On Rushdie- Maybe the Muslims were right about him after all

[alonzomourning23]

That title taken from a message board on freerepublic.com, one of the many sites that fell in love with rushdie. The following comments by posters were the same, if not worse, after reading this article:

Famed author takes on Kansas

Rushdie bemoans role of religion in public life

Citizens of the world should be concerned about religious extremism whether it’s in Iran or America, says author Salman Rushdie, who was once marked for death by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini.

Rushdie compared the emergence of religion into public life in Kansas with similar movements across the world in a lecture Thursday at the Lied Center.

“I would really love never to mention that word again: religion,” Rushdie said. “But now it seems to be coming right at us all. I don’t just mean radical Islam, by the way. I believe we have some problems right here.”..........

In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini responded to Rushdie’s depiction of Islam in the novel “The Satanic Verses” by issuing a death sentence against the author. Rushdie went into hiding for nearly a decade. The sentence, or fatwa, was withdrawn about seven years ago.......

Rushdie told the crowd that religion has much potential to do harm in the world today.

“It’s a pretty bad time for us who don’t believe that superstition should rule the world,” he said.

When asked how rationalism could win the fight against religion, Rushdie said with ridicule, argument and battle.

When he was young, the 58-year-old said, he and others thought they’d won the battle. So they turned their heads.

We were “so busy having fun that all the uncool people took over the world,” he said.

And this superstition needs to be pushed back in the cupboard where it belongs, he said.

Rushdie also blasted intelligent design proponents.

“I never had any doubts about evolution theory,” he said. “I gather there are parts of Kansas where the big bang did not take place.”..........

He bashed Dan Brown, author of “The Da Vinci Code.”

“Do not start me on ‘The Da Vinci Code,’” Rushdie said. “A novel so bad that it gives bad novels a bad name.”........

But, as for the basic question “Should you kill people because you don’t like their books?” Rushdie said no.

“Even Dan Brown must live,” he said. “Preferably not write, but live.”

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/oct/07/famed_author_takes_kansas/?city_local

Some selected responses from free republic:

Why would ANYone listen to him? And NOW he's spouting the same ole secularist screed.
The Muslims WERE right abut him........

Perhaps Rushdie will join the ever-growing horde that would kill people for their religion, making him the world's worst hyporcite. I mean it...I'll bet there are millions who would love to see our football stadiums converted to killing fields..........

Gack. What a pompous, profane fool.............

Where is the Inquisition when we need it?........

And to think at one time I felt sorry for him,he really is a P.O.S., a arrogant, ulgy little snot.........

Rushdie,

We are doing just fine in Kansas. Stay in England.

And one intelligent conservative I actually agree with:

Rushdie was a hero as long as he ridiculted the other guy's beliefs. Now that he ridicules ours he's a bum. Typical...and pathetic.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1498912/posts



Now, I used to like rushdie, I used to see him as an example of a martyr being the victim of religious persecution, then again, I was a lot younger then. The far right seems to have adopted him as one of their own since 9/11, a person with a muslim background who denounces radical islam (though he has a very broad definition of radical). It's funny to see them squirm when he turns around and attacks them as well.

I still think of him as a martyr for free speech, but being a martyr doesn't prevent him from being an even bigger jerk. He's also a religious bigot, he doesn't seem to have an issue with europeans, middle easterners etc. as long as they don't look to god for any guidance. At least I know now that he's not a hypocrite though.

 

[Msut77]

His wife is hot, and he has a right to be a jerk.

 

[Ikohn4ever]

i find nothing offensive about what he is saying. Plus he has the right to say that so people are complainin can go put there head back in the sand

 

[PittsburghAfterDark]

How was Salman Rushdie a hero to freerpublic.com when "The Satanic Verses" was published in 1988 the death sentence from the original terrorist towel head, Khomeni, was issued on February 14, 1989 6 full years before the internet was really first used in any kind of mass medium sense and 7 full years before the site even existed?

By the time the internet and that site took off in the mid 90's he was already an afterthought.

 

[bmulligan]

Alonzo just likes anything that makes the 'right' squirm. He thinks that any past associations that come back to haunt republicans are examples of hypocracy.

“I never had any doubts about evolution theory,” he said. “I gather there are parts of Kansas where the big bang did not take place.”..........

That's freaking hillarious. I think I'll have to read some of Rushdie's work now. He's always been an afterthought for me until now, so chalk one up for the atheists, yeah baby!

 

[alonzomourning23]

[quote name='PittsburghAfterDark']How was Salman Rushdie a hero to freerpublic.com when "The Satanic Verses" was published in 1988 the death sentence from the original terrorist towel head, Khomeni, was issued on February 14, 1989 6 full years before the internet was really first used in any kind of mass medium sense and 7 full years before the site even existed?

By the time the internet and that site took off in the mid 90's he was already an afterthought.[/QUOTE]

He's very vocal. The reason he's been a favorite of theirs is because his frequent denouncements of Islam (especially since 9/11), being raised in an islamic environment and his persecution by islamic leaders. He's had multiple articles posted on frontpagemag, and has been discussed on new republic message boards a decent amount. I don't check new republic enough to know if his articles have been featured there. The comments by many of the users illustrates my point, they liked him because he repeatedly denounced islam.

 

[Sarang01]

Well I respect and agree with what he's said and I think it's good he's turning to fire on the Religious Right here as they well deserve and I'm from Kansas and say he shoulde keep on saying it.
PAD will you knock off your hate speech? You know you could have friends that could be Muslims and you may not even realize it.