Butting Fundaments: Responses to the Rushdie Affair

Fazakarley, Jed

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-53792-4_5

Jed Fazakarley⁵

Part of the book series: Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series ((CAL))

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Abstract

The Rushdie affair has, since 1989 when the controversy was at its sharpest, been regarded as a central moment in the history of Muslim communities in Britain, and in British multiculturalism. More recent events, both in Britain and abroad, have provided more explosive images of violence and far more urgent concerns about national security, but the controversy over The Satanic Verses still looms large in scholarship and public discourse. There has always been disagreement about precise significance of the affair and what lessons, if any, can be drawn from it, but there is broad agreement amongst scholars that the controversy was indeed highly significant and about the general developments it stimulated. It is usually agreed that the affair created in Britain concern about “Islamic fundamentalism,” a social movement and political ideology that until then had been seen as an alien phenomenon confined to the Persian and Arab world.

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Notes

1.
Modood, British Asian Muslims, 265–7.
2.
Guardian, 16/12/74
3.
The Times, 27/7/76
4.
The Times, 15/7/77
5.
The Times, 20/2/89
6.
Modood, British Asian Muslims, 269.
7.
Modood, Multicultural Politics, 114–30.
8.
M.M. Ahsan and Abdul Raheem Kidwai eds., Sacrilege Versus Civility: Muslim Perspectives on the Satanic Verses Affair (Leicester: Islamic Foundation, 1993), 9; Daniel Pipes, The Rushdie Affair: the Novel, the Ayatollah, and the West (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1990), 20.
9.
Ashan and Kidwai, ibid. , 9; Guardian, 16/2/89.
10.
Ahsan and Kidwai, ibid. , 337.
11.
ibid. , 363–5.
12.
Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 17/2/89.
13.
John Eade, “Quests for Belonging” in Alrick Cambridge and Stephan Feuchtwang eds., Where You Belong: Government and Black Culture (Aldershot: Avebury, 1992), 182–3.
14.
Samad, “The Politics of Islamic Identity among Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in Britain” in Ranger, Samad, and Stuart eds., Culture, Identity, and Politics, 92–7.
15.
Ziauddin Sarwar and Merryl Wyn-Davies, Distorted Imagination: Lessons from the Rushdie Affair (London: Grey Seal, 1990), 197–8.
16.
Kalim Siddiqui, The Implications of the Rushdie Affair for Muslims in Britain (London: The Muslim Institute, 1989).
17.
Ahsan and Kidwai, Sacrilege Versus Civility, 337–9; Sunday Times, 19/2/90.
18.
Paul Weller, A Mirror for our Times: the ‘Rushdie Affair’ and the Future of Multiculturalism (London: Continuum, 2009), 28.
19.
Independent, 16/1/89; Times, 17/1/89; Sunday Times, 22/1/89; Guardian, 17/2/89.
20.
Pipes, Rushdie Affair, 181; Guardian, 25/9/89.
21.
The Times, 5/7/89.
22.
Ahsan and Kidwai eds., Sacrilege Versus Civility, 346–50.
23.
Independent on Sunday, 4/2/90.
24.
Guardian, 21/9/91.
25.
Independent, 13/12/91.
26.
New York Times, 25/9/98.
27.
Parliamentary Archives (PA), London, UK, private correspondence.
28.
Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 9/1/89.
29.
Ibid. , 14/1/89; Independent, 16/1/89.
30.
Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 16/1/89.
31.
PA, private correspondence.
32.
Ibid.
33.
New Statesmen, 17/1/89.
34.
Independent, 21/1/89; Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 8/3/89.
35.
Hansard, HC Deb, 21/2/89, c834.
36.
Guardian, 23/2/89; Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 23/3/89.
37.
Guardian, ibid.
38.
PA, private correspondence.
39.
Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 24/4/89.
40.
Ibid. , 9/1/89.
41.
Guardian, 12/3/89.
42.
Sunday Times, 28/5/89.
43.
Sunday Times, 26/3/89.
44.
Independent, 22/7/89.
45.
Independent, 21/7/89, 22/7/89, 4/2/90; Hansard, HC Deb, 3/7/90, c886.
46.
Guardian, 26/3/89, Sunday Times, 21/5/89, Independent, 22/7/89, 12/2/90.
47.
Sunday Times, 21/5/89.
48.
New Statesman, 24/2/89, 23/3/89, 2/6/89; The Times, 25/6/89; Guardian, 5/2/90.
49.
New Statesman, 24/2/89; The Times, 24/2/89, 12/3/89; Sunday Times, 23/7/89.
50.
Guardian, 11/10/90.
51.
Guardian, 22/2/90.
52.
Guardian, 14/2/90.
53.
PHM, Michael Foot papers, MFB6, Mr & Mrs Varaina to Kinnock.
54.
Guardian, 14/2/90.
55.
Independent, 28/11/89, 2/3/90.
56.
Independent, 20/10/89.
57.
Bhikhu Parekh, Rethinking Multiculturalism: Cultural Diversity and Political Theory (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2000), 300.
58.
Independent, 16/2/89.
59.
Samad, “Politics of Islamic Identity,” 96.
60.
The Times, 20/2/89.
61.
Guardian, 18/2/89.
62.
Malise Ruthven, A Satanic Affair: Salman Rushdie and the Rage of Islam (London: Chatto & Windus, 1990), 94–5.
63.
Guardian, 3/3/89.
64.
James Piscatori, “The Rushdie Affair and the Politics of Ambiguity,” International Affairs 66: 4 (October, 1990), 783.
65.
Guardian, 28/5/89.
66.
Independent, 30/1/89.
67.
Independent, 16/1/89; Guardian, 15/5/89.
68.
Guardian, 16/2/89.
69.
Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 24/4/89.
70.
Hansard, HC Deb, 13/3/89, c112.
71.
Ibid. , 21/2/89, c842.
72.
PHM, Foot papers, MFB6, Foot to Dr & Mrs Qureshi, 3/11/88.
73.
Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 20/7/89.
74.
Independent, 21/7/89.
75.
Parekh, Rethinking Multiculturalism, 320.
76.
PHM, Foot papers, MFB6, Foot to Farooqi, 23/12/88.
77.
New Statesman, 2/6/89.
78.
Independent, 21/1/89.
79.
Sunday Times, 4/2/90.
80.
The Times, 25/2/89.
81.
Independent, 14/10/90.
82.
PA, private correspondence.
83.
Independent, 4/2/90.
84.
Independent, 6/2/90.
85.
Ibid.
86.
Independent. 22/7/89.
87.
Sunday Times, 21/5/89; Independent, 21/7/89.
88.
PA, private correspondence.
89.
Independent, 18/1/89; Guardian, 20/1/89; The Times, 27/1/89.
90.
Guardian, 25/1/89.
91.
Guardian, 1/2/89.
92.
Guardian, 9/1/89; Tribune, 10/1/89.
93.
Bradford Telegraph and Argus, 5/4/91, 21/4/89.
94.
Independent, 12/4/89.
95.
Lisa Appignanesi and Sara Maitland eds., The Rushdie File (London: Fourth Estate, 1989), 238; Sydney Jeffers, “Black Sections in the Labour Party: the End of Ethnicity and ‘Godfather’ Politics?” in Pnina Werbner and Muhammad Anwar eds., Black and Ethnic Leaderships: the Cultural Dimensions of Political Action (London: Routledge, 1991), 75.
96.
Independent, 11/2/90, 6/10/90.
97.
Independent, 4/2/90; Guardian, 7/4/89.
98.
PA, private correspondence.
99.
Guardian, 6/10/90.
100.
MRC, TUC papers, MSS.292D/806/6, UMO, “Press Release,” 11/11/87.
101.
BLSL, Rushdie affair press clippings.
102.
Impact International, 10/3/89.
103.
Impact International, 5/6/89; Ahsan and Kidwai, Sacrilege and Civility, 349; Shabbir Akhtar, Be Careful with Muhammad!: the Salman Rushdie Affair (London: Bellew, 1989), 120.
104.
Bradford Telegraph and Argus, 3/3/89.
105.
Independent, 28/2/89.
106.
The Times, 8/7/89.
107.
The Times, 4/2/90.
108.
The Times, 28/2/89.
109.
PA, private correspondence.
110.
Ahsan and Kidwai eds., Sacrilege Versus Civility, 349.
111.
ibid. , 234.
112.
Akhtar, Be Careful with Muhammad!, 123.
113.
Guardian, 23/3/90.
114.
Lewis, Islamic Britain, 26.
115.
Independent, 4/3/89.
116.
Hansard, HL Deb, 18/7/1990, c966.
117.
The Times, 8/7/89.
118.
Independent, 1/3/89.
119.
Guardian, 14/2/90.
120.
The Times, 10/12/92
121.
Independent, 25/2/89
122.
The Times, 5/7/89.
123.
Independent, 24/2/89
124.
New Statesman, 25/2/89.
125.
The Times, 25/7/89.
126.
The Times, 26/5/90.
127.
Kabbani, Letter to Christendom, 19; Akhtar, Be Careful with Muhammad!, 110.
128.
David Beetham, Transport and Turbans: a Comparative Study in Local Politics (London: Oxford University Press, 1970); Rashmi Desai, Indian Immigrants in Britain (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), 76.
129.
The Times, 9/4/89.
130.
Hiro, Black British, 182.
131.
New Statesman, 17/3/89.
132.
Shaw, Pakistani Community in Britain, 7. See also John Eade, “The Political Construction of Class and Community: Bangladeshi Political Leadership in Tower Hamlets, East London” in Werbner and Anwar, Black and Ethnic Leaderships, 103.
133.
WYASB, Little Horton Labour Party (LHLP) papers, 60D84/6.
134.
Observer, 15/3/81; Solomos and Back, Social Change, 87; Guardian, 11/2/85.
135.
Solomos and Back, ibid. , 74–7.
136.
Ibid. , 87; Sarah Glynn, “East End Bengalis and the Labour Party: the End of a Long Relationship?” in Claire Dwyer and Caroline Bressey eds., New Geographies of Race and Racism (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), 72.
137.
Solomos and Back, Social Change, 99; Eade, “Political Construction,” 103; BHRU, Here to Stay, 88.
138.
Guardian, 25/7/89; “SBS Timeline” in Rahila Gupta ed., Homebreakers to Jailbreakers, Xiii.
139.
Appignanesi and Maitland eds. Rushdie File, 238.
140.
The Times, 29/1/90; Independent, 16/5/90.
141.
Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 13/3/89.
142.
New Statesman, 20/1/90.
143.
New Statesman, 9/3/90.
144.
New Statesman., 15/2/91
145.
Guardian, 27/1/97.
146.
Guardian, 20/10/89; Independent, 20/10/89; The Times, 20/10/89.
147.
Akhtar, British Muslim Politics, 22, 96, 170.
148.
Talal Asad, “Multiculturalism and British Identity in the Wake of the Rushdie Affair,” Politics & Society 18: 4 (December, 1990), 455–80
149.
Guardian, 11/4/90.

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Hertford College, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
Jed Fazakarley

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Fazakarley, J. (2017). Butting Fundaments: Responses to the Rushdie Affair. In: Muslim Communities in England 1962-90. Palgrave Politics of Identity and Citizenship Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53792-4_5

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53792-4_5
Published: 18 April 2017
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53791-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53792-4
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