The attack on the writer Salman Rushdie has coincided with the fifth anniversary of the 17-A attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils. Both crimes remind us that the islamist terrorismalthough noticeably weakened, has not been extinguishedbut continues to represent a serious threat.
Rushdie was sentenced to death by Khomeini after the publication in 1988 of ‘The satanic verses’. The ‘fatwa’ was issued by the Ayatollah for considering the work blasphemous and offensive against Islam. The 75-year-old writer had, at the time of being stabbed in Chautauqua, a city in the state of New York with a few thousand inhabitants, lived under the yoke of the threat for more than three decades. The fans never wanted to raise the ‘fatwa’ against him.
The attack was caused by surprisejust as Rushdie was preparing to participate in a talk-conference, and comes to remind us that no one is safe from religious totalitarians who try to impose their beliefs on the rest of humanity, that is, to all those who do not share his narrow interpretation of the sacred texts. The path to taxation is none other than spread fear through violence. The attack on Rushdie, which has come after so many years and in a quiet town in the US, underscores the threat. No one who dares to challenge the fans can rest easy, no matter how many years go by and wherever they are. The act in which Salman Rushdie was going to participate addressed, precisely and according to the announced program, “the role of the United States as a haven for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression.”
Also the attacks such as those that took place on the Ramblas of Barcelona and in Cambrils, in 2017, have as their goal frighten those whom radicals consider infidels, which are all non-Muslims and also Muslims who do not share their biased and extremist beliefs. Indiscriminate outrages such as those in Barcelona and Cambrils have occurred in recent years in other European cities as well.
The best response that democrats and democratic societies as a whole can give to Islamist terrorism is, first of all, to remain firm against the threat, something that is easy to write but very difficult to carry out when the safety, even one’s life, may be in danger. Secondly, and closely linked to the first, it is about not allowing terror to condition our behavior, our lives. Not letting ourselves be intimidated, which means not incurring in self-censorship.
The stabbing of Salman Rushdie and the attacks five years ago in Barcelona and Cambrils are an example, unfortunately among many, of what Islamist radicalism is capable of doing to cut down and, ultimately, try to do away with the values that underlie our democratic societies. That should remind us of the extraordinary dimension of what is at stake. There are many generations of men and women who have fought, suffered and lost their lives to ensure the values and principles that sustain and make our democratic societies possible, including, particularly, the right to think and express ourselves freely. No kind of postmodern malaise or relativism should lead us to disregard such primordial values and principles, much less underestimate or disdain them.