“The Fine Print”, by Michael Schrader
RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD,
UNITE!
(Written 09 September 1998. Published in the Neighborhood Journal. Posted 13 July 2009.)
In 1988, the Indian author Salman
Rushdie published a novel called "The Satanic Verses." The publication of this novel had a profound
impact on his life. You see, in this
novel, Rushdie portrays the Prophet Mohammed, the holy man of Islam, as a fraud
who made up the Koran, the Islamic Bible, married for money, and turned his
wives into prostitutes.
The result of this book was a cry of outrage from Muslims
worldwide, a cry so strong that the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran condemned him to
death for blasphemy. Because the
Ayatollah's condemnation has never been lifted, Rushdie has spent the past
decade living in fear for his life in
When this brouhaha erupted, the reaction from the so-called
Christian West, quite frankly, did more to fan anti-Western sentiment among
Islamic states than anything else in recent memory. You see, instead of criticizing the author
for attacking one of the three major religions of the world, we attacked the
religion instead. After all, they are
not like us, those Islamic people; they are all nuts, so they deserve to have
their religious beliefs ridiculed. At
the time, several Islamic leaders commented that the reaction would be
different if the subject had been Jesus instead of Mohammed.
Let me just say that belief in a deity is good. It doesn't matter to me whether you are
Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, whatever--all that matters is that you
believe. You see, all religions tend to
have some sort of moral code, some goal to strive for. And they all have some sort of concept of an
afterlife with a reward for being good.
No, I am not bothered by those who have a different
religion. It's those folks who have no
religious beliefs, the hedonists who are only concerned with gratification in
the here and now, that frighten me the most.
Without the reward of paradise in the afterlife, without knowing what
goodness is in the form of a deity, what will guide these folks to walk the
right path through the journey of life?
To me, atheism breeds anarchy and lawlessness.
I think it is wrong for any person to attack the religious
beliefs of another. We may be able to
debate theology, and to discuss why we believe what we believe, but that is
where it should stop. I can't blame the
Islamic community for being a little bit ticked at the so-called Christian
West. The appropriate reaction would
have been to stand side by side with the Muslims in defense of religion
(without the death warrant). The
Christian community should have raised its voice in protest. But, unfortunately, we have become so consumed
with showing who is right and who is wrong that we would rather see all
religions destroyed rather than accept that other people may not necessarily
share our views on faith.
We can, however, rectify this. People of all faiths, all religions, need to
stand together to fight the ridicule of religion. The time is now as religion is under
attack. For example, a playwright named
Terrence McNally has a play called "
This is unacceptable!
We must raise our voices in protest!
I don't know about you, but this strikes at the core of my faith. I can understand how the Muslims felt about
"Satanic Verses." I am all for
freedom of speech, but even the Supreme Court has said that speech that is
patently offensive to community standards is not protected by the First
Amendment. If this play is not patently
offensive to community standards, I don't know what is.
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