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The Salman Rushdie Affair (for those in their 30s +)
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TheUrbanMyth



Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired

PostPosted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ya-ta Boy wrote:
At the time, I was on Barnes & Nobles' mailing list because of some previous mail-order book purchases. When the controversy started some book stores announced they were taking Satanic Verses off the shelf to 'protect their sales clerks'. B & N was one of them.

I wrote to them telling them, because of their cowardly decision, I wanted them to remove me from their mailing list. Never bought another book from them.


I bet if you had been one of their sales clerks, you would have appreciated that decision.

But then again it was only other peoples' health and potential safety at risk.
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On the other hand



Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue

PostPosted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Leslie Cheswyck wrote:
On the other hand wrote:
Quote:
Not sure who the "politically-correct" left are


Yeah, I really debated my terminology before posting that. I don't usually use the phrase "politically correct", because I regard it as basically a right-wing buzzword. But I couldn't come up with another term to express the ideological tendency I was trying to get at.


Needn't fuss about it too much; the lefties coined the term themselves in all earnestness.


Yes, I'm aware of that. It was coined by Maoists, I believe. But, in its current usage, it's almost always used, and rather indiscriminately, by right-wingers as a derogatroy term for any and all left-wing ideas about culture.
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On the other hand



Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue

PostPosted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mises wrote:
Wow in the hell would "progressive circles" find offense at the most progressive muslim Canadian around?


Well, from what I understand, the criticism is that she directs her commentary not at Muslims, which is what you'd expect her to do if she was genuinely trying to reform Islam, but rather at the wider society. This gives rise to the impression that what she's really doing is just pandering to anti-Muslim sentiment at large.
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mises



Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired

PostPosted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So she has her books translated into various languages for what reason? To get high-fives from all the Arabic, Farsi, Bahasa, Malay etc speaking islamophobes?

Here are the languages she's translated her book into:

# ARABIC
# FARSI (Persian)
# INDONESIAN (Bahasa Indonesia)
# MALAY
# SLOVENIAN
# URDU


Those 'progressive circles' are the exact equivalent of Eastern Bloc sympathizers of decades past.
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On the other hand



Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue

PostPosted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
So she has her books translated into various languages for what reason?


Fair enough. I'm not neccessarily saying that the criticism of her is justified.
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mises



Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired

PostPosted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I'm not neccessarily saying that the criticism of her is justified.


Oh, I know.
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee



Joined: 25 May 2003

PostPosted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interested wrote:
Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee wrote:
Quote:
Japanese Translator of Rushdie Book Found Slain
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN,
Published: Saturday, July 13, 1991
Japanese translator of "The Satanic Verses," by Salman Rushdie, was found slain today at a university northeast of Tokyo.

The translator, Hitoshi Igarashi, 44 years old, was an assistant professor of comparative culture who reportedly studied in Iran in the 1970's. The police said he was stabbed several times on Thursday night and left in the hallway outside his office at Tsukuba University.

It is the second time this month that someone involved with the production of the novel by Mr. Rushdie, the Indian-born author condemned to death by the Iranian authorities two years ago, has been assaulted. On July 3, Ettore Capriolo, 61, the Italian translator of "The Satanic Verses," was stabbed in his apartment in Milan...



http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/13/world/japanese-translator-of-rushdie-book-found-slain.html?sec=&spon=&&scp=2&sq=Japanese%20Translator%20of%20Rushdie%20Book%20Found%20Slain%20&st=cse


What's the point of this? You haven't discussed your own recollections.

Yes, the Japanese translator was killed. The Norwegian translator was also attacked (but survived). More gruesome than any of this, the hotel where the Turkish translator was staying was set on fire, and although he escaped, 37 others lost their lives.

But what were your thoughts at the time?


My point was it wasn't just threatening words from Iran.

and notice no one anywhere did a anything about it.
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Julius



Joined: 27 Jul 2006

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 1:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember the Rushdie fiasco. Not in any significant detail. My thoughts then were something like..."there's something wrong when an innocent man has to hide away all his life- in a supposedly free and democratic country".

On the other hand wrote:
Here's a friendly interview he did with Irshad Manji, a woman despised among the leftist tendency I was referencing earlier.

http://tinyurl.com/cwdmcx


A nice read. one or two quotes stuck...

Quote:
I mean, what�s a life? That's not much, you know. A book�s much more important.



Quote:
I think the Islamic reformation probably does start in the West and it probably starts with Muslim women.


Quote:
�To win this fight against the fatwa is to win one skirmish in a much greater war.� I emphasize your words, �a much greater war.� You wrote this in 1993 � very prescient, I think. Have you won your skirmish?

SR: The skirmish, yeah. But now I�m afraid the much greater war is upon us.
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On the other hand



Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Joo wrote:

Quote:
My point was it wasn't just threatening words from Iran.

and notice no one anywhere did a anything about it.


Well, what exactly was the world supposed to do about it? Even if we had bombed Iran into smithereens, it wouldn't have stopped the guys who were hellbent on murdering the translators. As far as I know, those assassins were just lone operators, who took it upom themselves to put Khomeini's sentiments into action.
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee



Joined: 25 May 2003

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 5:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

On the other hand wrote:
Joo wrote:

Quote:
My point was it wasn't just threatening words from Iran.

and notice no one anywhere did a anything about it.


Well, what exactly was the world supposed to do about it? Even if we had bombed Iran into smithereens, it wouldn't have stopped the guys who were hellbent on murdering the translators. As far as I know, those assassins were just lone operators, who took it upom themselves to put Khomeini's sentiments into action.


More like Iranian agents. Iran has a record of ordering overseas attacks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mykonos_restaurant_assassinations

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9983810/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapour_Bakhtiar

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1204359.html


They weren't random attacks, they were organized reaching all the way to Japan.

At least you would think they would sanction Iran, condemn Iran at the UN. How about calling for an arms embargo? Nothing was said , nothing was done. In fact after Iran ordered assassinations in Europe , Europe did nothing but recall some ambassadors for a few months.Again nothing was said and nothing was done Remember all during this time Europe was in fact fighting back against US sanctions against Iran. . If you wonder why some have such little faith in the international community , diplomacy, multilateralism and the UN it starts here.

What to do about Iran now? Match them.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/12/INGS6HID5A1.DTL


The US has experience winning cold wars . Engage Iran in a full scale arms race. If the US gives Iran the full Soviet Union treatment , Iran's government will eventually fall under such pressure. The US makes the effort Iran will go down the drain. The US can win after all the US has been through this before.

An arms race is a perfectly legal way of destroying a regime that you don't like.
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On the other hand



Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Joo:

I guess you could be right. But is there any direct evidence that the attacks on the trnaslators were paid for by Iran?
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On the other hand



Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 7:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

An interesting article from The Guardian about the Rushdie affair and its aftermath
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Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee



Joined: 25 May 2003

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

On the other hand wrote:
Joo:

I guess you could be right. But is there any direct evidence that the attacks on the trnaslators were paid for by Iran?


Iran is good at covering stuff up. Notice they never got the guy who carried out the attack in Japan. In fact most of Iran's agents are never caught. That they Japan attacker got away makes it likely that they guy had help. Japan isn't next door to the mid east, if it was just some whack job like the guy who killed the German film director it is likely he would have been caught.

When Iran killed Shapour Bakhtiar he was under heavy protection from the French police and Iran got to him anyway. Not only did Iran get to him his attackers made it out of the country!

It would not be crazy to say Iran's intellegence service is far superior to the Israeli mossad. Israel's guys keep getting caught . But not Iran's, not until after the fact.
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Yu_Bum_suk



Joined: 25 Dec 2004

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 4:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was a teenager at the time. It made me think that Muslims were all a bunch of immoral cowards. It also made someone I had never heard of look like a hero. Fortunately I met enough Muslims who were more liberal minded later on to realise that not all of them are so pathetic, but there's likely nothing Iran could have done to create a worse impression of Islam from my youthful point of view
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bacasper



Joined: 26 Mar 2007

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 5:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Julius wrote:
I remember the Rushdie fiasco. Not in any significant detail. My thoughts then were something like..."there's something wrong when an innocent man has to hide away all his life- in a supposedly free and democratic country".

That was my initial thought, too.

My next thought was that we should be involved with these people as little as possible.
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