After returning from the first Gulf War, the affair of The Satanic Verses was big in the news. Since it was a banned book, I read it. In it I found my introduction to the Prophet Muhammad as one of the great heroes of history, something I was completely unprepared for. Rushdie is truly not one to cover over big issues, but also not one to demonize others. I see in his analysis of the problem as strongly akin to my own. But just as interesting is his account of growing up in a Muslim family in the Third World, and the attitudes concerning the climate of religious speculation in the Muslim communities of that generation. It is this experience that prevents him from being an Islamophobe, even as he is one of its foremost critics.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 16:54:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015