The Community of Scholars & Satanic Verses:

CLASH OF CULTURES UP NORTH AT BATLEY GRAMMAR?

THE Telegraph & Argus on the 27th February 2019 ran a story by its Chief Reporter, Tim Quantrill, claiming that 'Thirty years on from the Satanic Verse book burning in Bradford, a community leader has said he couldn't see a similar protest erupting today.'

In the 1980s, the book burning in Bradford led to protests, which began in the north of England, and soon spread across the UK and to the rest of the Islamic world, culminating in February 1989 with Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issuing a fatwa - a death sentence on the writer Salman Ruskie.

That was more than two years ago and at that time Ishtiaq Ahmed, the then business officer for the Bradford Council of Mosques, said that society had moved on arguing:

"We did what we needed to do to have our concerns registered in the public domain.

"The Muslim community has evolved in terms of political participation and is more integrated in British society which is hopefully more sensitive to Muslims and, particularly in writing about Muslims, more understanding.

"In terms of our struggle for equality and values recognised, it is an iconic milestone. In terms of a wider society, it is an important event in Bradford.

"Bradford is a place we feel positive about. I have five children and eight grandchildren, Bradford is our home and in our blood.

"There is a different mindset to the 1980s when we trying to decide whether we belong here."

Now this optimistic conclusion has been thrown into question as last Thursday and Friday, angry parents descended on Batley Grammar School (just down the road from Bradford) to make their voices heard and insisting that they will not stop gathering until a teacher is sacked for displaying a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed during one of his lectures on religous education.

The passionate allegation of the parents is that the teacher is guilty of blasphemy.

To which the comedian Ricky Gervais, who is an atheist, has jumped in to back the teacher in a tweet which saw him mock the protesters.

He wrote: "Blasphemy? F***ing Blasphemy? It's 2021 for f***'s sake. What next? People being punished for insulting unicorns?."

Mr Gervais, who is an atheist, was also backed by BBC broadcaster Nicky Campbell, who said his tweet was about the 'lunacy of blasphemy'.

He added blasphemy was a "victimless crime " and also hit out at a critic of the comedian.

However, Mr Gervais' tweet enraged some on social media, with one angry social media user labelling his words "an insult to the Islamic community worldwide".

The Salman Rushdie book opened up a clash between what is seen as the enlightenment thinking and divided the islamic world. Wikipedia says:

(It) "Muslims... Westerners along the fault line of culture,"[4][5] and to have pitted a core Western value of freedom of expression—that no one "should be killed, or face a serious threat of being killed, for what they say or write"[6]—against the view of many Muslims that no one should be free to "insult and malign Muslims" by disparaging the "honour of the Prophet".[7] English writer Hanif Kureishi called the fatwa "one of the most significant events in postwar literary history".

Many Muslims accused Rushdie of blasphemy or unbelief and in 1989 the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie. Numerous killings, attempted killings, and bombings resulted in response to the novel.

I was told back in the 1980s by a Islamic critic of Salman Rusdie, that the orginal suggestion to burn Satanic Verses came from an English solicitor in Bradford. And the rest we all know has followed on in its wake, because now we are getting the those on the outlook for blasphemy parading their protests outside Batley Grammar School.

Some hopes for the Community of Scholars if this carries on.

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