Why was there a fatwa against Rushdie?

[Boojatta]

To issue a fatwa and name an author is to draw attention to the author and the author's books.

If you're going to ban a book and then stage protests against the author, then surely the author and title should be unspecified. Protestors are perfectly able to shout, "Down with the unspecified book and whoever wrote it!"

Why would a protestor need to know the book title or the name of the author? A protestor is not going to be borrowing the book from a local library, reading it, writing a book review, and then shouting out lines from the book review. The first step was to ban the book.

[Kagemusha]

1. Uh, you're assuming the followers live in a free country.

In Iran, the local library isn't going to have the book at all to borrow, if the librarian values his life.

[Kutjara]

2. I suppose, if the book were to be unnamed...

...people could accidentally buy it without knowing that the book they purchased was the very one forbidden by the fatwa.

To avoid this unfortunate situation, the fatwa would need to be phrased something like, "We are banning a book the title of which rhymes with "The Titanic Curses" and was written by an author whose first name sort of sounds like a kind of fish, and whose last name seems to be in something of a hurry. Oh, and if you happen to kill the author, we wouldn't be all that upset."

[Boojatta]

3. Why couldn't governments that banned the book have

sent bureaucrats to bookstores and libraries to confiscate all copies of the book? It's unlikely that an owner of a bookstore will continue to buy copies of a book that will continue to be taken away and not paid for.

Also, customs agents could have prevented new copies from entering the country. Surely customs agents don't rely entirely on the news media for their daily instructions.

[Kutjara]

4. Well, part of the fatwa was a death sentence against Rushdie...

...so I presume that naming him and the book was part of the legal wording in which the fatwa was phrased. Something as serious as a death sentence probably has to be spelled out very explicitly.

[Boojatta]

12. Well, copyright law already deters people from "writing"

word-for-word exactly the book that Rushdie already wrote.

How did a death sentence against Rushdie help the authorities in Iran to explicitly spell out what kinds of writing they think should not be published?

[Kutjara]

13. Presumably, because writing the book was the offense for which the...

...death sentence was imposed. Sharia law is just as ruled by precedent and formality as other legal codes. I don't know the specifics of this case, but can imagine that naming the perpetrator and the specific offense they committed are basic requirements.

[Boojatta]

15. It may have been very serious and very legal, but...

Rushdie was not living under Iranian jurisdiction. Does the government of Iran want other countries to use the precedent they have set to pronounce death sentences against Iranian citizens who are living in Iran?

[Kutjara]

17. Many countries have tried people "in absentia..."

...and sentenced them to all kinds of punishments, including death. After that, the problem becomes one of enforcement.

Iran is no different in this regard. While we may abhor their reasons for passing sentence on Rushdie, they haven't really set any new legal precedents in the way they did it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Jeez, what's with the Rushdie obsession?

[riderinthestorm]

7. Yeah cause why the fuck would anyone want to explore the possible rationale

for condemning a guy to death based upon his book?

Nothing to see here? Move along? I mean, wtf is up with labelling that kind of research an "obsession"?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Ahem.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=214x152339

[riderinthestorm]

14. Is this GD thread a response to an R/T post?

Who gives a shit about the whackjobs in R/T? And why then is an R/T post getting dragged in GD?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. That's what I'd like to know.

[alfredo]

11. Reading Silas Marner in high school made me want to go Fatwa on

George Eliot.

[msongs]

6. issued by self-important priest class members to generate cash and power nt

[lvx35]

9. Are you kidding? I bet it was total a total PR victory.

So the book was banned so nobody could read it, and its name? "The Satanic Verses" everybody would have thought that they were being saved from the foulest of satanic literature...If the book was named "Under the gaze of Allah" with the same content, it would have been fine.

[soothsayer]

10. Because his book was really boring and plodding?

[Hekate]

16. Seriously?Rushdie offended theocratic rulers who have power to issue long-distance death sentences

That's why.

Salman Rushdie is a British citizen and the Brits actually went out of their way to protect him for years and years. He went into hiding.

The men who issued the fatwa live in a theocracy and if they believe that God has been blasphemed, their God tells them that the blasphemer should die. It is simply not enough to ensure that "The Satanic Verses" don't enter their country. The blasphemer must pay for his crimes of sin and serve as an example to all who would dare to copy him in any fashion.

That's why.

Hekate

[Boojatta]

19. Is God not blasphemed when a manuscript is written, but

only when it is published? If God is blasphemed when a manuscript is written, then the government of Iran has driven blasphemy underground, where it may flourish.

[Hekate]

22. You will have to consult with extreme fundamentalist Muslim clerics for that answer. nt

[TheBaldyMan]

20. A short history of the Satanic Verses controversy

Salman wrote his interminable novel, giving it a title that was inflammatory.

According to legend, Mohammed was in seclusion having the verses of the Quran dictated to him by God, the devil sometimes came to him unawares and dictated bogus verses to Mohammed hoping to trick him, using his native wisdom Mohammed filtered out these 'Satanic Verses' from the real deal.

That was why muslims got all hot under their keffiyahs. They associated a book with that title, especially one written by an infidel Hindu, to be disrespectful to the Prophet.

[porphyrian]

21. It was the defense mechanism of a threatened meme made manifest. - n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Even protests that don't specify the name of the object of the protest

can end up backfiring - as shown in this searing Irish documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mmge8nfsyg

"Down with this sort of thing! Careful now!"