This
censorship must
be fought
newspaper editorial
Murdering
writers is the most
loathsome form of censorship. But that’s exactly what Iran’s
Ayatollah Khomeini is trying to do with his three million dollar bounty
on Indian author
Salman
Rushdie’s head. Khomeini and other ruling Iranian clerics
object to the
irreverent depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in Rushdie’s new novel, The Satanic Verses.
Sadly,
the bounty is already
having its effect. India,
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other nations have banned
Rushdie’s novel. Weak-kneed publishers in France,
West Germany, Greece
and Turkey decided not to publish it.
Frightened
chain bookstore
Waldenbooks has pulled “The
Satanic Verses” off its shelves in the United States. Employees’
lives may be in danger, a
Waldenbooks official said.
Shock
waves are only beginning.
Certainly
an author somewhere is
now having second thoughts about writing about that controversial or
unpopular subject
which he or she fears could just be “harmful to ones health.”
Instead,
some authors will turn
to safer and perhaps less relevant subjects.
Everyone
is to suffer from this
diabolical form of censorship that stifles serious exploration and
examination
of important issues or entertaining and creative literature.
This
threat to free expression
of ideas must be resisted by freedom-loving people.
It
will take courage.
Iranian
clerics say they ordered
Rushdie and his publisher killed because “The Satanic Verses” is offensive
to
Islam. What irony since their bounty is catapulting the novel
onto best seller
lists and ensuring further “offense” to Islam.
Can
the novel be more offensive
than the murderous tack it has provoked? Furthermore, the
multi-million dollar
bounty could be viewed as appealing to the same baser motivations of
western
capitalism that Iran’s
Islamic religious government says it deplores so much.
Censorship
by death threat is also
an insult to the kinder among the 540 million practitioners of
Islam.
Tragically, it increases misunderstandings about one of the world’s
largest
religions.
As
giving into kidnappers’
demands puts others into jeopardy by increasing the number of
kidnappings, so
will giving into this deadly attempt at censorship put other writers at
risk.
Indeed, it puts freedom of speech and relevant and creative literature
at risk.
Every
effort should be made to
protect would-be victims of Iran’s
irrationals who apparently want to control even the ideas outside their
own
confined world.
Has
the sword become mightier
than the pen? The Daily Herald
hopes not.
Giving into this type of violent censorship means even more writers and
freedom of expression will become its unfortunate victims.
A
version of this editorial appeared in the Daily Herald, Provo, Utah
Update since I wrote this editorial: The
uproar over The Satanic Verses continued
and there were deaths, although not Rushdie's. Five people were
killed in Islamabad by police during a protest over the novel. A
dozen protesters were killed in a protest at the British Embassy in
Bombay. Rushdie's Japanese translator was stabbed to death in
Tokyo. His Norwegian publisher was shot and severely injured in
Oslo. His Italian translator was beaten and stabbed in Milan. The
UC Berkley book store was firebombed for carrying "The Satanic Verses." Rushdie
was burned in effigy in many places worldwide, and there were many book
burnings. The musician known as Cat Stevens who
converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam agreed with the
death sentence but later said it should be ordered by a court in an
Islamic country. A bounty remains on Rushdie's head.
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