Occasionally Salman Rushdie says some very sensible things, and here is one occasion of that: he challenges the egregious George Galloway, who would forbid criticism of Islam and honest discussion of the roots of Islamic terror. “Rushdie dismisses Galloway’s claims,” from The Guardian, with thanks to Danielle:
Salman Rushdie clashed with George Galloway yesterday in a debate about TV and religion and a hypothetical small-screen adaptation of the novelist’s controversial book The Satanic Verses.
Mr Galloway, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, said TV executives had to be “very sensitive about people’s religion” and if broadcasters did not show sufficient sensitivity they “had to deal with the consequences”.He said: “You have to be aware if you do [offend people’s beliefs] you will get blowback. You should do it very carefully, especially if you are a public service broadcaster.”
“Is that a threat?” asked Rushdie during the debate at the Media Guardian Edinburgh international television festival.
Describing Mr Galloway’s argument as “craven“, the author said: “The simple fact is that any system of ideas that decides you have to ringfence it, that you cannot discuss it in fundamental terms, that you can’t say that this bit of it is junk, or that bit is oppressive … we are supposed to respect that?“…
He claimed that Islam was “backsliding into bigotry” and described Muslim leaders in Britain as “a joke, because no one follows them”.