By Joseph Loconte
London
TWENTY YEARS AGO THIS month an Islamic organization in Great Britain staged a 1,000-strong rally of rage: with BBC cameras rolling, Muslim protestors burned copies of The Satanic Verses, the 1988 work by British novelist Salman Rushdie criticizing Mohammed. Death threats and a fatwa from the Iranian government anathematizing Rushdie forced the author into hiding. "I have come to feel that what happened with The Satanic Verses was a kind of prologue," he later told The Times, "and that now we're in the main event."
The effort to silence criticism of Islam has become a main event not only in Muslim lands, but increasingly in the democratic West. Last month the London-based Centre for Social Cohesion released a report cataloguing the plight of European Muslims and ex-Muslims who have dared to challenge the forces of extremism. The study, Victims of Intimidation: Freedom of Speech Within Europe's Muslim Communities, recounts the careers of 27 leading detractors. All of them -- politicians, journalists, academics, and artists -- have experienced "significant and credible threats of violence" from Islamists and radical Muslims because of their criticism of Islam.
Mansur Escudero, an Islamic leader in Spain, has felt the wrath of extremists despite his aggressive advocacy for Muslim immigrant groups. Escudero was the secretary-general of the country's largest Muslim organization when the Madrid train bombings, orchestrated by an al Qaeda terrorist cell, killed 191 people and wounded over 1,700. His organization, the Islamic Commission, eventually issued a fatwa condemning Osama bin Laden and calling him an apostate - probably the first Muslim group to do so. Read more ...
London
TWENTY YEARS AGO THIS month an Islamic organization in Great Britain staged a 1,000-strong rally of rage: with BBC cameras rolling, Muslim protestors burned copies of The Satanic Verses, the 1988 work by British novelist Salman Rushdie criticizing Mohammed. Death threats and a fatwa from the Iranian government anathematizing Rushdie forced the author into hiding. "I have come to feel that what happened with The Satanic Verses was a kind of prologue," he later told The Times, "and that now we're in the main event."
The effort to silence criticism of Islam has become a main event not only in Muslim lands, but increasingly in the democratic West. Last month the London-based Centre for Social Cohesion released a report cataloguing the plight of European Muslims and ex-Muslims who have dared to challenge the forces of extremism. The study, Victims of Intimidation: Freedom of Speech Within Europe's Muslim Communities, recounts the careers of 27 leading detractors. All of them -- politicians, journalists, academics, and artists -- have experienced "significant and credible threats of violence" from Islamists and radical Muslims because of their criticism of Islam.
Mansur Escudero, an Islamic leader in Spain, has felt the wrath of extremists despite his aggressive advocacy for Muslim immigrant groups. Escudero was the secretary-general of the country's largest Muslim organization when the Madrid train bombings, orchestrated by an al Qaeda terrorist cell, killed 191 people and wounded over 1,700. His organization, the Islamic Commission, eventually issued a fatwa condemning Osama bin Laden and calling him an apostate - probably the first Muslim group to do so. Read more ...
Source: The Weekly Standard
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