L'Affaire Rushdiesque and the Muslim Condition:Points to Ponder

L’affaire Rushdiesque and the Muslim Reaction to it

Salman Rushdie, the author who needs no introduction given the notoriety he achieved after writing a novel called,’ Satanic Verses’ is visiting India. This proposed visit has elicited anger and reaction from Indian Muslims who want the government to deny him a visa. This is a bit of a travesty for a variety of reasons. First, it accords inflated importance to a writer who may be brilliant but who has not learned to not to offend the sensibilities of peoples affected by some of his offensive writing. Second, it reflects the fact that notwithstanding the offensive material that he churned, Muslims have only issued fatwa’s in response. There has been no contrapuntal or an effort to rebut the offensive portions from a literary perspective. Or in other words, the author has not been taken on in an idiom that could constitute a sober and a refined literary response. Third, this reflects the abject conditions of Muslims in India at one level and it could be said at the corporate level. Or in other words, the whole affair and saga since the publication of the offensive novel and the permutations and combinations since then until now stands as a metaphor for the Muslim condition: poverty, lack of education, deprivation, and paucity of intellect and the attendant poverty of mind.

The torpor, the ferment and the anomie that defines much of the contemporary Muslim world –whether it be authoritarianism in the Arab Muslim world, the travails of Pakistan, or the structural deprivation of Indian Muslims-stems from this condition. From a corporate level or at the level of the ummah, it perhaps best approximates a condition which Francis Fukuyama , in his book,’ The Origins of Political Order’, calls political decay. That is, roughly speaking a condition where institutions fail to develop (or lag behind) along the lines of change-societal, political and economic. At the level of states where Muslims either constitute a majority like for instance Indonesia, this reflects jaundiced state formation, warped priorities of the state, and the inability of the Muslim state to find that golden mean wherein the state is in equipoise or is equidistant from the Church or established religion. In countries where Muslim’s constitute a significant minority or a simple minority like India, this reflects the disconnect between Muslims and the states they are citizens of. Germane to point out here also is also the structural discrimination they face.

Having said this, it is pertinent to point out or it could be said that most salient reason for the torpor and the decline lies within. That is, within our minds and spirits. Ossification of the once vigorous Muslim traditions and philosophies has naturally and inevitably led to the ossification and rigidity of Muslim societies and countries. This manifests itself in psychic conditions that border on denial, delusions of grandeur and the vain attempts to recover the pristine glory of Islam. Essentially Sysphean endeavors, they take us Muslims on the path of nihilistic violence and then self inflicted injuries on our corporate self. So the question that should be exercising the minds of all Muslims is how can this condition be remedied or even reversed. The answer again lies within. It is exigent that we introspect and look deep within. This introspection needs to be followed by a vigorous attempt at Ijtihad or reform. Reform of our psyches, systems, and especially those ossified bits of some of our traditions that constitute a drag on us. This does not mean challenging the core premises of Islam but challenging and questioning those aspects that are either the work of those who had a vested interest in promoting those aspects of the faith that were essentially gratuitous or superfluous but have over time become mainstream. The reference here is to the mullahs who usually in Islamic history were in thrall to power or in the least were in the same bed. Or other aspects that are apocryphal. This kind and type of reform is eminently possible and even desirable. What is needed is will and determination on part of both lay Muslims and sincere scholars to bring this condition about.

This acquires salience at a time when the Arab Muslim world is waking out of self imposed torpor and is awakening. The need of the hour is to reformulate the idiom in which the Islamic world has perceived and defined itself and engaged with the outside world. A fresh formulation that smells of roses would enable Muslims to reformulate some paradigms and begin looking itself and the world in an idiom that redounds positively for Islam, Muslims and the world. This would be an idiom where Rushdie’s ramblings would be seen just as ramblings and Rushdie be seen as a non entity or a persona non grata across the length and breadth of the Muslim world. Or even better, if there is substantive critique of Islam and Muslims, it be met on the same domain and level. That is, the literary level. Till then, all those who are concerned about the Muslim condition have reasons to be even more concerned. It is about time that we-Muslims of all stripes and hues-make a concerted attempt and align our consciousness to a harmonious, bold and beautiful world and start making, de nouveau, contributions in the world of philosophy, science and technology that would make our forbears proud.