Remembering Rushdie and the case for freedom of expression

Once again, in the United Kingdom, freedom of expression in relation to religious matters has been threatened. This current issue is not merely topical, but fundamental to our understanding of a liberal society. UK legislation is under discussion at this very moment which represents a definite threat to the political architecture of the liberal demand for free expression. This time it is a direct threat: the discussion of a racial and religious hatred bill in the House of Lords will pose significant harm to those hoping to freely express themselves on religion. Almost one year ago, the play, Behzti, was taken off the stage in Birmingham while the playwright, Gurpeet Kaur Bhatti went into hiding after angry Sikh extremists had taken offence to the content of the play. An unsurprising defender of the play and a critic of the government's non-interventionist policy after the closure of the theatre event was Salman Rushdie. It is to Rushdie's case that we must turn if are to decide precisely how modern governments should consider the cases of literary free expression in relation to religion (and more importantly now, in relation to Islam). It is clear and transparent that religion under a secular liberal government should not be rewarded and placed on a pedestal to the extent that it refutes the basic personal freedoms of each individual. Yet, that is precisely what the current Labour government will enforce in their most recent quick-fix solution: a racial and religious hatred bill directly set against the freedom of expression.

Subsequent to the recent events in Britain, certain basic freedoms have been persistently weighed up against others —in the political and public imagination. It has also come to the foreground that, on occasion, it seems fine to sell certain personal freedoms in the purchase of national security. Yet at the end of the day, in this country at least, the freedom to publish and discuss will remain unaltered. It is a European thing. Among the modern examples of those writing on Islam, and those who have tended to cause insult (whether deliberately or not) is the case of Salman Rushdie. Rushdie has been an interesting writer to observe, since it did show that it is absolutely necessary to continue to freely publish literature, print and write; and to continue to do so even when its conditions seem most threatened. In the battle for defending the freedom of expression through literature, Rushdie's case tends to demonstrate that it is worth defending (pretty much to the death) the freedom to publish literature. In many ways, if this sense of personal freedom is lost to dogmatic interventionist legislation, then there is no Britain worth defending, nor any sense of a free literature worth discussing.