Please take a moment to visit and log in at the subscriber area, and
submit your city & country location. We will use this information in
future to invite you to any events that we organize in your area.
The Rushdie Fatwa 25 Years Later
If Rushdie, 66, is alive and well (if not exactly flourishing; his writings deteriorated after The Satanic Verses), many others lost their lives in the disturbances revolving around his book. Worse, the long-term impact of the edict has been to constrain the ability of Westerners freely to discuss Islam and topics related to it, what has come to be known as the Rushdie Rules. Long observation of this topic (including a book written in 1989), leads me to conclude that two processes are underway: First, that the right of Westerners to discuss, criticize, and even ridicule Islam and Muslims has eroded over the years. Second, that free speech is a minor part of the problem; at stake is something much deeper – indeed, a defining question of our time: will Westerners maintain their own historic civilization in the face of assault by Islamists, or will they cede to Islamic culture and law and submit to a form of second-class citizenship? Most analyses of the Rushdie Rules focus exclusively on the growth of Islamism. But two other factors are even more important: Multiculturalism as practiced undercuts the will to sustain Western civilization against Islamist depredations while the Left's making common political cause with Islamists gives the latter an entrée. In other words, the core of the problem lies not in Islam but in the West. (February 14, 2014)
This
text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral
whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date,
place of publication, and original URL.
|
||||||
To subscribe to this list, go to http://www.danielpipes.org/list_subscribe.php
Sign up for related (but non-duplicating)
e-mail services:
Middle East Forum (articles and event reports) Campus Watch (articles, blog posts) Islamist Watch (articles, blog posts) Legal Project (articles, blog posts) at http://www.danielpipes.org/list_subscribe.php |
Friday, February 14, 2014
#1316: "The Rushdie Fatwa 25 Years Later" – Pipes in NRO
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment