Author: Manjari Mishra
Publication: The Times of India
Date: January 3, 2010
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Clerics-vent-ire-over-Rushdies/-secret-Taj-visit/articleshow/5406228.cms
Twenty-one years isn't long enough time to
forgive and forget. Salman Rushdie, the India-born novelist whose work about
''migration, metamorphosis, divided selves, love, death, London and Bombay''
- Satanic Verses
- raised the hackles of Islamic hardliners, has once again run into rough
weather.
The latest 'provocation' was his hush-hush
visit to Taj Mahal last Tuesday. Rushdie, according to reports, roamed about
admiring the monument of love, minus any police protection, in company of
his son and an unidentified friend.
The brief visit ruffled quite a few holy feathers.
Miffed at the ''scandalous laxity shown by the Indian government to the author
who carries a reward on his head for blaspheming the Prophet'', Dar-ul-Uloom
Firangimahli held an urgent meeting on Saturday morning. After a resolution
denouncing the Centre, the outfit faxed a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh demanding cancellation of Rushdie's visa.
Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangimahali, head
of Islamic Centre of India and Naib Imam of Lucknow, expressed concern ''at
the scant regard the authorities have towards minority sentiments''. He said
first it was Taslima Nasreen and now Rushdie. ''Why should such people be
allowed to set foot on our soil? We consider their presence sacrilegious to
Islam. It's the duty of the government to ensure that they don't darken out
doorstep now or ever,'' the Maulana told TOI.
Report of Rushdie's visit provoked the normally
moderate Shia Personal Law Board also into a righteous frenzy. Board spokesman,
Maulana Yasoob Abbas, told TOI that the author of offending ''Shaitaani Ayatein
(Satanic Verses) carries a fatwa over his head, which is yet to be withdrawn
by Iran's religious leaders''.
He said Rushdie was quite blase about his
writing and hasn't apologized to this date. ''This makes him a 'gunahgaar'
(sinner) in the eyes of Allah. Therefore, allowing him an entry is the worst
kind of affront to Muslims,'' he said. Maulana Abbas said that Shias will
stage protest marches and lead processions outside his hotel.''Muslims all
over the world, including 18 crore Muslims in India, haven't forgiven him.
His presence could trigger off a violent reaction anytime, anywhere. The board,
therefore, demands immediate deportation of the man and a lifetime ban on
his re-entry,'' he said.
Reports said Rushdie made a brief stopover
at Hotel Amar Vilas in Agra before proceeding to an unknown destination.
