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.
of course the film is a garbage. most people would have just ignored it as amateurish attempt to gain some notoriety. But ironically, muslims have proved the point that crazy film maker was at great pain to show. the message of the film was that the prophet was preaching a false and violent religion. the violent reactions in the muslim world just vundicated the violent part.
Sentiments of a billion Muslims are hurt by this film, which even the UN
has condemned as hateful and deliberately designed to sow bigotry and
bloodshed. Yet this author of "Joseph Anton" (a biography in the third
person) perhaps feels like a European Chistian pedagogue to convey his
ideally correct response.
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