It’s not going to happen, but that is only evidence that British elites — and American elites — aren’t thinking as clearly as Rushdie is on this issue.
He also says that the Mumbai jihad attacks were an act of war by Pakistan, which is true as well.
“Pak behind Mumbai attack: Rushdie,” from the Times of India, January 3 (thanks to Sr. Soph):
LONDON: India-born author Salman Rushdie blames Pakistan for the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes and has asked Britain to warn the country that “as
long as Pakistan harbours terrorists it’s not going to get any Western aid”.The author of “Satanic Verses” told The Times in an interview: “There is no question that this was Pakistan. You could see it as an act of war. The West should be tougher on Pakistan. It is trying to play both ends against the middle – to look like the friend of the revolutionaries on the one hand and a friend of the West in the fight against terrorism. It can’t be both things.”
He said Britain has been too complacent about the rise of extremism. “We just saw in Mumbai a demonstration of the extraordinary barbarism that people are prepared to unleash on the world. How many of these attacks do we need before we understand what’s going on?”
There doesn’t seem to be any number at all that will be sufficient to wake up some people.
At a personal level, Rushdie said he felt horrified watching the strikes on Mumbai, the city of his birth and one of the three cities after London and New York he loves.
“Those are the streets I grew up on. Two of the characters in my novel
‘Midnight’s Children’ consummate their love affair in the Palace, as so many of us did.”Referring to the fatwa against him following the publication of “Satanic Verses”, he said it was “merely the prologue in a very long novel that is becoming ever more terrifying. The West should have realised the fatwa was just the beginning of a new era”.
Quite so. But there is so much that the West still doesn’t realize.