Rushdie, fatwan och läsandet

Jodå, jag har fått Salman Rushdies memoarer, Joseph Anton. Men boken kom så sent som igår, därför med självklarhet ingen recension idag (som är förlagets satta recensionsdatum). Boken kom i brevlådan samtidigt som Nina Bouraouis nya roman Enstörig, poeten Ulrikka S. Gernes nya diktsamling Flosset opus for strygere og blæsere, och en samling inträdestal till Svenska Akademien. Och TLS - för första gången på länge anlände den en måndag.

Danska Politiken skriver idag:

"I dag er det over 23 år siden, Salman Rushdie fik udstedt en fatwa mod sig af det iranske præstestyres ayatollah Khomeini. Nu, netop som forfatteren udgiver en bog om to årtier som dødsdømt, har Sheikh Hassan Sane’ei, lederen af den religiøse, iranske Khordad Foundation, hævet belønningen til den person, der slår ham ihjel. Dusøren er hævet med 500.000 dollar – for at dræbe Rushdie udlover fonden nu 3.300.000 dollar, knap 19 mio. kroner."

Nå, Rushdie då, i väntan på att jag läst memoarerna. Jag saxar från Snaphanen som idag publicerar ett material som inkluderar såväl Rushdie som Hirsi Ali:

Utopian ideologies have a short lifespan. Some are bloodier than others. As long as Islamists were able to market their philosophy as the only alternative to dictatorship and foreign meddling, they were attractive to an oppressed polity. But with their election to office they will be subjected to the test of government. It is clear, as we saw in Iran in 2009 and elsewhere, that if the philosophy of the Islamists is fully and forcefully implemented, those who elected them will end up disillusioned. The governments will begin to fail as soon as they set about implementing their philosophy: strip women of their rights; murder homosexuals; constrain the freedoms of conscience and religion of non-Muslims; hunt down dissidents; persecute religious minorities; pick fights with foreign powers, even powers, such as the U.S., that offered them friendship. The Islamists will curtail the freedoms of those who elected them and fail to improve their economic conditions.

After the disillusion and bitterness will come a painful lesson: that it is foolish to derive laws for human affairs from gods and prophets. Just like the Iranian people have begun to, the Egyptians, Tunisians, Libyans, and perhaps Syrians and others will come to this realization. In one or two or three decades we will see the masses in these countries take to the streets—and perhaps call for American help—to liberate them from the governments they elected. This process will be faster in some places than others, but in all of them it will be bloody and painful. If we take the long view, America and other Western countries can help make this happen in the same way we helped bring about the demise of the former Soviet Union. Muslim Rage & The Last Gasp of Islamic Hate.