Writer Salman Rushdie: “Free Palestine would be a Taliban state”
May 19, 2024
Martyrs of freedom: Writer Salman Rushdie has been threatened with death by Islamists for decades. In 2022, a man attacked him life-threatening with the knife, stabbed him with the right eye. Now Rushdie presented his book “Knife” in Berlin, in which he processes the murder attempt in a literary way.
No writer in the world is as threatened as Salman Rushdie (76) – and has been for more than three and a half decades! In 1988, Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khomeini (1902-1989) imposed a death fatwa based on Sharia against the British-Indish author because he allegedly insulted Islam with his book “The Satanic Verses”.
Since then Rushdie can no longer live freely, everywhere in the world has to expect to be attacked by Islamists. In 2022, exactly that happened: A 24-year-old jihadist attacked him in the USA with a knife, stabbed his right eye. Rushdie barely survived. In Berlin, he now presented his book “Knife”, which was published by the Penguin publishing house in April and in which he processes the murder attempt in literature.
Despite persistent death threats, Rushdie does not think of being forbidden to think, write and say.
This is also evident in the interview that the “rbb24” now led with the writer and in which he expresses himself as a conflict in the Middle East, and also on the anti-Israeli protests at American and European universities.
“I think the demonstrators could mention Hamas”
“The fact is that every ordinary person can only be shaken about what is happening in Gaza, about the extent of innocent deaths,” says Rushdie very clearly.
And complements what bothers him: “I think the demonstrators could mention Hamas. Because with them all this began. And Hamas is a terrorist organization. And it is strange that a young progressive student policy supports a fascist terrorist group, because they do so in a way.”
“They demand free Palestine – liberate Palestine. I was for my own Palestinian state most of my life,” explains Rushdie. “But if there were a Palestinian state now, it would be led by Hamas and we would have a Taliban-like state. A satellite state of Iran. Is this what the progressive movements of the Western left want to create?”
The writer states: “There are not many deep thoughts on this, but above all an emotional reaction to the dead in Gaza. That’s ok. But if it slides into anti-Semitism and sometimes even in support for Hamas, it will be problematic.”
“They demand free palestine – liberate Palestine. I was for my own Palestinian state most of my life,” explains Rushdie. “But if there were a Palestinian state now, it would be led by Hamas and we would have a Taliban-like state. A satellite state of Iran. Is this what the progressive movements of the Western left want to create?”
The writer states: “There are not many deep thoughts on this, but above all an emotional reaction to the dead in Gaza. That’s ok. But if it slides into anti-Semitism and sometimes even in support for Hamas, it will be problematic.”
“Of fifteen injuries, fourteen are healed quite well”
Asked about his health, Rushdie replies: “I am surprisingly fine. Of fifteen injuries, fourteen are quite well healed. The mobility in my left hand is almost completely restored. Only my right eye will no longer be, the knife stab was too deep. That’s the worst for me, I hate it.”
Does he think of the attacker?
“Always less. But I can only really stop thinking about him when the legal issues are all resolved and he has been condemned. I need his sentence to be able to conclude. But in everyday life I don’t think much about him anymore. I think I got rid of him writing this book by dealing with him. The crucial thing is that he is in prison, [where] he belongs. And I am free, I belong there.”
More from the Berlin interview:
You regret in some places that you have caught up with the assassination attempt to catch up with the past. What does your life look like?
Well, right now I’m on a reading journey. This feels quite familiar, because I have been doing it for almost my whole life, so certainly for 50 years. But due to the corona pandemic and the injuries resulting from the attack, I have not been on a reading journey for five or six years. Being on the road has almost some nostalgic and I enjoy it.
Of course, we have to be more careful again than before. But caution is not the same as fear. The security measures concern the performances in public places. My private life actually goes on as before. I have also been dealing with these things for almost 35 years and are therefore unfortunately familiar with it. I know how to handle it.
Unfortunately, I cannot say anything about this, I do not know about the current situation in Germany. But it seems to be a universal problem.
What are you thinking about the situation in the USA?
I teach at New York University, where there were also student protests, but not as violent as in the Columbia, and I have a divided opinion on this. On the one hand, students have the right to demonstrate. In my generation, our protests were directed against the Vietnam War. It is important to protect this freedom.
But it is also necessary to ensure that other students do not feel insecure by the fact that the protests slide into an anti-Semitic discourse, which has happened in many cases. It is therefore very difficult to balance that. The different university administrations have thus handled differently, some better, some worse. Armed police to let go to students is not such a good idea, I think, but on the other hand it is not a good idea to occupy and damage college buildings.
The fact is that every normal person can only be shaken by what is happening in Gaza, about the extent of innocent deaths. But I think that the demonstrators could mention Hamas. Because with them all this began. And Hamas is a terrorist organization. And it is strange that a young progressive student policy supports a fascist terrorist group, because they do in such a way. They demand “free palestine,” liberates Palestine.
I was most of my life for my own Palestinian state. Already since the 1980s. But if there were a Palestinian state now, it would be led by Hamas and we would have a Taliban-like state. A satellite state of Iran. Is this what the progressive movements of the Western left want to create? There are not many deep thoughts on this, but above all an emotional reaction to the dead in Gaza. That’s ok. But if it slides into anti-Semitism and sometimes even in support for Hamas, it becomes problematic.
In Germany, there [were] just three state elections, the right-wing party AfD is[doing well in the polls]. There have been some attacks on politicians and election campaigners recently. The SPD politician Matthias Corner was suppressed, others were intimidated, [shouted down], insulted, posters were smeared. Even if you are not familiar with the situation in Germany, but in general: Where does this radicalisation come from? And why are politicians so often targeted by hatred?
Well, the whole world has become a place ready for violence. A life seems to be worth less today. It seems that it is more imaginable today than become more imaginable to physically attack someone. There is a global decline of civilization. I don’t know what I’m looking forward to Germany, but I’ve just been in France and I’ve heard that young right-wing extremists leaders are on the rise and very popular. And it seems possible that young voters vote to the extreme right.
If the world changes in this, we have a real problem. You know, I was 21 years old in 1968 and we thought the world would change for the better and that certain problems – like those we are talking about here – belonged to the past. It is quite disturbing to see how wrong we were. We were wrong and it is somehow our fault.
Nevertheless, in your book you call yourself an optimist and see it as your best and your worst side. How do you think that?
Sometimes you just feel stupid about being optimistic if there is actually nothing that could make you optimistic. That’s why Voltaire’s novel “Candide” has become a classic, because Candide remains optimistic when there is no reason for it. He acts as an idiot, and as such he is presented to us. A part of me feels like an idiot because it remains hopeful. But I know from my history studies that history is not predictable. History has nothing inevitable. It does not inevitably follow the path that seems to be determined to it. It can change again very quickly.
In “Knife” you say that you had the feeling that you first had to write the book in order to leave the assassination behind and to put yourself back into the same way, to create fiction. Do you already have a new novel in the works?
I’m not yet. I wrote a little story after I finished with “Knife”. And I don’t really know what to do with it. There are 65 pages so far. I leave the text lying now until I have finished “Knife”, then I dedicate myself to him again. I have written two books in the last two years. I don’t know which book comes to me next, but I never know.
Thank you for the interview!
The interview with Salman Rushdie was conducted by Nadine Kreuzahler for rbb24 Inforadio.
Not a very good translation is it?
Which machine translator did it?