Mafia book author in ‘great danger’ from mob: Rushdie

Oktober 25, 2008 at 2:32 pm (Membaca, Novel, Salman Rushdie) ()

Sumber: Yahoo! News via Yahoo! Alerts Thu Oct 16, 1:17 pm ET

PARIS, Oct 16, 2008 (AFP) – British writer Salman Rushdie, who lived in hiding for years after an Islamic death threat, said Thursday that the Italian author of a book on organised crime is in far greater danger than he himself ever was.

“I met Roberto Saviano in New York in April. He’s an extremely pleasant, very intelligent man, but he’s in great danger,” he told France Info radio.

Saviano, the author of “Gomorrah,” said Wednesday he plans to flee his native Italy after learning that the Naples-area organised crime gang, the Camorra, wants him dead by the end of the year.

Rushdie said that “in April in New York, the FBI believed he was already in danger, because there is the mafia in the United States too.”

“Things are worse” for Saviano than for him, Rushdie said. “The mafia poses a much bigger problem than the one I had to face.”

Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses,” published 20 years ago, earned him an Islamic death threat and forced him to live in hiding under police protection for nearly a decade.

Some 1.2 million copies of Saviano’s book have sold in Italy.

Filmmaker Matteo Garrone’s screen version of the book won a major prize at the Cannes film festival in May and is in the running for an Oscar.

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3 men in court charged with publisher attack plot

Oktober 4, 2008 at 6:43 am (Buku Islam, Muhammad, Novel, Salman Rushdie) ()

Sumber :Charlotte Observer via Yahoo! Alert By ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Writer, Posted: Friday, Oct. 03, 2008

LONDON Three men charged with plotting to attack the publisher of a novel about the Prophet Muhammad’s child bride made a brief court appearance Friday after being charged with plotting to damage the offices of Gibson Square publishers.

Ali Beheshti, 40, Abrar Mirza, 22, and Abbas Taj, 30, Beheshti also were charged with possession of a weapon designed or adapted for the discharge of a noxious liquid or gas – reportedly a gasoline bomb. No one was injured in the incident.

The suspects were returned to jail and their next court appearance is set for Oct. 17.

They were arrested early Sept. 27 under anti-terrorism laws, but were not charged with any terrorist offenses. Baca entri selengkapnya »

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Walking on eggshells

Oktober 4, 2008 at 4:57 am (Membaca, Novel, Salman Rushdie) ()

Sumber : Guardian.co.uk via Yahoo! Alert, By Kenan Malik, guardian.co.uk, Articles History

Inayat Bunglawala is wrong; a culture of self-censorship is the real legacy of the reaction to The Satanic Verses By Kenan Malik

Inayat Bunglawala thinks I talk “pure twaddle”. Why? Because I suggested in an article about the firebombers who last week attacked the offices of the publishers Gibson Square that part of the problem is that too many liberals have come to accept that it is “morally unacceptable to give offence”.

Not so, said Inayat. “If anyone has given ground in this debate,” he suggested, “it is surely those who once believed in banning books because they regarded them as being ‘offensive’.”

Inayat himself has certainly given ground. Once a campaigner against The Satanic Verses, he now believes that no one has the right not to be offended. Inayat’s welcome change of heart should not, however, blind him (or us) to the fact that much of the rest of the world has been marching in the opposite direction. Baca entri selengkapnya »

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Rushdie: no regrets over ‘The Satanic Verses’

Oktober 4, 2008 at 4:20 am (Muhammad, Novel, Salman Rushdie) ()

Sumber : Yahoo! News via Yahoo! Alert, Wed Oct 1, 7:06 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) – Author Salman Rushdie has no regrets about writing “The Satanic Verses“, he said in comments published on Wednesday, 20 years after the release of the book which earned him an Islamic death threat.

Rushdie, who lived in hiding under police protection for nearly a decade, made the comments amid concern over an attack in London on the publisher of a controversial new book about the Prophet Mohammed.

The Indian-born writer said he would regret not having written a book taking on major religious and philosophical questions.

“The question I’m always asking myself is: are we masters or victims? Do we make history or does history make us? Do we shape the world or are we just shaped by it?” he said in an interview with Australian broadcaster Clive James.

“The question of do we have agency in our lives or whether we are just passive victims of events is, I think, a great question and one that I have always tried to ask.

“In that sense I wouldn’t not have wanted to be the writer that asked it,” he added, in comments published on James’ website.

Rushdie, who was raised as a Sunni Muslim, has lived since 1989 under the shadow of an Iranian fatwa — or religious decree — calling for his death over his controversial book published the previous year. Baca entri selengkapnya »

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Rushdie condemns cancellation of Muhammad novel

Agustus 21, 2008 at 1:22 pm (Novel, Salman Rushdie) ()

By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer Thu Aug 14, 3:59 PM ET

NEW YORK – Salman Rushdie strongly criticized his publisher for pulling a historical novel about the prophet Muhammad and his child bride over concerns about angering Muslims.

Rushdie, whose “The Satanic Verses” led to a death decree in 1989 from Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and forced the author for years to live under police protection, said the Random House Publishing Group had allowed itself to be intimidated.

“I am very disappointed to hear that my publishers, Random House, have canceled another author’s novel, apparently because of their concerns about possible Islamic reprisals,” Rushdie said Thursday in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “This is censorship by fear, and it sets a very bad precedent indeed.”

Random House has acknowledged pulling Sherry Jones’ debut novel, “The Jewel of Medina,” about Muhammad and his child bride, Aisha. The publisher, which had planned to release the book this month, said in a recent statement that “credible and unrelated sources” had warned that the book “could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.” Baca entri selengkapnya »

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