Rushdie came from a Muslim family though he is an atheist now. In
1990, in the "hope that it would reduce the threat of Muslims acting on the fatwa to kill him," he issued a statement claiming he had renewed his Muslim faith, had repudiated the attacks on
Islam made by characters in his novel and was committed to working for better understanding of the religion
across the world. However, Rushdie later said that he was only "pretending".
His books often focus on the role of religion in society and conflicts between faiths and between the religious and those of no faith.
Rushdie advocates the application of higher criticism, pioneered during the late
19th century. Rushdie called for a reform in Islam in a guest opinion piece printed in
The Washington Post and
The Times in mid-August
2005:
What is needed is a move beyond tradition, nothing less than a reform movement to bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age, a Muslim
Reformation to combat not only the jihadist ideologues but also the dusty, stifling seminaries of the traditionalists, throwing open the windows to let in much-needed fresh air
. (...) It is high time, for starters, that Muslims were able to study the revelation of their religion as an event inside history, not supernaturally above it. (...) Broad-mindedness is related to tolerance; open-mindedness is the sibling of
peace.
Rushdie supported the
1999 NATO bombing of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, leading the leftist
Tariq Ali to label Rushdie and other "warrior writers" as "the belligerati'". He was supportive of the US-led campaign to remove the
Taliban in Afghanistan, which began in
2001, but was a vocal critic of the
2003 war in Iraq. He has stated that while there was a "case to be made for the removal of
Saddam Hussein", US unilateral military intervention was unjustifiable
.
In the wake of the
Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in
March 2006—which many considered an echo of the death threats and fatwā that followed publication of
The Satanic Verses in
1989—Rushdie signed the manifesto
Together Facing the
New Totalitarianism, a statement warning of the dangers of religious extremism.
The Manifesto was published in the left-leaning
French weekly
Charlie Hebdo in March 2006.
In
2006, Rushdie stated that he supported comments by the then-Leader of the
House of Commons Jack Straw, who criticised the wearing of the niqab (a veil that covers all of the face except the eyes). Rushdie stated that his three sisters would never wear the veil. He said, "I think the battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women, so in that sense I'm completely on
Straw's side."
The Marxist Catholic critic
Terry Eagleton, a former admirer of Rushdie's work, attacked him for his positions, saying he "cheered on the
Pentagon's criminal ventures in
Iraq and
Afghanistan". However, Eagleton subsequently apologised for having misrepresented Rushdie's views.
At an appearance at
92nd Street Y, Rushdie expressed his view on copyright when answering a question whether he had considered copyright law a barrier (or impediment) to free speech.
No. But that's because I write for a living, [laughs] and I have no other source of income, and I naïvely believe that stuff that I create belongs to me, and that if you want it you might have to give me some cash
. [...] My view is I do this for a living. The thing wouldn't exist if I didn't make it and so it belongs to me and don't steal it. You know.
It's my stuff.
When
Amnesty International (AI) suspended human rights activist
Gita Sahgal for saying to the press that she thought AI should distance itself from
Moazzam Begg and his organisation, Rushdie said:
Amnesty ... has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his group
Cageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. It has greatly compounded its
error by suspending the redoubtable Gita Sahgal for the crime of going public with her concerns. Gita Sahgal is a woman of immense integrity and distinction.... It is people like Gita Sahgal who are the true voices of the human rights movement; Amnesty and Begg have revealed, by their statements and actions, that they deserve our contempt.
Rushdie is a supporter of gun control, blaming a shooting at a
Colorado cinema in July
2012 on the
American right to keep and bear arms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie
- published: 08 Dec 2013
- views: 4940