Salman Rushdie has dismissed the anti-Islam film at the centre of widespread Muslim protests as “garbage” which, he says, should be ignored.
“The correct response would be to say it is garbage and unimportant. To react with this kind of violence is ludicrously inappropriate,” he told The Sunday Telegraph at the launch of his new book Joseph Anton about his years on the run in the wake of the Iranian fatwa ordering his death for writing The Satanic Verses.
Recalling his own experience of the Muslim rage, Mr. Rushdie said: “What happened to me was a prologue and there will be many, many episodes like it. This [the reaction to the film] is one of those.”
His comments came amid a growing sense that the current protests appeared “organised” — orchestrated by extremists groups taking advantage of the political vacuum in many of these countries.
Notably, there have been no protests in Europe. For once, Muslims here appear to agree with Rushdie that the “garbage” can best be ignored.
