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Dubai ruler refuses to share dais with Rushdie |
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March 13th, 2010 |
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Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum avoided attending a function in Delhi on Friday, due to the presence of “anti-Islamic” writer Salman Rushdie.
According to UAE embassy officials in Delhi, a delegation led by the Dubai ruler, which arrived here on Thursday on a two-day official visit, refused to attend the India Today Conclave as they were not informed about the presence of Rushdie.
The Dubai ruler was scheduled to deliver a keynote address on ‘Dubai 2020’ at the function inaugurated by Home Minister P Chidambaram. Interestingly, Rushdie’s speech on ‘Freedom and Dissent’ was scheduled as the last item of the day in the evening.
The Embassy officials said they were not aware till the last moment about the presence of Rushdie.
In the absence of the Dubai ruler, the function was represented by his brother and president of Dubai Civil Aviation and chairman of Emirates Group Shaikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum.
Rushdie became an eyesore to Islamic countries after the release of his controversial book The Satanic Verses in 1988. On February 14, 1989, a fatwa asking Rushdie’s execution was issued on Radio Tehran by Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran at the time, calling the book “blasphemous against Islam”. A bounty was offered for Rushdie’s death, and he was thus forced to live under police protection for years afterward. On March 7, 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over giving asylum to Rushdie.
The publication of the book and the subsequent ‘fatwa’ sparked violence around the world, with bookstores being firebombed. Muslim communities in several nations in the West held public rallies in which copies of the book were burned. Several people associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed.
Speaking at the conclave later in the evening, Rushdie criticised ban on his book ‘The Satanic Verses’ and pointed out that India was the first to ban the book, “as it stood with countries like Iran and Pakistan in suppressing the freedom of speech.”
Seeking complete freedom of speech in the country, he said, “Let India not be a closed world, making it another China, another Iran, or another Pakistan.”
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Source: www.dailypioneer.com |
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