{"id":10820,"date":"2020-12-01T12:19:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T11:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/?p=10820"},"modified":"2021-09-11T18:27:02","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T16:27:02","slug":"correspondence-the-satanic-verses-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/01\/correspondence-the-satanic-verses-affair\/","title":{"rendered":"Correspondence: The Satanic Verses Affair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Correspondance parue dans Solidarity. Journal of Libertarian Socialism<\/em>, 22\/23, Winter 1989-90, p. 20-22<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Less than a great historical service<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ALISON WEIR, London:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an extremely diffuse and ill-thought-out article (‘Who is Afraid of Satan?<\/a>‘, Solidarity<\/span>, Autumn 1989), ‘A El-Noor’ purports to address the possibility that Salman Rushdie has \u00ab\u00a0set off a chain reaction of cultural criticism of religion in Islamic countries\u00a0\u00bb. In addition, Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses<\/span> has apparently \u00ab\u00a0rendered Islamic civilisation a great historical service\u00a0\u00bb. A El-Noor clearly wishes the Islamic countries well, and by ‘well’ he means that they should accommodate their need for scientific knowledge and technological expertise within the framework of Islam, or else abandon Islam. Not a very helpful or illuminating suggestion, if I may say so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

He cunningly opens the piece with a reference to the great damage done upon the world by the catholic Church’s refusal to enjoin the practice of birth control. He agrees that we in the West have seriously underestimated the strength of traditional religious beliefs. He goes on to acknowledge the problem of the beleaguered Muslim community in Britain but – in the same paragraph – chooses to describe the tenets of Muslim belief in a stereotypical (and disparaging) way – \u00ab\u00a0male is dominant… women’s sexual pleasure taboo\u00a0\u00bb – and a lot of implied scorn. My God, isn’t an orthodox Jewish woman the victim of horrifying taboos?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A El-Noor then alludes to North American Indians, the Japanese, the Jews… and finally the Amish (how did they get in here?) as offering examples of those who did accommodate themselves to modern ways, or did not, it is not at all clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A El-Noor next has the bright idea that \u00ab\u00a0Iran’s clergy\u00a0\u00bb is suffering from paranoia. He graciously admits that Western governments, too, cannot see the Ayatollah’s fatwa<\/span> as anything other than a political move. Impasse. But if the Ayatollah and his successors \u00ab\u00a0fail to grasp that Western governments cannot allow a book to be burnt or an author to be proscribed\u00a0\u00bb, isn’t it also true that very little understanding or sympathy has been offered to the Muslim community living in Britain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They, moderate or fanatical, are under no illusions about the flippant blasphemy that is expressed in most of the book. It offends, as it was intended to; Salman Rushdie slags off his religion in the most obscene way, rather like feminists of yesteryear used to slag off the convent, and no doubt with the same personal intention in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Islam, says A El-Noor kindly, was \u00ab\u00a0progressive\u00a0\u00bb in the time of Mohammed. Marxist critics of Islam are mostly dead – sadly true. But The Satanic Verses<\/span> does not offer what A El-Noor describes as a \u00ab\u00a0historical service\u00a0\u00bb; it is too silly for that. Where the novel is truly moving is in its moments of recording vile racism on the part of immigration officers and members of the National Front. There the collective experience stands Rushdie in good stead; the episodes sound horribly convincing and the re-telling of them inspires him with a passion that results in good writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article ends with praise for Salman Rushdie’s \u00ab\u00a0historical service\u00a0\u00bb, agrees that Iran is heavily stained by the threat, let alone the death of the author, bewails the failure of the left in Iran to confront the religious issue (in the Shah’s time), and winds up asking \u00ab\u00a0Who believes in Satan?\u00a0\u00bb and invites all those of similar views to \u00ab\u00a0follow Rushdie\u00a0\u00bb. Since I read no ‘historical’ analysis into The Satanic Verses<\/span> I cannot see where Rushdie would be leading us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had hoped this piece would address the double dilemma that confronts us: yes, we want anyone to publish whatever they want (exception pornography) but also, and very important to socialists and all thinking people, we want the large number of Muslims in our midst not to be misheard or misunderstood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Nawal El Sadawi’s The Fall of the Imam<\/span> (recently published by Methuen) or listen to the Black Sisters in Southall if you want a serious discussion on this subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Best-buy mystifications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From LIZ WILLIS, London:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A El-Noor’s article on Islam in the last issue provides an insightful and thought-provoking treatment of the cultural dimensions of the Satanic Verses<\/span> affair. At the same time, it seems taken by itself a little insufficient as a response. Of course ideas are important, indeed essential, to the discussion (and to most others, as Solidarity has always recognised), but they seem here to be dealt with too much in isolation and taken too much at face value. Some of the elements of Solidarity’s good old-style analyses surely have a contribution to make, notably the key themes of authority relations, conditioning, repression and ‘the irrational in politics’. To present the phenomenon of Islamic fundamentalism simply as a collective wish to hold on to a traditional culture misses a whole lot of points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just because the leaders of the movement probably hold their beliefs more or less sincerely (the proposition loses some credibility with Rafsanjani in charge) does not exclude their being engaged in power struggles, in Tehran or in Bradford, or in a search for an external enemy or scapegoat. We also need to consider how and why they manage to acquire a following: El-Noor mentions the spiritual bankruptcy of western societies without investigating the ‘pull’ factors that draw numbers of alienated youth – a stratum where libertarians have often looked for hopeful signs – towards the best-buy among authoritarian patriarchal mystifications. The psychology of adolescence may have considerable relevance, touching on attitudes to sexuality, aggression, group identity, rejection of authority in some aspects and acceptance of it in others (fear of freedom), and so on. It may be some consolation in this context to remember people’s capacity for holding numerous contradictory ideas simultaneously, and for acting in ways at variance with their professed beliefs (which is not to disregard the menace of the genuine, even temporarily convinced fanatic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The danger is not only to Salman Rushdie, peace be upon him (a blasphemy, this!), but to all those who would suffer from the implementation of the fundamentalist project even on a limited and local scale. Some of them are well aware of it, and the resistance is under way: the group ‘Women against Fundamentalism’ has confronted at least one anti-Rushdie demo with the slogans \u00ab\u00a0You do not speak for us\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0Fear is your weapon, courage is ours\u00a0\u00bb. They know they’ll need courage, but the threat of hard-line Islamic domination is worse, and they can’t wait two or three generations for a cultural critique based on a reasoned historical critique. Vital as such a critique may be, it has the air of being rather a long-term project, and quite a lotis happening now. Let’s not forget the people in struggle – another good old Solidarity preoccupation – who are themselves part of the historical critique. Our best hope is that the struggle, and the reasoning, will lead to the emergence of something more acceptable than either ‘assimilation’ or time-warped isolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As usual the difficulty is to escape from the treadmill of unacceptable alternatives. Even when some are manifestly more unacceptable than others, we can still at least hint at the possibility of looking at things in a different sort of way. I think that’s what Solidarity is there for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Correspondance parue dans Solidarity. Journal of Libertarian Socialism, 22\/23, Winter 1989-90, p. 20-22 Less than a great historical service From ALISON WEIR, London: In an extremely diffuse and ill-thought-out article (‘Who is Afraid of Satan?‘, Solidarity, Autumn 1989), ‘A El-Noor’ purports to address the possibility that Salman Rushdie has \u00ab\u00a0set off a chain reaction of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1297,4136,2628,571,572,3132,1017,1550,2650,4130],"class_list":["post-10820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-presse","tag-1297","tag-fatwa","tag-fundamentalism","tag-iran","tag-islam","tag-london","tag-religion","tag-rouhollah-moussavi-khomeini","tag-salman-rushdie","tag-solidarity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9lTYU-2Ow","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10841,"url":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/03\/correspondence-the-satanic-verses-affair-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10820,"position":0},"title":"Correspondence: The Satanic Verses Affair (2)","author":"SiNedjib","date":"03\/12\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Lettre d'A. El Noor parue dans Solidarity. A Journal of Libertarian Socialism, 24, Summer 1990, p. 15-16 Obsessed with God's Will From A EL NOOR, London: In my article 'Who is afraid of Satan?' (Solidarity #21), I put forward the following ideas: 1. Capitalist technology undermines all traditional cultures and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Dans "presse"","block_context":{"text":"presse","link":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/category\/presse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sinedjib.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Solidarity-Summer-1990.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10989,"url":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/19\/let-satanic-verses-be-read\/","url_meta":{"origin":10820,"position":1},"title":"Let ‘Satanic Verses’ be read!","author":"SiNedjib","date":"19\/12\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Article paru dans Workers Hammer, No 104, February 1989, p. 1-9 On 14 January, 1500 Muslim fanatics gathered in front of the town hall in Bradford, West Yorkshire and burnt copies of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. It grotesquely recalled the medieval Christian inquisition and book-burning orgies of Hitler's stormtroopers. Confirming\u2026","rel":"","context":"Dans "presse"","block_context":{"text":"presse","link":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/category\/presse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sinedjib.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/book-burners.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sinedjib.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/book-burners.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sinedjib.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/book-burners.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10774,"url":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/29\/a-el-noor-who-is-affraid-of-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":10820,"position":2},"title":"A. El-Noor: Who is affraid of Satan?","author":"SiNedjib","date":"29\/11\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Article d'A. El-Noor paru dans Solidarity. A Journal of Libertarian Socialism, 21, Autumn 1989, p. 3-8 By setting off a chain reaction of cultural criticism of religion inIslamic countries, writes A EL-NOOR, Salman Rushdie has rendered Islamic civilisation a great historical service MANY OF THOSE struggling to overcome the abject\u2026","rel":"","context":"Dans "presse"","block_context":{"text":"presse","link":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/category\/presse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sinedjib.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/disagree.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11238,"url":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/15\/senegal-la-majorite-de-la-direction-du-msd-reaffirme-ses-liens-avec-la-iveme-internationale-cir\/","url_meta":{"origin":10820,"position":3},"title":"S\u00e9n\u00e9gal : la majorit\u00e9 de la direction du M.S.D. r\u00e9affirme ses liens avec la IV\u00e8me Internationale (CIR) et une politique conforme aux traditions du mouvement ouvrier et des peuples","author":"SiNedjib","date":"15\/01\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Textes parus dans Tribune internationale, n\u00b0 51, septembre 1989, p. 22-24 On trouvera ci-dessous de larges extraits de la r\u00e9solution intitul\u00e9e \"A toutes les militantes et tous les militants du M.S.D.\" adopt\u00e9e \u00e0 Dakar le 9 ao\u00fbt 1989 par une large majorit\u00e9 du Secr\u00e9tariat politique permanent du Mouvement pour le\u2026","rel":"","context":"Dans "presse"","block_context":{"text":"presse","link":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/category\/presse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sinedjib.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Tribune-internationale-septembre-1989.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4384,"url":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/2018\/10\/12\/fascism\/","url_meta":{"origin":10820,"position":4},"title":"Paul Gilroy : Black Fascism","author":"SiNedjib","date":"12\/10\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Article de Paul Gilroy paru dans Transition, No. 81\/82 (2000), p. 70-91 In 1938 C. L. R. James wrote that \"all the things that Hitler was to do so well later, Marcus Garvey was doing in 1920 and 1921. He organized storm troopers, who marched, uniformed, in his parades, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Dans "revues"","block_context":{"text":"revues","link":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/category\/revues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sinedjib.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Transition-2000-204x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10849,"url":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/05\/a-blasphemous-arrow-of-retribution\/","url_meta":{"origin":10820,"position":5},"title":"A Blasphemous Arrow of Retribution","author":"SiNedjib","date":"05\/12\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Article paru dans Wildcat, no. 13, Summer\/Autumn 1989, p. 5-6 And it shall come to pass that I will put thee in the cleft of the rock, and I shall take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts. (God, Exodus XXXIII). Left Wing Reaction in Britain. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"Dans "presse"","block_context":{"text":"presse","link":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/category\/presse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sinedjib.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/salman.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10820"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13969,"href":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10820\/revisions\/13969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sinedjib.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}