Salman Rushdie New Book 2024: How His Stabbing Memoir Demonstrates The Importance of Free Speech

In 1988, author Salman Rushdie published his novel The Satanic Verses and recieved a bounty on his head. This caused him to live the next 30 years under fear, security and various levels of secrecy. With the call for his death never being formally revoked, Rushdie always lived at risk of death. In 2022, death finally came knocking. But he survived to tell the tale. His newly released memoir reminds us all about why free speech is important to defend and protect, and the price we pay when we allow groups and institutions to censor free speech. Knife: Meditations On An Attempted Murder, is the Salman Rushdie new book 2024 needs as we untangle the tricky web on free speech in a world that wants to clamp it down.

Why was Salman Rushdie stabbed?

Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses has been condemned by Islamic extremists for its depictions of the prophet Mohammed. The novel takes creative license with people and names featured in the Quaran. This includes Mohammed (reffered to as Mahound in the book) and his wives. Also the story features and plays with the so-called “Satanic Verses” themselves. They are a series of verses not a part of the Quaran but contained in an Islamic legend whereby the devil tests Mohammed.

In general The Satanic Verses, like some of Rushdie’s other works, is a deconstruction and exploration of Indian culture and Islam. It is important to contextualise Rushdie’s work as coming from his perspective as a British-Indian of Muslim descent. Therefore his commentary comes ‘from the inside’, so to speak.

However, to a sizaeble population, Rushie’s novel was heretical and a severe crime under Islam. And so in 1988 the then Supreme Leader (head of state) of Iran called for a fatwa. A fatwa is an eternal, unrevokable religious declaration. It states a person has committed a crime against Islam so severe he should be murdered. And a bounty of $6 million was placed on Rushdie’s head.

The stabbing attack

For over thirty years, Rushdie lived under the spectre of violence, his freedom curtailed by the looming threat of assassination. Despite the passage of time, the fatwa was never formally revoked, leaving Rushdie vulnerable to attack. In 2022, that threat materialized when Rushdie was stabbed at a literary event in New York City.

The alleged stabber – an American man of Lebanese Muslim descent – did not officially state the fatwa as his reason for the attack. However, he chose to attack Rushdie based on the content in The Satanic Verses. He objected to what he percieved as Rushies offence on Islam.

Additionally, the man was known to believe in fundamentalist Islamic teahings, and supported the former Iranian Supreme Leader who issued the fatwa. There is circumstantial evience to indicate that the main motivation for the attack was based on the fatwa. This is because the attacker believed the content of The Satanic Verses is a religious assualt.

Miraculously, Rushdie survived the assassination attempt, but the harrowing experience left an indelible mark on him. In Knife, Salman Rushdie new book 2024, Rushdie contemplates the motivations of his attacker and attempts to empathise with his plights, but ultimately he always believed that the fatwa was the motivation. Through his writing, he underscores the importance of defending and protecting free speech, even in the face of violent opposition.

Why is free speech important?

Free speech is generally understood as the ability to speak your opinions freely. This does ot mean everyone will like or approve of what you say, but at least allow you to say it. However, free speech repetivly comes up against groups of individuals who wish to prevent others from sharing true opinions.

Free speech prevention comes in many forms. For example, the Rushdie affair may immediately call to mind the death threats placed against the creators of South Park, or the shooting of staff at Charlie Hebdo. Both incidents were equally based on outrage over depictions of Mohammed.

But it’s not only Muslims who get offended in this way. Christians have been equally incensed by films such as Monty Python’s Life of Brian, or The Passion Of The Christ. Many classic works of English written word have been banned, such the novels Ulysses by James Joyce, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck or even the Allen Ginsberg poem “Howl”. There is a long list of books that have been challenged over time. It is possible that even this Salman Rushdie new book 2024 will in fact join that list.

This shows that the fight for free speech is not new, but unrelenting. As their are always those who will attempt to fight down dissendant ideas it is important for societies to continously protect free speech from those that will destroy it.

Rushdie calls for protecting free speech after his attack

Salman Rushdie ultimately knows that the free speech issue is greater than himself. Which is why in his 2024 book Knife he also brings the focus outward. By discussing the greater question of how to protect free speech, he acknolwedges that we need to see censorship whereever it comes. That includes from those that think they are doing the right thing.

To quote:

In the US, you feel there’s a younger generation that’s kind of forgetting the value of that. Often, for reasons they would believe to be virtuous, they’re prepared to suppress kinds of speech with which they don’t sympathise. It’s a slippery slope.

Rushdie is right: censorship, in some form, is found all across media and social media. People calling for cancellations, deplatformings, etc are one such example. But at a broader level is groups of every people, under a certain form of belief, who try to stop others from speaking their opinions.

Consider the owner of Australian bookstore chain Robinson’s Bookshop, Susanne Horman, whose comments regarding current book publishing trends resulted in a social media backlash. We discussed the incident in a previous blog post.

Or consider, for example, US athelete Riley Gaines. Gaines is an activist against transgender women competing in women’s sports divisions who appears at public events. At once such public appearence at San Francisco State University, she was followed by a group of protesters. After being locked in a spare room to seperate herself from the crowd, she was effecteivly barricaded in the room by the protesters who chanted and yelled threats from outside for over an hour. Gaines had to be escorted out by security.

Different group of people, and a very different message being opposed. But the result is the same: a violent outburst designed to stop people saying what you don’t want them to say.

The fight for free speech is not confined to any one community or ideology. It is a universal struggle that demands collective action. The ordeal discussed in the Salman Rushdie new book 2024 underscores the need for solidarity. It demonstrates the importance of speaking truth to power in the face of oppression. His memoir serves as both a testament to his resilience and a rallying cry for the preservation of our freedoms.

How to defend free speech

We have many tools at our disposal, so the medium can be anything you choose. But the important part of free speech is you need to speak to defend it. Last week we spoke about Banksy, an artist who uses his subversive art as his tool for free speech. Many of our contemporary free-speech defenders now use X, YouTube, blogs or email newsletters as their platforms of choice. All of these can have their downsides though.

You also have access to a free speech platform right now, which is Crokes. We believe in free speech, in allowing open dialogue and free of censorship. We’re willing to discuss controversial ideas, and we want you to do so too. So if you want a free space to discuss things openly, come here. You’ll be free from the problems of discourse on BookTok, and no subject to the whims of power-hungry Reddit moderators.

We navigate an increasingly complex landscape of ideological division and cultural conflict. Rushdie’s words remind us of the profound significance of free speech in shaping our collective destiny. His call to arms resonates as we confront the many challenges that threaten to silence dissent and stifle intellectual inquiry.

In 2024, in the wake of Rushdie’s reappearence to public life, it is incumbent upon all of us to reaffirm our commitment to the principles of free speech. We must defend the rights of individuals to express themselves without fear of reprisal. Only through steadfast determination and unwavering solidarity can we ensure that the legacy of Salman Rushdie’s struggle is one of triumph over tyranny and of light triumphing over darkness.

Why was Salman Rushdie stabbed?

The stabbing attack

Why is free speech important?

Rushdie calls for protecting free speech after his attack

How to defend free speech

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