The response to Salman Rushdie\u2019s knighthood has been predictable, as Muslim leaders and politicians compete with each other to register their outrage \u2013 if Rushdie gets an honour, it must be an affront to Islam.\n<\/p>\n
\nLet\u2019s get one thing straight. This is not about Islam \u2013 it\u2019s a recognition of the achievements of one of Britain\u2019s finest writers, a writer who led a solitary, persecuted life for many years because of death threats against him. No novelist sets out on their career aiming for a knighthood. It is in fact ironic that Rushdie \u2013 an iconoclast and outsider as most artists are \u2013 should be embraced by the establishment. But Rushdie is one of the greatest and most influential contemporary writers working today. The Satanic Verses is just one of his novels (and perhaps not even his finest) \u2013 Rushdie\u2019s more striking achievement is to have created an original, post-colonial narrative in which East and West meet \u2013 an imaginative interpretation of the modern world we live in, shaped by migration. It is an interpretation that defies the boundaries of religion and culture \u2013 and it is the kind of artistic vision that can make sense of the world and promote understanding across the divide. The forces that decry and denounce Rushdie are in fact driving a wedge between East and West, between Muslim and non-Muslim, and between the literal and the imagination. They do more harm to Islam and Muslim culture than Rushdie ever has.\n<\/p>\n
\nYet somehow it has become a badge of credibility among certain Muslim leaders, politicians and organisations \u2013 whether Lord Ahmed or the Muslim Council of Britain or Mohammed Ijaz ul Haq, Pakistan\u2019s religious affairs minister \u2013 to be the one who shouts the loudest whenever there\u2019s a perceived slight to Islam. The spectacle of this self-regarding outrage has become wearingly familiar as Islam\u2019s self-appointed defenders seek to silence and intimidate critical or challenging voices. Rushdie, through no desire of his own, has been elevated beyond his literary output to become a symbol. He is, first and foremost, a novelist and it\u2019s clearly important to reiterate that no art can flourish without the licence of free expression.\n<\/p>\n
\nThis level of intimidation against writers and intellectuals who wish to explore, criticise or pass comment on Islam is anathema to free speech. As a knee-jerk response which seeks nothing but political gain it only brings discredit to its advocates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The response to Salman Rushdie\u2019s knighthood has been predictable, as Muslim leaders and politicians compete with each other to register their outrage \u2013 if Rushdie gets an honour, it must be an affront to Islam. Let\u2019s get one thing straight. This is not about Islam \u2013 it\u2019s a recognition of the achievements of one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}