Nightwaves
I’ve transcribed a few bits of the Satanic Verses Nightwaves.
Kenan Malik talked about how different things were twenty years ago, and about the myth that all Muslims were offended by The Satanic Verses. Twenty years ago radicals didn’t identify themselves as Muslim or even Asian, they were black, and that was a political term. But that was then.
When people talk about ‘radical’ in the Islamic context now, what they mean is usually somebody who is religiously fundamentalist; twenty years ago, it meant the very opposite, somebody who was militantly secular, somebody like me; so that whole thing has shifted completely now in the past 20 years.
Jo Glanville of Index on Censorship talked about The Jewel of Medina, and Denise Spellberg’s intervention, and Random House’s instant capitulation.
One of the extraordinary things in their decision was the reason they gave for not publishing; one was the fear of causing offense, but the other was they said that its publication might incite violence, and I thought that was such an extraordinary statement to make, and to show the mindset of a publisher today; you can compare it with Penguin and the position that they took at the time when they had all sorts of threats being made against themselves – to essentially say, not ‘there might be people who might react with violence’ but ‘this book itself might incite violence’ and I think that whole affair really encapsulated the journey that we’ve been on.
Priyamvada Gopal, while defending free speech for all kinds of writing, also made a distinction between Rushdie’s novel on the one hand and the Motoons and The Jewel of Medina on the other.
There are fundamentalisms of different kinds, and we must think about the relationship between discourses of purity, whether they are Western, race-based discourses of purity or Islamic fundamentalist religious discourses of purity – it’s asking us to think – and I would as a literary critic make a distinction between books that invite us to think in complex ways and works that are in some sense intended to titillate or provoke, although I would stand by the right of all of them to be published.
Jo Glanville made another good point.
I think what I’m most concerned about or disturbed by in this argument about offense is the demand that we respect. That we respect religion and we see the United Nations Human Rights Council calling for it, we saw the UN Secretary General calling for it, and actually the only thing that’s going to work is tolerance, not respect, and I think in a plural society that is what we have to push for.
I want to be Jo Glanville’s new best friend.
Excellent and interesting post.
I dont have a problem to respect ideologues, religious bigots, neo-progressives, socio-freeloaders, the petit-bourgeois, or the postmodern leftists. I will even respect Islam.
I will give respect to all of the above.
But first, the “respect must be earned”. ;-)
I will tolerate other people’s views (one sense of “respect”) but I will not obey them (the sense that is being called for).
This is a distinction that needs mainstreaming as soon as possible. Possibly some sort of poster on a bus. ;-)
Bollocks, OB, I hadn’t realised this was on and now I see it only has a day to go. There was also a programme on the Archive Hour Radio 4 re the Sat Ver.
People moan about the BBC but when they put on programmes like this I think my £11 per month has been put to very good use.
I did put it in News a few days ago, Rosie!
:- )
Yes, props to the Beeb for these; Start the Week is also good on the subject. I plan to transcribe some of that as well.
Great idea dirigible, put it on the bus:
“I would love to respect your beliefs – but respect has to be earned.”
heh heh
Yes, Jo Glanville is quite right. Respecting someone’s right to hold a worldview, or just a view, does not imply that one should respect the view itself. Vide Voltaire.
Historically clerics have overwhelmingly used the political power or influence they hold to attempt to put stop the growth of any critical or contrary worldviews, and I cannot think of a single example where this has not been the case, though I am happy to be corrected on it if I am wrong.
The power of mediaeval Christianity was an evil blight that Europe might be finally managing to shed, down to its last vestiges. Here’s hoping. The power of mediaeval Islam is unforturtunately still roraring along in top gear. One of the reasons I am reluctant to respect Islam is that I have seen firsthand what it can do to people under its influence. To paraphrase Martin Luther King, I have been to the mountain, and I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Unpromising Land.
Ian – modified bus slogan:
“I respect you to hold a belief – but for me to respect that belief, it would have to be earned.”
A little long winded.
It’s really not bus slogan material. Not many ideas worth thinking about are.
You talk piss?
I diss!
Snort!
Well done!