdie Affair. The first of these was the symbolic
burning of a copy of The Satanic Verses by Muslims protesters in Bradford
on the 14th of January 1989. This event gave license to Western critics
to portray Muslims as barbaric and uncultured, as Rana Kabbani
observes in A Letter to Christendom, the event "matched the traditional
Western image of them, making it easy to label them as primitive
fanatics not civilised enough to appreciate the value of free speech"
(Rana Kabbani, A Letter to Christendom, Virago, London: 1989,
pp. 8-9). The image of the burning book has come to represent
Islam's intolerance, and it is therefore significant that two major
studies of the Affair, Appignanesi and Maitland's The Rushdie File,
and Ruthvan Malise's A Satanic Affair: Salman Rushdie and the
Wrath of Islam - the title is itself revealing - have front covers that
show burning copies of The Satanic Verses.
This event was followed by the fatwa of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini on the 14th
of February 1989, whereby Rushdie was sentenced to death."
During those years I taught 2 British Muslim students on a course where Satanic
Verses was discussed. One said he and his family were not offended by the
book. The second said he thought it was offensive but that he totally opposed
any action against Rushdie. (He was a bit edgy about saying he thought the
book offensive... .) I honestly can't remember whether either was a
"Pakistani immigrant" (Revel will know why Pakistanis might be particularly
unfavourable to Rushdie, but he may just be being obnoxious).
It is of course true that many British Muslims were deeply offended by SV and I
take it many
thought action should be taken against Rushdie.
LH(quoting)>And after September 11, a qualified spokesman for British
>Muslims, a certain al-Misri, called the attacks on the World Trade Center acts
>of 'legitimate defense.
Abu Hamza al-Masri, normally known as Abu Hamza. The "figurehead for
radical Islam in Britain": "qualified spokesman for British Muslims" my arse.
He preached at the Finsbury Park Mosque from 1997-2003, albeit in 2002 he'd
been suspended by the Muslims who ran it. He's in gaol now.
sorry, haven't the time for more fact-giving
Judy Evans, Cardiff
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: Lit-Ideas
Sent: Saturday, April 29, 2006 5:19 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] In Search of the Moderate European Muslim
On pages 68-69 of Anti-Americanism, Jean-Francois Revel (a Frenchman writing
from Paris) writes, "While the statistics are unreliable, it is thought that
between four and five million Muslims are living in France. This is the
largest such community in Europe, followed a long way behind by those in
Germany and Britain. If the 'immense majority' of these Muslims are moderates,
as the imams and muftis and their political and media parrots claim, it seems
to me that this moderation should be rather more apparent. For example, after
the bombings of 1986 and 1995 in Paris, which killed several dozen people and
wounded many more, it should have been easy to find a few thousand 'moderates'
out of 4.5 million Muslims, a good proportion of whom have French nationality -
enough at least for a demonstration march from the Republique to the Bastille
or along the Canebiere. There was never even a hint of one.
"In Spain, there were several rallies of up to a hundred thousand people in
2001 to condemn the assassins of the Basque ETA terrorist organization. These
took place throughout the country and even in the Basque Country, where
protestors had reason to fear reprisals, although the terrorists' partisans
were actually very much in the minority (which was made overwhelmingly evident
by the regional elections of November 2000).
"In contrast, if moderate Muslims in France dare to protest publicly so
little, couldn't it be because they know that they, and not the extremists, are
minorities within their communities? This explains why they are so moderate
with their moderation. It's the same story in Britain, where in 1989 Muslims,
for the most part Pakistani immigrants, erupted with anger against Salman
Rushdie and shouted for his death, with nary a protest against such barbarity.
And after September 11, a qualified spokesman for British Muslims, a certain
al-Misri, called the attacks on the World Trade Center acts of 'legitimate
defense.' Another spiritual authority, Omar Bakri Mohammed, launched a fatwa
commanding the assassination of the president of Pakistan because the latter
had sided with President Bush against bin Laden. However attentively you might
have listened, you would never have heard the slightest whisper from moderate
British Muslims protesting against the calls for murder. There were no such
protests, just as there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim majority in
France. The notion that the 'immense majority' of Muslims settled in Europe
were peacefully inclined was, during the two months after September 11, starkly
revealed for what it was: a mirage."
Lawrence
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