Post date: Jan 24, 2012 12:33:27 PM
Muslims in India's northwestern Rajasthan state protest provincial government's decision to allow acclaimed author Salman Rushdie to address literary festival via video link, adding that the controversial writer hurt the sentiments of their community in his 1989-banned book 'Satanic Verses'.
JAIPUR, RAJASTHAN, INDIA (JANUARY 24, 2012) (ANI) - Muslims in India's northwestern Rajasthan state protest provincial government's decision to allow acclaimed author Salman Rushdie to address literary festival via video link, adding that the controversial writer hurt the sentiments of their community in his 1989-banned book 'Satanic Verses'.
The organisers of the Jaipur Literary Festival confirmed the participation of the author Salman Rushdie at the event on Tuesday (January 24).
Earlier, Rushdie had cancelled his visit to the festival due to assassination threats.
The protestors said that they were apprehensive about Rushdie repeating the same mistake he committed years ago and brew a fresh controversy once again. .
"We are saying that yesterday the organisers had said that there will be no video conferencing with Rushdie, we are glad that he didn't come and the festival took place in a good atmosphere. We also congratulated them. Now, they have bluffed us by changing their decision and engaging Rushdie in the festival through an alternative method. He could hurt the sentiments of the people in the same way like he did earlier. We are doubtful and we feel that he is a criminal who ahs hurt the sentiments of crores of people by misusing his right to expression, then why are the organisers giving him so much importance? There are many more acclaimed literary figures in the world, why is so much importance being given to one man?" said Mohammad Nazir, a protestor.
The Jaipur Literature Festival's invitation to Rushdie, whose 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" is banned in India, sparked protests from some Muslim groups, who said he had offended their religious sentiments.
The protestors voiced their opinion that the man was uniformly opposed by the entire community and was looked down upon for his alleged misdeeds.
"Our protest is simple. He is one man who is opposed by the entire Muslim community across the world, since he has insulted Islam and has written wrong things about Prophet in his book Satanic Verses. We would not like to see such a man in Jaipur. For the last 15 days, there have been agitations related to his visit to India, so that he should not come. Basically and principally, our government, cops and administration, commissioner had agreed and we had several meetings regarding our mass agitations," said Sheikh Hussain, a protestor.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Muslim Personal Law Board of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state, Kamal Farooqui, asserted that he had no qualms about Rushdie participating in the festival, but he expected the author to follow certain decorum.
"As far as we are concerned, we have absolutely no issue and we hope that Salman Rushdie will behave properly and good sense will prevail on him because he should indulge in any kind of talk, which will hurt the feeling or aggravate the whole thing or which will again create animosity between the people. So, we hope that this time, he will behave properly and he is already writing lot of books, we have no issue ion that. In fact, he is not serving the cause of the literary fraternity and he is trying to make himself a hero out of a Satan," said Farooqui.
Political parties are seen as unwilling to lend their support to the author for fear of offending Muslim voters ahead of an important state election in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, next month.
The five-day festival, which concludes on Tuesday, has attracted over 70,000 visitors and featured best-selling authors such as Richard Dawkins, Tom Stoppard and Michael Ondaatje, and global television superstar Oprah Winfrey.