By CP Marxist Leninist of India
The attack on Salman Rushdie again reminds us of need to strengthen struggle against the prevailing bigotry, fanaticism spreading at a global scale across the nations. He was attacked, seriously wounded, yesterday in US at a public event which he was about to address. We condemn this heinous act and wish him a speedy and complete recovery. In spite of the fact that he was under constant threat since nineties and the translators of his book Satanic Verses in Norway, Italy and Japan faced similar attacks in which one of them Hitoshi Igarashi died, the security lapse in this case is a serious concern.
We wish him fast recovery, a long and active public life.
The Ayatollah of Iran had issued an edict calling for Rushdie to be killed – and this made him and translators of his books vulnerable to murderous attacks in the name of defending Islam. In India also we have seen writers – Gauri Lankesh, Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar and MM Kalburgi killed in the name of defending Hindu faith. Such attackers and killers need to face punishment – as do the forces behind them who seek to turn people into terrorists in the name of faith. India was the first country to ban Rushdie’s Satanic Verses; the ban must be lifted. Any attempt to use the attack on Rushdie to spread Islamophobia and Hindu-supremacist ideas must be resisted. We must remember that Rushdie spoke up boldly against every kind of bigotry – including against Hindu-supremacist fascism in India.
