HVK Archives: Is Rushdie Worth Defending?
Is Rushdie Worth Defending? - The Secularist
Francis Bennion
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1996 November-December
Title : Is Rushdie Worth Defending?
Author : Francis Bennion
Publication : The Secularist
Date : November-December, 1996
Courtesy : Ethical Record, London, September 1996
TRANSCRIPT OF TELEVISION INTERVIEW WITH FRANCIS BENNION
Q. You say that Mr. Rushdie is not worth defending. Why?
A. Because he has let the side down.
Q. What "side" do you mean?
A. The side that is engaged in the battle for free speech. The
battle is against religious persecution - an old enemy of
libertarians. Most religious creeds prohibit freedom of speech.
They know they are right and no argument is tolerated. It might
undermine the faith. or insult the deity. Besides, it's
disrespectful to the controlling priests or mullahs - or whatever
else they call themselves.
Q. Mr. Rushdie says it's no one's business but his own if he
converts to Islam.
A. Why did he make a public announcement about it then? That's
nonsense. Mr. Rushdie's conversion strengthens the Islamic religion
in Britain. Ibis is of concern to all of us.
Q. But if you believe in religious freedom...
A. I support religious freedom, but like all freedoms it has
limits. If any religious dogma or practice harms society it is our
right and duty to oppose it by law and in every lawful way. That
is why British law forbids the Hindu caste system, under which
large numbers of people are treated as untouchables.
Q. Are you saying that Islam threatens our society?
A. I am not free to answer that.
Q. What do you mean?
A. When last week I said Islam was a bigoted creed because it
sentenced a novelist to death for what he wrote I received threats.
A letter was published in a national newspaper saying 1 must not
be allowed to get away with it...
Q. Are you going to allow yourself to be silenced by such threats?
A. Not completely. But I have to recognise that the danger is
there. Already our freedom of speech has been damaged by Muslim
fundamentalism.
Q. Why then do you not stay on the Rushdie Defence Committee?
A. Because the Committee is ineffective, except as a source of
comfort and moral support for Mr. Rushdie. It is paralysed by fear
- fear that whatever it does will make matters worse. fear of the
wrath of Islam.
Q. How then can we defend free speech?
A. Free speech is only part of the issue. We have to accept that
the British state. which is all of us. will not tolerate any
religious practice which damages society. The state has both a
moral right and a moral duty to ensure that the tenets and actions
of any religious system operating within it do not adversely affect
the social well being of any citizen, whether a believer or not.
Our forbears did not struggle for many centuries to establish a
civilised society in order to have its important values undermined
now.
Q. The Muslims attack western values?
A. Yes. They attack our values, but we are not permitted to attack
theirs. They label America as the Great Satan and dismiss our
secular values as worthless. They are not worthless. I am proud
of them and mean to defend them.
Q. I believe you have a book on secular ethics coming out soon.
A. Yes. There is such a thing as secular, or non-religious,
morality. We need to proclaim it.
Q. How can we do that?
A. The main way is through education. Young people, all people.
need to learn the history of how our secular values were won. Let
me give just one example from history. In 1222 a church synod met
near Oxford. It tried a, young Christian man for apostasy, which
is what Salman Rushdie was convicted of over The Satanic Verses.
The young man had fallen in love with a Jewess, who would not
return his love unless he became a Jew himself. The Church found
him guilty and delivered him up to the civil power for punishment.
He was burnt alive in the grounds of Osney Abbey.
Q. What is the present relevance of that story?
A. Through the struggles of Lollardism and the Reformation, the
British people have persuaded the Christian Church not to act in
that cruel way. If the Church tried to act in that way again today
it would not be allowed to. It has to be the same with the
Moslems.
Q. What of the hurt feelings of the Moslems over The Satanic
Verses?
A. Hurt feelings are more tolerable than murder. It is vitally
necessary that those who consider that any religious creed is
harmful to society should be free to challenge it with all weapons
available. These include the weapons of satire and ridicule used
by Rushdie.
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