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A Bit of This and a Bit of That: Rushdie's NewnessAuthor(s): Qadri IsmailSource: Social Text, No. 29 (1991), pp. 117-124Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/466302.

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118 Rushdie's ewnessIt is about losingtheground eneathyourfeet:theplace ofyourbirth

and the faith fyourprophet.Mostly,theformer.)About the mpact fsuchmigration:he oss of dentityndcertainties,and the searchforreplacements.t is abouttheracismofwhiteBritons:towards,mostly,Muslimsouth Asians. Abouthow- and this s raised,rather thanexplored if cultures "leak" into one another, nstead ofimposingone upon the other s theynow do, new and hopefullybettercultures,better nd more tolerablewaysof life,could come intobeing.It is an act offaith, plea forhybridity,profoundlyecularwork.And it is aboutthe oss offaith; pecifically,slam. To that xtent t isa critiqueof faith.Andof Islam.But thethrust f the text s notanti-Islam.The straightjacketariantdominant n some partsof theMuslim worldtoday,fundamentalism,swhatbothersRushdie.Onlytwo scenes in the bookdeal with ontempo-rary slam- thedescription ftheexiled imam ndof the ndianmysticwho tookherfollowers nto thesea- and they ook at despoticuses ofit. The sequences in the book thatMuslims ustifiablyfind offensivewhere Muhammad s called Mahound,whereMahoundand god are com-pared to businessmen,whereSalman the scribe tamperswith theholyrevelation,where Islam is described as having"damn rules forevery-thing," he use of the "satanicverses,"mostof all wherewhores ake onthe namesofMuhammad'swives- should be understood s thewhyofsomeonewho is unableto believe.

Questiontwo: Who all is the book for?Did Rushdie writefor heWest, s many fhiscriticsfrom heMuslimworld would have it?Onlyfor Western udience?Did he not want thebookread elsewhere?Did histhemesneverreverberate positively inother ocieties?Yes theydid. Hear thiscryof an unknown akistani, nonymousetterwriter o the London Observerat theheight f thecontroversy.SalmanRushdiespeaks formeinTheSatanic Verses, nd mine s a voice thathasnotyetfoundexpression n newspaper olumns. t is the voice of thosewho are born Muslims but wish to recant in adulthood,yet are notpermittedo do so on pain ofdeath.""I knowthisman,"saysAbdullah.You do?"Ya. Not thename,the character. haveknownhimall my ife."The one who mustbe anonymous ontinued. So we hold ourtongues,those of us who doubt. Call it cowardice or hypocrisy, actor appease-ment,we bury urheads in thesand...""Then along comes Rushdieand speaks forus. Tells theworld thatweexist- thatwe are notsimply merefabrication f some Jewish onspir-acy. He ends our isolation."

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Qadrismail 119This wretchedersons a westernizedouthAsian.Thesubcontinent,

populated ymore han billion, as a substantial inorityfpeople ikehim.Like me. Call us whatyouwill secularists,nti-fundamentalists,humanists.fforno oneelse,SalmanRushdie t least pokefor s.Andwe havebeen hemost ilent or hepast woyears.fwe continuethuswemay ose the rgument,fnot hebattle, ydefault."Yes Yes Yes " interjects bdullah heunmerciful.It is hightimeyou explained ourself.our ilencehas a price "Andquestionhree:What osayabout hefusspotswhonow eemtohavewon)?Simply his. understandheir rief,ut hey redangerous.

IIOneyear fter homeini's atwah,alman efendednd describedhebook,reactedo the ontroversyhus: Thosewho ppose henovelmostvociferouslyoday re of theopinion hatnterminglingith differentculturewill inevitably eaken ndruin heir wn. am oftheoppositeopinion. heSatanicVerses elebrates ybridity,mpurity,ntermingling,

thetransformationhat omesof new andunexpectedombinationsfhumanbeings,cultures, deas, politics,movies, ongs.It rejoicesinmongrelisationnd fears heabsolutism f the Pure.Melange,hotch-potch,a bit of thisand a bit ofthat s hownewness enters heworld."Thestrengthf hisargument,tsnewness,iesin his refusal o excusethe yatullahsfthis arth,o makedistinctionsetween he ntoleranceof the slamic undamentalistndthat fthewhite acist.n his nsistencethat igotrys bigotry,nd must e so identified,hethert comesfromthe oppressor,"rfromhe oppressed." nfashionable,erhaps.Whichis whymany rom he efthaven't efendedim.Butnecessary.ecausenot to do so would be to valorizeoppressed roups, resent hem sperfect.Whereas he task s to criticallycrutinize heoppressed oo,perhapsvenmore arefully.Salman Rushdie s partof a new and differenteneration f ex-colonised.Theprevious eneration its mmediateontradictioneingwith he olonialpower definedtselfnoppositiono ts former as-ters. tspolitics,tsgenerational issionnFranzFanon's ense,was torediscoverollectiveelf-respect.hathas beenmore r essdone.

Wehave, hisnascent eneration,ore r ess cometo terms ith urpast,have excavated nd are excavatingt from hedungeons f theorientalist-colonizers.ow,we demand present, equire tates andsocio-political systems n which we can fulfillourselves. And are notcontentwith ayingthe whole blame on imperialism nd its legacy, anunfairworldsystem.We have a complex awareness of ourplight.Realize the contributionof colonialismtoourpresentdilemmas which have been worsenedby

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120 Rushdie's ewnessneocolonialisteconomic and otherrelations.But we are also disturbed,perhapseven moreso, bytheresponsibilityfourownruling lasses forourdistress.For this even at the risk ofbeingusedbytheneo-imperi-alists- we are notprepared oapologise.Abdullah the ctivistfeelsstronglyn the ubject."Say that fter eingfucked-upby the colonialists we are fed up of being fucked-upby ourown. This is thequestion Are we to react to theayatullahswithpolitelanguage?Withplease and excuse mesir? Withbut-with-all-due-respect-I-must-humbl-disagree?"

A fundamentalistamplerfrom outhAsia:As a result fviolent lashes with heregion's majority amils n 1985,theminorityMuslims of the EasternProvince of Sri Lanka establishedmilitiasfor heir elf-defense.Muslimsare sevenpercentthepopulationofthe sland,butform third f thepopulace ofthe ast.) Naseer,23, wasleaderof one suchgroup, alled Hizb-al-Islam. methim fteryet notherTamil-Muslimbloodfest nd asked whathis organisation toodfor.He lookedme intheface,said without heslightest aint f rony: Wewill workto achieve an Islamic state nSri Lanka. Even if ttakesus onethousandyears.""This man s no laughingmatter,"aysAbdullah,suppressing smile."He is thedeadlyserioustype."InRajiv Gandhi'sCongress-must-be-careful-not-to-upset-the-Muslim-vote ndia,Shahbano,a divorcedMuslimwoman, uedher x-husband oralimony notpermissibleunderMuslim aw). The IndianSupremeCourt,in April 1985, grantedherrequest;and theCongress,party remember- of the greatsecularists Mahatma Gandhi and JawaharlalNehru,ac-cepted the Court's decision. At a by-electionheld shortly fter,RajivGandhi's partywas routed because theMuslims defected o theoppo-sition. The nervousPrimeMinister, randson fNehru,promptly asseda bill bringingMuslimmarriage aws- in a secular state,yaar- morein keepingwiththesharia. And putMuslim women,accordingto onecommentator,nce moreat "themercyof the[ir]male relatives." WhenHindufundamentalistsried o exploithercase, Shahbanoherself, nderpressurefromher own kind Muslims,notwomen recanted nd de-nounced theSupremeCourt udgement.Asks Abdullah: "And theywant us to treat uch people sympatheti-cally?"In Pakistan ruledbyZia al-Haq, in 1404 A.H., Safia Bibi, a blindgirl,was rapedbytwomen.She took them o courtbut failedtoprovehercasesince, beingblind,she could not dentify erviolators. n thecourse oftherape,one of the men had made herpregnant.Bibi was subsequentlytriedfor dultery, oundguilty, nd sentenced o deathbystoning.

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Qadrismail 121"They are asking us to defend these bastards?" Abdullah is angry,

soundingtough.The emotiondoes not come from cotch alone.In Saudi Arabia. In Malaysia. In Iran.... Nearly always withouttheconsentof thepeople, fundamentalistsnmanypartsof theMuslimworlddictatethe terms ndconditions flife.So manyfrom hisworldwonder,like theJordanianwriter adia Faqir,who asked at theendof herreactiontoThe SatanicVerses: Is exile the nly nswer o theresurgencef slam?"

Yes, SalmanRushdie, iving nthewest,has written book"attacking"Islam. Yes, thebook appearsat theresurgence, uring new roundofthe"ancientandbitter" attlebetween heChristianwestand Islam. Andyes,thebook, and thereactionto it in somepartsof the Muslimworld,havebeen used bythe westas "evidence" against slam.BUT...In thenameof all that s holy,how can you defend omethingyoudonot believe in? (Even if,or simplybecause, it is under ttackby some-thing lse that ttacksyoutoo.) This is a questionofparamountmmedi-acy to at least some of us from heMuslim worldwho feel affrontednddisgusted, fnotsuppressed,notonlybyneo-colonialism ndOrientalismbut- perhapsevenmore o - bya step-child f it, slamic fundamental-ism."The enemyof theenemy s nota friend. hat is thepoint "Abdullahslaps his hands,getsrhetorical. When do we take on the long beards?After heyhave triumphed?When weare all dead? Arewe goingto allowthem o stopus beforewe even think,etalone speak?"The pointis thatone can defend Rushdiewithout lso defending heOrientalists; t is possible, while challengingOrientalism, o challengefundamentalisms well. Dangerous,butpossible; even imperative.Scotchbottled,Abdullahis getting mpatient. Come to thepoint,"hesays, a little hrilly. Tell themwhatSalman has made possible. He hasopened for us so manydoors thatwe will not allow to be closed again.Write hatwe can't andwon'tand shan't be defending hisnew,fascisticIslam anymore.Theymust earnto toleratedissent,disbelief."

Its controversialreceptionmust not make us feel that The SatanicVerses is an arrow aimed at the heart of fundamentalistslam. Morevehemently,mostof thebook is a fictionalresponse to white British)racism.Many scenes in the book depict the way non-whites re treated nBritain ndpointtoRushdie's angerwithwhiteBritish ociety.An angerthathas been (conveniently?) verlookedby manyof hiswestern ritics.

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122 Rushdie'sNewnessA deepandsearing nger gainst society hat oes not llow,to useRaymondWilliams' hrase, equality f access" to tscolored itizens.If some western ommentatorsgnore his ide ofthe bookin theireagernessotauntslamwitht, he aultsnotRushdie's.t spart fthedanger fdaring o be newthat newillbe usedbypeoplewith theragendas. Witness, or nstance, ayWeldon'swritingsn theaffair.)Therefore, ushdie'sOrientalistex-?) supporters ustbe confrontedwithotherreadingsof The Satanic Verses."I willthrustthernterpretationsn them intheir aces fneces-sary," aysAbdullah he nsistent.

Like that fHomiBhabha,whowrote t thebeginningf the ontro-versy: those f us whohaveexperiencedhe uthoritarianndpatriar-chalconditionsforthodoxommunities,f ny olor rcreed, nd havewitnessedheir ttemptso stifle issent nddiscussion,annever n-dorsedemands or ensorshipndunquestionedonformity.uchquies-cence servesand preserves he traditional ierarchies f powerandknowledge.o where oweturn, ewho eethe imits f iberalismndfear he bsolutistemands f fundamentalism?"Among fewothers,we must urn o theRushdie f The SatanicVerses,who stakednewground: ared sk newquestions, id the un-fashionable,ttacked heoppressed.We turn ack to thequestion fnewness.Abdullah asbegun o cheer. Theslowcoachs gettingheretlast,"hesmiles,ndgoes nsearch f ce.

Midway hroughhebook,Rushdie escribeswhathe means ynew-ness.HisprescriptionorBritains thatt mustearn, orrow,rabfromIndia Indiaserving ere s a metaphoror he ricontinent,he x-colo-nies). Fed upwithdull,desultory,ead Britain,with ondon,GibreelFarishtawants ogive t ifeby tropicalizingt,by gnitinghe own edwith hilliepowder,ogiveLondon hefollowing ifts:increasedmoral efinition,nstitutionf a nationalsiesta, evelopmentfvivid ndexpansive atternsfbehaviormong hepopulace...newirds nthe rees(macaws, eacocks, ockatoos), ew rees nder hebirds...theraditionalnd oulless nglish ommit-mento highworkrate'aving eenrenderedbsoletebytheheat.Religious ervor,olitical erment,renewalf nterestnthe ntelligentsia.omoreBritisheserve; ot-waterottleso bebanishedforever,eplacednthefoetid ightsythemakingf slowandodorous ove.Emergencefnewsocial values:friendso commenceroppingnononeanother ithout akingppointments,losure

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