‘Battle phrases with phrases’: Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy opposes re-banning of Salman Rushdie’s ebook | India Information – Occasions of India

NEW DELHI: Opposing the Muslim organizations calling for re-ban of Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses“, the Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy (IMSD) on Monday urged the Muslims to recollect iconic social reformer Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s teachings and to “combat phrases with phrases” as a substitute of resorting to ebook bans or burnings.
The renewed sale of Rushdie’s ebook, which has returned to Indian bookshelves 36 years after it was banned by the Rajiv Gandhi authorities in 1988, has been strongly condemned by some Muslim organizations.
“IMSD calls upon Muslims to recall the views expressed by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan properly over a century in the past. In his time, he staunchly opposed Muslims who made a bonfire of books they didn’t like, or demanded its ban by the authorities,” the IMSD mentioned in an announcement.
“His recommendation was easy. Battle phrases with phrases if the ebook in query is worthy of a reasoned critique. Burning or banning such books implies that Muslims are incapable of an mental and ethical protection of their religion. If the ebook (cartoon, play, movie) is nothing however a gratuitous, salacious or malicious assault on Islam or its Prophet, his suggestion was: ignore it,” the assertion added.
The IMSD’s assertion is endorsed by 42 eminent residents, together with civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad, oral historian Sohail Hashmi, poet-scientist Gauhar Raza, acclaimed theatre director Feroz Abbas Khan and documentary film-maker Shama Zaidi, amongst others.
Earlier in November, the Delhi Excessive Courtroom closed proceedings on a plea difficult the Rajiv Gandhi authorities’s ban on the ebook’s import.
The Excessive Courtroom said the failure of officers to current the related notification from October 5, 1988 led to the idea that the notification didn’t exist.
To buttress their level, the Muslim discussion board gave the instance of Aligarh Muslim College (AMU) founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s strategy to counter English author William Muir’s controversial ebook in 1861 the place he allegedly made disparaging remarks towards Prophet Mohammad.
“In response, Sir Syed travelled to London to check the books and journals that Muir had relied on and eight years later revealed a reasoned critique debunking Muir’s work,” the assertion mentioned.
The IMSD mentioned Sir Syed’s recommendation to his fellow Muslims way back is all of the extra related in at present’s ‘new India’ the place “minorities are day by day targets of Hindutva’s hate politics”.
“Any ill-advised or hotheaded response to the publication of Satanic Verses – a ebook not many Muslims are more likely to have learn earlier or will learn now — will solely present extra fodder to the Muslim-baiters. In addition to, it should solely give free publicity to the very ebook they need banished,” it added.
Underlining the Structure of India ensures the suitable to freedom of speech together with penal motion towards hate speech, the assertion mentioned that Muslims, or anybody else, have the suitable to be offended by a ebook, cartoon, play or movie and are inside their proper to invoke current provisions of prison regulation to hunt redressal of their grievance. Nonetheless, nobody has the suitable to “silence the offender”.
“A fatwa, firman or name to kill Salman Rushdie, as additionally the demand for a ban on Satanic Verses quantities to simply that: silencing the offender,” it defined.
“The Satanic Verses” confronted intense backlash upon its launch, together with a fatwa issued by Iranian chief Ruhollah Khomeini, which known as for Rushdie’s demise and led to his years in hiding.
The controversy escalated additional with the homicide of his Japanese translator in 1991 and the stabbing of Rushdie in 2022 throughout a lecture.