re satanic verses once again this posting has been delayed for about a week by falling between some software cracks in article bu edu jaeger buphy bu edu gregg jaeger writes as promised here is rafiq zakaria s discussion of the nature of the so called satanic verses from which rushdie s title has been taken rafiq zakaria muhammad and the quran penguin here follows an introduction to the controversial incident and an apologetic explanation purporting to show why it couldn t actually have happened the historicity of the episode doesn t matter to what follows i don t know whether i m quoting gregg or zakaria below anyway back to current affairs rushdie has by his own admission drawn on the version given by the orientalist watt among others this incident is not something rushdie or watt or anyone else dug up from nowhere it is a well known story a myth if you will known according to umar khan to every muslim school boy and girl and so presumably to rushdie and to gibreel farishta and then allowed his imagination to run wild yes this is what writing fiction is all about rushdie was writing about a crisis of faith and chose this myth to present it by placing the actor gibreel in the role of the angel whose name he took rushdie was not writing a history or theology book and nowhere claims or implies that this is what actually happened it s somewhat like stories woven around the relationship between jesus and the reformed prostitute mary magdalene another myth or those referring to the arthurian mythos or the grail legend or the wandering jew or dozens of others if you can stand to read the work of a blasphemer consider salman rushdie s children s book haroun and the sea of stories for an idea of the way a storyteller a specific storyteller works with existing story lines to ridicule muhammad s integrity no muhammad s mahound s integrity is not really impugned in this part of the story and there s no reason to think this was rushdie s intent gibreel as the archangel produces the verses divine and satanic though he doesn t know their provenance it is not implied in a straight reading that muhammad influences them not my voice i d never know such words i m no classy speaker never was never will be but this isn t my voice it s a voice mahound s eyes open wide he s seeing some kind of vision staring at it oh that s right gibreel remembers me he s seeing me my lips moving being moved by what whom don t know can t say nevertheless here they are coming out of my mouth up my throat past my teeth the words being god s postman is no fun yaar butbutbut god isn t in this picture god knows whose postman i ve been it s ambiguous is mahound somehow manipulating gibreel is it satan or something else the answer is not given to be sure the question is raised this novel explores faith and the role of revelation in religion among other things addressing loss of faith implicitly raises questions about the truth of revelation but this novel proposes no answers at least not directly the very existence of a newsgroup named alt atheism raises the same questions more forcefully and does propose some answers which is the real relevance if rushdie s mild fictional exploration is filth and lies and he asked for what he got are we next on the fatwa list that s a rhetorical question of course jim perry perry dsinc com decision support inc matthews nc these are my opinions for a nominal fee they can be yours jim perry perry dsinc com decision support inc matthews nc these are my opinions for a nominal fee they can be yours
