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The Scribe, the Pharisees, and Us
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16421 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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5 / 1989 |
2,476 Words |
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Robert Royal
Robert Royal is a vice president at the Center for Ethics and
Public Policy. |
In one of the most controversial chapters of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, a young satirical writer living at the time of the founding of Islam is threatened by a cynical Middle Eastern politician. The politician collects revenues from temples dedicated to the 360 gods and goddesses worshiped in the city Jahilia and stands to lose a lot of money and power if Mohammed carries out a monotheistic revolution. Under pressure, the writer agrees to use his gifts to discredit the Prophet. The scene ends with the politician planning the death of the writer after he has outlived his usefulness: "Here's a great lie, thinks the Grandee of Jahilia drifting into sleep: the pen is mightier than the sword."
To judge by the reactions in some quarters to the publication of the book, some people seem to see this as an unintentional allegory about Rushdie's life. Ahmed Jabril, of the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, announced his intention to kill Rushdie, who, he said, was being used by "Western forces" to destroy Islam. In Iran, government spokesmen scoffed at what they regarded as Britain's hypocritical defense of Rushdie's right to publish, even though the British conceded the book was deeply offensive to Muslims. But in spite of these reactions, the political intentions of the various actors are not at all as clear in the real world as they are in Rushdie's fiction.
When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued his death warrant against Rushdie, he may have been calculating the gains to himself within Iran and throughout the Arab world. He may also have been personally stung by the novel's portrait of a bloodthirsty Imam in exile (as Khomeini once was) who uses for propaganda purposes a former pop singer (Cat
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