Salman Rushdie: Paradise postponed
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/interviews/article311189.ece
Rushdie's new novel is set in the beautiful but ravaged Kashmir, once
home to his peace-loving grandfather. He tells Boyd Tonkin how few
parts of the world are immune to violent extremism
Published: 09 September 2005
History will not leave Salman Rushdie, or his characters, alone. The
evening before our interview, the London suicide bomber Mohammed
Sidique Khan had spoken from beyond the grave via al-Jazeera to impose
- in the homespun tones of Dewsbury - a sentence of atrocious death on
any soul who chooses to live in the land of the democratic infidels.
These days, we may all have a fatwa hanging over us, and the nine years
of solitary dread inflicted on Rushdie by Iranian ayatollahs after 1989
has turned out to be the private hors d'oeuvre to an all-comers' feast
of hatred and horror.
So, if anyone does, Rushdie has the right to deliver a few choice words
on the British policy of sheltering the champions of jihadi militancy.
Today - in a book-lined room at the top of his agent's office in a
Georgian square - he is not mincing them. To allow the entrenchment of
"Londonistan" as a "safe haven" for death-worshipping extremists was "a
historical mistake". He recalls: "In the days when I had to be quite
involved in campaigning against the fatwa, I would hear this all over
Europe. Why do the British tolerate these people hanging out in England
when clearly they are the worst people in the world? They took the
decision for the absurd reason that they thought it would defend
England against attacks... That just went out of the window, didn't it?
It was always a dumb idea."
Salman Rushdie
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.atheism/msg/232fc861544868b0
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