LONDON. Wednesday 12 September, Bloomsbury, the district of London’s intellectuals. The man who comes out of the door of The Wylie Agency, in Bedford Square, was sentenced to death by a fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini on Valentine’s Day in 1989 for having written a novel entitled: The satanic verses. Is called Salman Rushdie, the Great Blasphemer, and is a naturalized English Indian gentleman who grew up in a Bombay Muslim family. Today, at 65, he lives mostly in New York and is a staunchly atheist. Maybe he always has been. “But in the places where I come from it is difficult even to imagine that I do not believe God.”
It was he who decided the place and day of the interview. A week before the publication of his new book which comes out today all over the world. Is called Joseph Anton (in Italy Mondadori publishes it) and it is its story. The father, the family, the religion, the studies, but above all a struggle and an escape that have lasted for over twenty years.
By setting the meeting, he obviously could not have known that the appointment would come a few hours after the assault on the American embassy in Benghazi. Clashes apparently triggered by a sacrilegious film shot in the United States. The film, which ridicules the Prophet, has nothing to do with the Satanic verses, but hangs its authors on the same charge of impiety. “My personal story was not the trigger, but only the prologue to the great disaster that would come on September 11”. The violence of these days is also part of the picture.
Rushdie, in great shape, has no escorts. And much less weapons. In recent years he has never worn a wig to hide or a bulletproof vest to defend himself. He has a round face, a blue dress, a goatee, digging eyes. He seems at peace with himself, but he reacts to the news from Libya as if he falls on him, in the center of his forehead, with the force of a stone.
Mr. Rushdie, after the Benghazi attack, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said: “We deplore any intentional attempt to denigrate the religious beliefs of others, but I want to be clear: there is no justification for such violent acts” . What do you think?
“I think the second part of the statement is right.”
It’s the first one?
«Dictated by reasons of balance. But it is obvious that deliberate provocations – I am thinking of Reverend Terry Jones who wants to burn the Koran – are wrong. That said, what does the assassination of Ambassador Stevens have to do with the film? He certainly hadn’t made or produced it himself. Slipping on this slope, half of the intellectual works should be canceled ».
Have you ever regretted writing i Satanic verses?
“I’ve been answering the same way for 23 years: no. In fact, I think it’s one of the best books I’ve done. People appreciate it ».
With today’s climate, would you still be able to get it accepted by the market?
“Probably not, the downside of the Arab Spring was that many Western liberals bowed to the sensibilities of the most extremist Muslims.”
Who was Khomeini to her?
“None in truth. An elderly gentleman. Of course, I knew the story of him and he was also one of the characters of the Satanic versesbut I was Indian, I came from another world, I never imagined that our paths would cross ».
His family was Muslim.
“It’s true. But he always had a very mild religious sense, even though my father was a great scholar of Islam. In the book I talk a lot about him. He influenced me deeply ».
Why do we need religion?
“At the beginning of time man did not know the answers to almost anything and therefore he relied on eternal entities. Over the centuries, science has given us some of those answers. And the need for God tends to diminish ».
How he chose the title Joseph Anton?
“It was my pseudonym in the days of the escape.”
Joseph as Conrad and Anton as Chekhov.
“Conrad has a sailor say de The Negro of Narcissus: I have to live until I die. It has become my motto ».
And Chekhov?
«Chekhov is melancholy. Certainly those were not happy moments for me ».
February 14, 1989, Valentine’s Day. What happens?
“I get a call from a BBC reporter. It is a beautiful sunny day. The woman says to me: how do you comment on Khomeini’s fatwa? I fall from the clouds. The news is completely unexpected. They condemned me. So far I had received two or three threats, nothing more. I am shocked ».
How long did it take the shock to become fear?
“Little. But my memory is not that of a body that trembles, but of a head that thinks: soon I will be dead. A rather curious thing to think about ».
How did he react?
“Trying to keep my appointments. I went to the first Cbs for an interview. Then to my friend Bruce Chatwin’s funeral. ‘
Because?
“I owed him. It was a long, boring ceremony, even in Greek. I was next to Martin Amis. A colleague told me: next week we will be here for you ».
Did she go to the police or did they look for her?
“Their. At nine in the evening I went to visit my son Zafar at his mother’s house. There was an agent there who said to me, Mr. Rushdie, we’ve been looking for you for hours. They offered me protection. ‘
How did she deal with her son?
“He was nine, but I decided to tell him everything possible. I didn’t like him getting news from others, maybe at school. He has become an incredibly balanced man. Back then there was no SMS or Skype. I made an agreement with the mother: I call every evening at seven ».
Did it work?
“Almost always”.
Almost?
“One evening I call and can’t find anyone. I insist. Anything. I get nervous and my bodyguards ask me what’s going on. I explain it to them and they decide to send a car to London to check it out. I was hiding in Wales. After forty minutes the patrol calls us: we are in front of the house, the lights are on and the door is open ».
What did he think?
“That they had been killed. I imagined the blood and the corpses on the stairs. Scoltand Yard was late in intervening. Reinforcements were needed. They told me they wouldn’t be in for an hour. I thought I was going crazy. I redialed the house number automatically ».
And then?
“After an hour my son answers. He tells me: Dad, there’s a policeman here. And there are forty others out there. I ask him where they had been and he replies: at the school play, my mother forgot to warn us, we were late. I feel crazy relief. I still don’t understand why the door was open and the lights on. Zafar tells me: really it was all closed. The police had the wrong house. The worst two hours of my life ».
How did fear work? Could she sleep at night?
“Do you want to know something ridiculous? I have always slept perfectly. Deeply. Without nightmares. And I don’t know why. Maybe because I had too many problems to solve. I was changing rooms all the time. And I had to be the one to choose the place. The police made it clear that I could not go home: too much risk for the neighbors and too much expense for us. I was wrong to accept ».
What could he have done?
“I should have said: I don’t move. You protect me here. I am the only English citizen to have received this treatment ».
Hers was a special situation.
“No. It was just an economic problem. So much so that one day I told him: but if, instead of being a novelist with a little money, I were a penniless poet, how would I find refuge? ».
What did they tell her?
«That I was not a penniless poet and therefore the problem did not arise. Moreover, at the beginning they were all convinced that the thing would be resolved in a couple of days ».
What was your typical day like?
“There was not. I was always on the move. And when I could I met friends. Or maybe I went to the cinema when it got dark ».
Have you felt the support of Great Britain?
“Of ordinary people, yes. Much less politics ”.
What did the word freedom mean to her?
“It was a goal to be conquered gradually. Even the police realized at some point that they couldn’t keep me in a box. I was looking for small spaces. I began to savor true freedom in the United States, after the agreement between Iran and Great Britain arrived ».
The fatwa was never withdrawn.
“That’s true, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that Iran said I was no longer a target. ‘
What does the US have to do with it?
“Things broke off after a Clinton intervention. At that point, other countries also found it easier to support me ».
What changed when you went to New York?
“The first time I walked alone in Central Park I felt intoxicated. After ten years I could decide for myself. Choose. Drive a car. It was like coming out of a bubble ».
Do you remember where 9/11 was?
“In Houston, Texas, on tour with my latest book.”
What did he feel?
“Anger. As if they attacked my house. My friends told me: stay away from New York, I was just thinking about going back ».
In India, they just arrested a satirical cartoonist for designing Parliament as a sewer.
“There is a real attack on freedom of expression in India. Dealing with art, cinema and literature in recent years has become dangerous ».
Because?
Leadership is weak, authoritarian and corrupt. The corruption problem is gigantic. A weak state always thinks that any form of criticism or satire is terribly dangerous ».
Who is Salman Rushdie today?
“A person who is good in the world.”
How important are women in your life?
“Much. As for anyone. A lot of literature has been written about me. Every friend is transformed into a girlfriend ».
Are you single today?
“Absolutely single.”
Why did the English newspapers at the time of the fatwa describe you as a hateful egomaniac?
“I do not know. I’ve always found it absurd. Right-wing tabloids can only do this in England. I never understood why they raged against a man who was fighting a battle for his life. This is why in my book there is a newspaper called Daily Insult“.
He once said that he had a God-shaped hole inside him.
“Now God is a need that I no longer feel.”
So there is nothing after life?
“Anything”.
So why are we here?
“To live until we die.”
Forty-eight hours ago, an Iranian foundation again increased the bounty on Salman Rushdie’s head by $ 500,000, bringing the reward for those who kill him to 3.3 million.
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