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Date: Sat, 03 Nov 2001 16:46:45 -0000
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Subject: Rushdie attacks 'paranoid Islam'
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1634000/1634755.stm
Rushdie attacks 'paranoid Islam'
Salman Rushdie has enraged Muslims in the past
Novelist Salman Rushdie has entered the debate
over the war in Afghanistan by saying world
leaders are wrong to insist that terrorism
and the fight against it were not about Islam.
He pointed to worldwide Muslim demonstrations
in support of Osama Bin Laden as evidence of
a "jumbled, half-examined" version of
Islam among some believers.
The author of the controversial Satanic Verses
argued Islam was being hijacked by political
fanatics and needed to have its own process
of reformation.
And the London-based writer said "paranoid
Islam" was the quickest growing form of
the religion and needed to be opposed
in the Muslim world and the West.
Mr Rushdie has spent years with the threat
of death hanging over him following a "fatwa"
by the now deceased Iranian leader Ayatollah
Khomeni for his novel.
The late revolutionary leader's 1989 religious
decree declared Muslims had a duty to kill
Mr Rushdie for his alleged blasphemy.
Writing in the New York Times, Mr Rushdie said
western leaders were guilty of repeating a
"mantra" that "this war isn't about Islam".
Self-incriminating statements
"The trouble with this necessary disclaimer
is that it isn't true," he wrote.
"If this isn't about Islam why the worldwide
Muslim demonstrations in support of Osama
Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda?"
Mr Rushdie said that for many "believing"
Muslim men, Islam was a "jumbled,
half-examined" cluster of customs and
prejudices.
Radical movements
The writer maintained these included a
loathing of modern society and a fear
of the West's way of life taking over.
"Highly-motivated organisations of Muslim
men have been engaged over the last 30
years or so in growing radical political
movements out of this mulch of belief,"
he said.
"This paranoid Islam, which blames outsider,
'infidels', for all the ills of Muslim
societies and whose proposed remedy is
the closing of those societies to the
rival project of modernity is presently
the fastest growing version of Islam in
the world.
"It would be absurd to deny that this
self-exculpatory, paranoiac Islam is
an ideology with widespread appeal."
Mr Rushdie said many Muslims were beginning
to question this version of Islam after
11 September and whether the Islamic
world, not America and the West, is
largely responsible for its own problems.
But he said the movement was half-hearted
and needed the active encouragement of West.
Another Islam
"I'm reminded of the way non-communist
socialists used to distance themselves
from the tyrannical socialism of the
Soviets; nevertheless, the first stirrings
of this counter-project are of great
significance," he said.
"If Islam is to be reconciled with modernity,
these voices must be encouraged until
they swell into a roar.
"Many of them speak of another Islam,
their personal, private faith.
"If terrorism is to be defeated, the world
of Islam must take on board the
secularist-humanist principles on which
the modern is based, and without which
Muslim countries' freedom will remain
a distant dream."
