| Submit your comments on this article |
| Arabia |
| Compare Moslem Reactions to Rushdie and to Bin Laden |
| 2004-09-11 |
| From MEMRI, an article titled "We Are All Bin Laden" by Dr. Sa'd Bin Tefla, former Kuwaiti Minister of Information, now a journalist, originally published in the London daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. .... Does anyone among us remember Salman Rushdie? Salman Rushdie was an anonymous British author of Indian origin. In 1988 he won a prize for a vapid novel titled The Satanic Verses. .... We rattled and sharpened all of our rhetorical sabers, our religious legal rulings [fatwa], [alerted] our guards, our ports, our airports, and our border crossings in order to prevent his entering [our countries] and the distribution of his book, since it does damage to Islam. In all the capitals of the Islamic world protests set out for the British embassies, Salman Rushdie dolls were burnt, as were copies of his books. In one protest in Pakistan nine protestors were killed and [others] were injured by the Pakistani police
Religious legal rulings were disseminated one after another banning Salman Rushdie's book and calling for him to be killed. Iran earmarked a reward of one million dollars for whoever would implement Imam Khomeini's fatwa and kill Salman Rushdie. Our impoverished publishing houses reacted by printing books and pamphlets refuting the [book's] contents, despite the fact that it was banned in all the capitals of the Muslim world. There were those who read reactions, refutations, and rebuttals of the book without ever having read or familiarized themselves with its contents! There were those who lay in wait for Salman Rushdie in order to kill him, desiring in this way to get closer by [Rushdie's] blood to Allah [in heaven], or out of desire for the million dollars that Iran had earmarked at the time. The British authorities raised the level of security surrounding Salman Rushdie, who became very famous on account of the fact that an entire nation had decided to assassinate him. Where are the Fatwas Against Bin Laden? Despite the fact that bin Laden murdered thousands of innocents in the name of our religion and despite the damage that he has caused to Muslims everywhere, and especially to innocent Muslims in the West whose life is much better than the life of Muslims in Islamic lands, to this date not a single fatwa has been issued calling for the killing of Bin Laden .... But let us put aside the [subject of the] fatwa. Have any protests been held condemning bin Laden's actions in any of the Islamic capital cities? Perhaps there were some that demonstrated in his favor. The [Muslim] satellite stations competed amongst themselves in broadcasting his sermons and fatwas, instead of preventing their dissemination as they did in the case of Rushdie's book. Have we earmarked a reward for anyone who kills bin Laden as we did for anyone who kills Rushdie on account of his book? .... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #4 How the hell do non clerics issue Fatwas. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-09-12 12:06:34 AM |
| #3 We gotta dig a little into history and check out what his (Dr. Sa’d Bin Tefla, former Kuwaiti Minister of Information) views were pre 9/11 when Israel bashing was in fashon. I mean my point is that all these attempts by these so called moderates are so hollow you can see right through them. with the Police state they run in Kwait and all the Arab countries I dont believe that they didnt know what was cooking but they stayed quiet. Now they are covering up mind you not accepting responsibility just covering up. |
| Posted by: Fawad 2004-09-11 11:24:09 PM |
| #2 He's a journalist, he doesn't have the right to issue a fatwa. |
| Posted by: Mr Gray 2004-09-11 11:11:25 PM |
| #1 Why didnt he issue one. Fucking hippocrate. |
| Posted by: Fawad 2004-09-11 10:27:11 PM |