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Be careful with Muhammad: the Salman Rushdie affair
322
Book reviews
but grounded in the spiritual discourse). Unfortunately while this book, and other collections--most notably by Ziauddin Sardar--continue the work of Islamic revitalization, of Islamic reconstruction, the voices presented by these thinkers generally remain unheard by the rest of the carriers of the Islamic code as they remain bounded by the nation-state and ancient dynastic conflicts. But one can learn from books such
as Beyond Frontiers and other reconstruction efforts. One can hope for an intercivilizational dialogue, not necessarily between Islam and the West but between Islam and other non-western traditions, premodern and emerging postmodern. This alternative dialogue might be richer then merely the dialogue between Islam and a dying modern world whose lifeline of profit keeps it terminally alive.
How shall we talk about Rushdie? Bhikhu Parekh Letter to Christendom Rana Kabbani 70 pages, £3.99 (London, Virago Press,1989) Be Careful with Muhammad: the Salman Rushdie Affair Shabbir Akhtar 136 pages, £6.95 (London, Bellew, 1989) Distorted Imagination: Lessons from the Rushdie Affair Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies vii + 304 pages, £14.95 (London, Grey Seal, 1990) At a rough count the Rushdie affair has attracted about 30 major articles and seven books in English. About one-third of the authors are Muslims, and the rest belong to most major religions or to none. As one would expect, a sizeable number of writers originate in the Indian subcontinent. Like the protesting Muslims, the subcontinental intellectuals, many of them now settled in the West, feel deeply engaged with Rushdie and The Satanic Verses. Since he is one of them and has written about them, they feel they understand the pool of experiences upon which he draws better than Professor Bhikhu Parekh can be contacted at 211 Victoria Avenue, Hull HU5 3EF, UK.
others, and are hermeneutically privileged to decode the cultural grammar of the book. In their disciplinary allegiances many writers on the Rushdie affair are students of literature or religion; the rest cover such assorted disciplines as history, political theory and sociology. While a small number of them defend The Satanic Verses and have developed an interesting apologetic discourse grounded in the liberal tradition, most are critical of it. While the latter too sometimes draw upon some strands of liberalism, they generally draw inspiration from other traditions. Thanks to the diversity of religious, ideological and disciplinary backgrounds, the critical discourse on the Rushdie affair is a m~lange of discourses, each participant drawing on a different tradition of discourse and using its conceptual tools to reconstruct and explore a specific aspect of the affair. The discourse is rendered even more heterogeneous by the fact that the Rushdie affair touches on several issues, most of which had been on the public agenda long before it burst on the scene and had their own more or less developed forms of discourse. The Rushdie affair has provided them a point of convergence, a shared public site, and brought them into a common dialogue.
FUTURES April 1991
Book reviews
but grounded in the spiritual discourse). Unfortunately while this book, and other collections--most notably by Ziauddin Sardar--continue the work of Islamic revitalization, of Islamic reconstruction, the voices presented by these thinkers generally remain unheard by the rest of the carriers of the Islamic code as they remain bounded by the nation-state and ancient dynastic conflicts. But one can learn from books such
as Beyond Frontiers and other reconstruction efforts. One can hope for an intercivilizational dialogue, not necessarily between Islam and the West but between Islam and other non-western traditions, premodern and emerging postmodern. This alternative dialogue might be richer then merely the dialogue between Islam and a dying modern world whose lifeline of profit keeps it terminally alive.
How shall we talk about Rushdie? Bhikhu Parekh Letter to Christendom Rana Kabbani 70 pages, £3.99 (London, Virago Press,1989) Be Careful with Muhammad: the Salman Rushdie Affair Shabbir Akhtar 136 pages, £6.95 (London, Bellew, 1989) Distorted Imagination: Lessons from the Rushdie Affair Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies vii + 304 pages, £14.95 (London, Grey Seal, 1990) At a rough count the Rushdie affair has attracted about 30 major articles and seven books in English. About one-third of the authors are Muslims, and the rest belong to most major religions or to none. As one would expect, a sizeable number of writers originate in the Indian subcontinent. Like the protesting Muslims, the subcontinental intellectuals, many of them now settled in the West, feel deeply engaged with Rushdie and The Satanic Verses. Since he is one of them and has written about them, they feel they understand the pool of experiences upon which he draws better than Professor Bhikhu Parekh can be contacted at 211 Victoria Avenue, Hull HU5 3EF, UK.
others, and are hermeneutically privileged to decode the cultural grammar of the book. In their disciplinary allegiances many writers on the Rushdie affair are students of literature or religion; the rest cover such assorted disciplines as history, political theory and sociology. While a small number of them defend The Satanic Verses and have developed an interesting apologetic discourse grounded in the liberal tradition, most are critical of it. While the latter too sometimes draw upon some strands of liberalism, they generally draw inspiration from other traditions. Thanks to the diversity of religious, ideological and disciplinary backgrounds, the critical discourse on the Rushdie affair is a m~lange of discourses, each participant drawing on a different tradition of discourse and using its conceptual tools to reconstruct and explore a specific aspect of the affair. The discourse is rendered even more heterogeneous by the fact that the Rushdie affair touches on several issues, most of which had been on the public agenda long before it burst on the scene and had their own more or less developed forms of discourse. The Rushdie affair has provided them a point of convergence, a shared public site, and brought them into a common dialogue.
FUTURES April 1991