Salman Rushdie: Voice of reason & conscience of our turbulent times

“Respect for religion has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion’. Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire and, yes, our fearless disrespect.”

— Salman Rushdie

The dastardly attack on the world-renowned novelist Salman Rushdie by a Muslim fanatic is yet another failed attempt to squelch the voice of reason and conscience by brainless zealot/s. Once again, this underlines the fact that religious fanaticism, shown most visibly by the followers of a particular faith but present in all other faiths, too, is becoming a global concern and a potential threat to the civilised world. It is shocking that even after 33 years of that infamous fatwa on him for writing 'The Satanic Verses', Rushdie is still an eyesore to Muslims, so much so that a zealot knifed him on stage at an event in New York.

This attack is not just on an individual but it’s an assault on the voice of reason and the collective conscience of mankind. This also raises a question -- an extremely sensitive one at that: How long should an evolving society keep religion, god, their revered characters and practices protected from questioning and criticism so as not to hurt the religious sensibilities of the followers of a host of man-made faiths? Rushdie made it clear through his books and prolific writing that nothing is sacrosanct. He re-taught the world to doubt because faith sans doubt is addiction. He had the courage of conviction to say that from the beginning, men concocted and used god and religion to justify the unjustifiable.

Our extreme political correctness, especially when it comes to religion and god, is something that has always been justifiably criticised by Rushdie. In fact, at this point of time, not just India but the entire world is all the more in need of people of courage and sanity who can raise their voices against the rabid religiosity and escalating fanaticism.

Islam is a sacred cow for the world. We’re too scared to touch its Holy Writ. Just a couple of months ago, two zealots decapitated a poor tailor in Udaipur just for agreeing with comments made by Nupur Sharma. The media condemned the murder but refrained from using the term ‘Islamist terrorism', which it indeed was. Equally, politically correct and measured words were used to describe the beheading of the Hindu tailor. This kind of collective fear gives birth to zealots like Hadi Matar, who stabbed Salman Rushdie in broad daylight.

Mankind must realise at this point and introspect that if religion creates such rabid characters and god (no upper case, please) creates unnecessary fear in the hearts of humans, are we indeed in need of these ante-diluvian religious ideas that have been bequeathed to us by our troglodyte ancestors? To quote Rushdie, “So India’s problem turns out to be the world’s problem. What happened in India has happened in god’s name. The problem’s name is god.”

The ambit of freedom is, and should be, boundless. It includes freedom to criticise, castigate and cavil at anything one deems fit to be condemned. If we must be choosy and selective (excluding religion, for instance) while criticising, then that’s no criticism at all. That’s compromising and diluting one’s thoughts. Remember, belief has no place where truth is concerned. Salman Rushdie’s revolutionary ideas, like those of the maverick French existentialist Albert Camus, must be mankind’s new scriptures. Shelve the outdated religious scriptures that have enslaved us and lived their lives. We must emancipate ourselves with the radical ideas of Salman Rushdie. Don’t forget that ‘truth’ is not fixed. It also changes as every age has its own perception of fresh ‘truth’. The ‘truth’ of this age is Rushdie’s in-your-face ideas.

May Rushdie recover quickly and his fearless ideas embolden the terrified world.

(The writer is an advanced research scholar of Semitic languages, civilisations and cultures)