Disturbing to learn of the attack on 75 year old novelist, Salman Rushdie, in broad daylight, by a 24 year old fanatic. As some might recall, Rushdie went into hiding over 3 decades ago, after publishing his infamous novel Satanic Verses -- which was regarded as blasphemous by to the Muslim authority by Iran and resulted in a fatwa being issued against his life and a $3 million bounty placed on his head.
One had hoped this would be relegated to distasteful history and that Rushdie, who I got to meet at a book signing some years ago, could resume his life.
Yet, we learn from his agent that the unfortunate author will likely lose an eye, nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged.
And, of course, Islam's good name will, once again, be smeared on account of the vile coward who attacked him claiming to be a 'devout Muslim.'
Yesterday, when this horrible news broke, I was in disbelief, hardly process the daily violence, having just learned of FBI attack and the shootings, shootings, shootings in the US, every day... Heaven help us.
Then, again, at the risk of sounding cynical, I ask myself, why should I be surprised by this latest example of fanaticism. It’s the young, misguided by corrupt elders, that are most susceptible to this hateful violence.
In the US, too…
Dumbfounded and searching for the right words, I quote Rushdie:
A poem cannot stop a bullet. A novel can’t defuse a bomb … But we are not helpless
A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.
Difficult when people are rightly outraged to speak with subtlety on this slippery subject. But, the challenge is to see these murderous fanatics as our own shadow… If we lived beautifully, lovingly, luminously, generously, they would cease to exist/thrive .
As it is, these fanatics do not leave us, alone, because we do not live, correctly, and are selfish and violent and hateful ourselves.
Painful as it is to consider, we are responsible for our enemies; the truly free have no enemy.
Such is the world we live in. Pity it takes a moment to destroy what it takes a lifetime to create…