British author Salman Rushdie said the West had failed to grasp the extent to which Islamic extremism was rooted in men's fear of women's sexuality.
| I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that Islam isn't a religion, but a sexual fetish. |
Rushdie told German weekly magazine Stern that his latest novel, "Shalimar the Clown", dealt with the deep anxiety felt among many Islamic men about female sexual freedom and lost honor. When asked if the book drew a link between "Islamic terror and damaged male honor", Rushdie said he saw it as a crucial, and often overlooked, point.
| I think we've pretty much reached concensus here that it is crucial. We probably started arriving at that conclusion when we saw out of the left eye the Islamists jumping up and down and rolling their eyes and waving guns while they hollered about their "dignity and honor," while out the right eye we saw the Arab and Pak husbands/brothers/cousins/relatives/passersby either slaughtering women and girls in horrible manners, or slicing their noses or lips off, or splashing them with acid, or simply beating them to a pulp regularly, also in the name of "honor." Bill Quick, a long time ago, opened the discussion on "honor-shame" cultures, and his observations still remain valid. |
"The Western-Christian world view deals with the issues of guilt and salvation, a concept that is completely unimportant in the East because there is no original sin and no savior," he said, in comments printed in German. "Instead, great importance is given to 'honor'. I consider that to be problematic. But of course it is underestimated how many Islamists consciously or unconsciously attempt to restore lost honor."
| Not to mention the differences in the definitions of "honor." Islamic "honor" is not the same as Western honor. I'd also add for discussion the closely related lack of recognition on the part of proper Islamists of the concept of romantic love... |
When asked why he probed the issues in his new novel in the context of a love triangle, he said: "It has a lot to do with sexual fear of women."
| We're discussing a religion where it's haram for married folks to look at each other's pee-pees... |
Rushdie, 58, said that much of the anger toward the West was provoked by that split on sexual issues. "(It is) because Western societies do not veil their women. Because they do not defuse this potential danger," he said.
| And men aren't expected to be able to deal with the danger. |
The Indian-born Rushdie, who lives in New York with his fourth wife Padma Lakshmi, told Stern that he has lived without security protection for seven or eight years. "I go where I please," he said. "I went to India often in the last few years, which I enjoyed." |