SALMANRUSHDIE ANDTHE SATANICVERSES ARTANDTHESHADOWOFFEAR

is past Valentine’s Day marked thirty-four years since Salman Rushdie received his death sentence. e author, however, has outlived those who sentencedhim.

e Indian-born author published “ e Satanic Verses” in September 1988. e book is a reminder of ction’s ability to interlace challenging topics and say more about difficult themes than the words on the page. With astounding verbosity, Rushdie createsadreamlikeaccountofpost-colonial rootlessness, metamorphoses, andlove.A eritspublication,thebook was banned in a few countries for containingwhatsomeMuslimsconsidered blasphemous references. A minority’s anger at the book’s publication saw protests emerge against Rushdie and the book, and public book burnings organized. Five months a er its publication, on the 14th of February 1989, the Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa condemning

Rushdie alongwithanyoneinvolved initspublication todeath.“Icallon all valiant Muslims wherever they may beintheworldtokillthemwithoutdelay, so that no one will dare insult the sacred beliefs of Muslims henceforth.” is holy declaration of hatred was sent out for the faithful to hear. Some people,contenttobeaccessoriestoauthoritarian terror, acted upon the condemned professionals or rebombed bookstores. Some organized book burnings. Book distributors in many countries removed the book from sale inaffiliatedstores.Westernmedia outlets self-censored their coverage of the controversy. Some journalists and fellow writers, cowed into silence, failed to denounce this vile a empt to exertdominationoverartisticfreedom. lah Ali Khamenei, when asked if his predecessor’s fatwa was still in effect in 2017, said: “ e decree is as Imam Khomeini issued.” Fivedays before the a ackonRushdieinNewYorkin

Protests and riots against the book led to dozens of dead and hundreds of woundedinPakistanandIndia.

In 1991, E ore Capriolo, “ e Satanic Verses” Italian translator, was stabbed inhisMilanapartment.Onlydaysa er thea ackonCapriolo,HitoshiIgarashi, the Japanese translator, was stabbed to deathattheuniversitywherehetaught Islamic Culture outside of Tokyo. In 1993, William Nygaard, the book’s Norwegian publisher, was shot near hishomeinOslo. OnAugust12,2022, Salman Rushdie was stabbed multiple times in New York at a public venue just before a lecture he was about to give. Rushdie survived, but the a ack le permanentinjuries.

MonthsbeforeIran’stoptheocratpublicly offered a large sum of money to sanction the murder of a non-Iranian national, the Ayatollah had broken his promise to never make a deal with Saddam Hussein. In signing the treaty that ended Iran and Iraq’s protracted con ict, the Ayatollah suddenly found himself in urgent need of popularity. Sentencing foreign authors to death and guaranteeing immediate passage to paradise for all the “brave Muslims” who may lose their lives in their murderous task was deemed an appropriate manner of reaffirming the regime’s spiritualpurity.

Salman Rushdie’s prose is explosive and profound. His characters face maddening dreams and metamorphoses in mind and body. e narrative is balanced through perplexing descriptions and vocabulary old, foreign, and unusual immersing the reader in a deep empathy for people and theirmad, beautiful lives. “ e SatanicVerses” is complicated. So is any pursuit of knowledge, any pursuit of art. Do not trust someone who gives an easy solutiontoacomplexproblem.

However, staunch defenses of Rushdie’s right to free expression resounded across political lines, not least from Arab and Muslim writers. “For Rushdie: Essays by Arab and Muslim Writers in Defense of Free Speech’’ was published in 1994, with contributors including almost every writer of note in the Arab and Muslim world. From Iran itself, 127 Iranian writers, artists, and intellectuals signed a le er that included the lines: “We underline the intolerable character of the decree of death that the Fatwah is, and we insist onthefactthataestheticcriteriaarethe only proper ones for judging works of art… To the extent that the systematic denialoftherightsofmaninIranistolerated, this can only further encourage theexportoutsidetheIslamicRepublic ofitsterroristicmethodswhichdestroy freedom.”

In the following decades, the fatwa was subject to much political debate in Tehran. e Ayatollah died a few months a er the fatwa in question in June1989.Latergovernments,notably that of President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005), stated that the “Salman Rushdie issue” was “ nished” and disassociated itself from the rewards that had been offered for the executions. However, since 2020, hardliners have retaken control of all three branches of government. e current Supreme Leader, Khomeini’s successor, Ayatol-

August, a state-controlled website in Tehran republished the fatwa. Iran Online praised the fatwa as “great and unforge able,”saying: “Now a er 33 years, Salman Rushdie is le with the nightmareofdeaththatwillneverleave him.Hehasnowbecomealessonforall those who harbor illusions of insulting Islamunderthepretextoffreedom.”

Free expression, wri en or spoken, allows for the exercise of art. Art allows for our exploration of the in nite and unknown. We question the assumed and explore the possible. When powerful and new, it is unnerving, and it allows us to understand that which we didnot.

I was hesitant to include any detail of “ e Satanic Verses”’s content. I did not wish to defend Rushdie’s right to create art on the basis of the content. All must have the right to express their thoughts, regardless of how mistaken, foul, beautiful or uncertain they may be. “It becomes impossible to think,” said Rushdie in a 2006 interview, “it becomes impossible to have any kind of interchange of thought in a society ifyouaretoldthereareideaswhichare off limits.” e fatwa is foul and repellent.Itwouldstill befoul and repellent if the content of “ e Satanic Verses” was genuinely repulsive. Not that the men who seek its author’s death ever readit.Ithappens,however,thatRushdie’s tome, in all its misbehavior, is full of empathy and love for the human race.Itisashamethatwerarely gettotalkaboutSalmanRushdie.Decades later, his incredible work is still overshadowed by the last of a dying terrorist’s murderous impulses. e greatest power of the fatwa and, more broadly, of religious hatred for ideas, is still this shadow it throws over free thought. e defense of the right to free expression remains important. It willnever notbe. ereis asimmering desire to silence the uncomfortable. In Gibreel’s dreams, the Prophet Mahound forgives all except for the poets andwhores. cabulary, eclectic, deep, and drenched in Indian-Arab artifacts. Its narratives are mournful. ere is tragedy, pain, and confusion at many points. e book is relentlessly empathetic. Evil is questioned and understood. At times, itisforgiven,anditisalwaysmourned. Love, and its emergence, is questioned and understood, naked and strange. elossofit,ortheimperfectnatureof it,isalsomourned.Itismasterfulwork. Layered and thoughtful. Complicated, butaccessibleso. e perverse extension of terror, in masochistic indulgence, is the loudest expression of the desire to silence. erearesmaller,lessexplosivecallsto silence that serve the terror of others. ereareveryrealforcesthatdesirethe endofknowledge,theendofhistory.

His acting career in India was a parade of divine interpretations. Playing the part of many Hindu gods and mythical gures, he rose to prominence and fame. In the book’s beginning, Gibreel falls to the earth below the explosion of the plane he was travelling in. Gibreel and Saladin, the co-protagonist and fellow crash survivor, experience an intense metamorphosis. Eventually, Gibreel dreams of Qur’anic tales and other ctions, some of which he experiences as the angel Gibreel/Jibreel/ Gabriel.

It would be impossible for me to condense “ e Satanic Verses” in such few words. In this article, I will leave you withthissummary: e book never felt overwhelming, however. Rushdie manages to weave a completely coherent tale while using a literary style meant to be disconcerting. I marvel at the author’s use of vo-

In “ e Satanic Verses,” Gibreel (actor, plane crash survivor, angel, schizophrenic)dreamsoflegendsandstories.

It is in these dreams where I suspect one might nd the blaspheming they are so keen to nd. e book can be a difficult read. It takes a er magical realism. e mixing of surreal, subconscious-dwelling imagery with multiple narratives, those being dreams, ashbacks, or other point-of-view characters, slide the reader into a confusion much like that of the two protagonists.

Shame that some would burn these pages. We can all learn from people’s reactions to art. Art does not end with the author, it is meant to be received and interpreted. Art belongs to the worldonceithasbeenexpressed.Concern and offense are valid reactions to that which unnerves. Hatred and violencearenot. •

MAHÉ BINCAZ CHRONIQUEUR tionale avant les années 1920 : dans le temps,l’école était donc vue comme une « fabrique à élite », une usine à former les dirigeants français de demain. Sciences Po propose même une préparation aux concours administratifs français et est notamment réputée pour posséder une excellente classe préparatoire au concours de l’ENA. Ainsi, si l’objectif de Sciences Po est clair,c’estunretourdebâtonpource e écolequi àsontour, voitses élèves fuir laFrance.

Sciences Po Paris, université française de rang mondial se place parmi les meilleures en sciences humaines et sociales. Très sélective, ce e école al’ambition de former « l’élite de la nation »,etplusexplicitement,selonleursite, Émile Boutmy, le fondateur, « a voulu créer de toutes pièces la formation qui manquait aux élites de l’époque. ». Mais où va ce e élite après avoir obtenusondiplôme?

Lorsque l’on cherche Sciences Po sur Google,l’ontrouvedespropostelsque « les anciens élèves occupent les plus hautspostesdanslafonctionpublique, les médias ou d’autres institutions et grandes entreprises françaises ». Mais ces propos sont-ils toujours d’actualité?

Si Sciences Po se félicite d’accueillir 50% d’étudiants internationaux, ayant ainsi qui é leur propre pays a n de venir étudier enFrance, l’école voit ensuite la fuite de ses propres cerveaux quiretournentexercerdeshautesfonctions ou faire de l’humanitaire dans leur pays d’origine. Fondée en 1872, l’école n’était pas ouverte à l’interna-

Cet article est une enquête menée sur 62 élèves de Sciences Po Paris, tous campus confondus. Voici quelques informations à propos des étudiants qui ontréponduàl’enquête.

Pour43.5%d’étrangers,presque30%d’entre eux ne se sentent pas bien intégrés en France. Ce e première donnée peut expliquer le désintérêt des étudiants à poursuivre leur vie dans ce pays et l’on peut aussi se questionner sur la capacité de Sciences Po à protéger ses étudiants contrele racismeetlaxénophobieauxquelsils peuvent être confrontés en France. Avoir 50% d’étudiants internationaux est une chose, leur perme re de s’intégrer en est uneautre.

Ici, l’on est a entif à l’intérêt (ou au désintérêt)quelesétudiantsdeSciences Po portent à la politique française. On remarque ainsi que malgré le fait de vivre en France et d’étudier dans l’Institut de Sciences Politique le plus renommée du pays, Sciences Po semble faillir à sa tâche. Comment former les dirigeants de la France de demain s’ils ne connaissent pas les dirigeants de la France d’aujourd’hui ? Il s’agit ici soit d’un changement de stratégie de l’université dans son objectif de rayonnement international et ainsi de cours plusvariés,soit d’uneécolequineconnaît plus ses élèves, dont les pro ls ont changé depuis un siècle, et d’un échec dans son enseignement de la politique française.

En n, la question qui fâche : moins de la moitié des étudiants compte poursuivre une carrière en France plus tard et 60% comptent retourner faire leur carrière dans leur pays d’origine. SciencesPoneparvientpasàgarderses étudiantsetcréédonc,toutàson honneur,lesélitesdesautrespays.

Pour nir, bien sûr, quasiment 80% des étudiants ne se considèrent pas comme«l’élitedela nation»,expressionquiamèneaujourd’huilesélèves à rire, mais dont l’école semble toujours très ère. Ce e donnée est cohérente avec celles vues plus tôt, une majorité d’étudiants ne ressentant aucune appartenance spéciale à la France, ni de désird’exercer danscepays.

On peut alors se demander, si l’usine à élite française n’est plus aussi efficace que dans le temps, qui sont les dirigeantsdelaFrancededemain?

Perme ez-moi de nir cet article avec unecitationissuedecompteInstagram @overheardscpo.